Free Republic

Spanish language media reported last Sunday that radical pro-abortion supporter Maria de Valle Gonzalez Lopez died during what she labeled her “dream” abortion operation. She was 23 years old and was the leader of the Radical Youth in the La Paz municipality in the province of Mendoza. Her death has sparked a fierce debate about abortion in Argentina and led for calls for women to know that the procedure can sometimes carry serious risks. On April 11, the woman underwent a legal abortion procedure in a local hospital. The operation turned out to be fatal for her. This fact came...

A closely divided U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Monday that a criminal conviction must be overturned when a trial judge wrongly denies the defendant his right to be represented by the lawyer of his choice. [snip]The case involved Cuauhtemoc Gonzalez-Lopez, who was charged in 2003 in St. Louis with conspiring to distribute marijuana. He hired a California attorney, Joseph Low, to represent him after hearing about Low's reputation as a trial attorney from other drug defendants. Low was not admitted to practice before the federal district court and the trial judge rejected his request for permission to proceed with the...

Defendants are automatically entitled to new trials if their choices of attorneys are wrongly blocked by judges, the Supreme Court ruled Monday. By a 5-4 vote, justices said Cuauhtemoc Gonzalez-Lopez has a constitutional right to the attorney of his choice under the Sixth Amendment's guarantee of assistance of counsel. "It commands, not that a trial be fair, but that a particular guarantee of fairness be provided — to wit, that the accused be defended by the counsel he believes to be the best," Justice Antonin Scalia wrote for the majority. In his first written dissent, Justice Samuel Alito accused Scalia...