Lawyer held in Contempt, New Twist to Ato Forson trial and other legal news

Ato Forson Trial: Court Admits Tape Recording as Evidence

13th June, 2024

The High Court presided over by Justice Afia Serwah Asare-Botwe has admitted the audio tape of a conversation between Richard Jakpa and the Attorney General, Godfred Dame into evidence.

The admission follows an application by lawyers of the 3^rd accused to admit the audio recordings into evidence after an earlier application for a mistrial and stay of proceedings of the trial against the 1^st and 3^rd accused was dismissed.

With the admission, the way is paved for the Attorney General to cross examine the 3^rd accused person in open court on 18^th June 2024.

Young Thug Lawyer jailed for Contempt

11th June, 2024

Brian Steel a defense lawyer for the Atlanta rapper, Young Thug was sentenced to 20 days in jail after a dispute with the trial judge.  The lawyer was handed the prison term after he implied that the ex-parte (one-sided) meeting between the judge, prosecution and a witness was in bad taste because the should have included the defence.

In a now viral video recording, the Judge is heard asking Brain Steel to disclose his source of the information to which the he quiped that he would not share a privileged work product.

The Judge, Ural Glanville accordingly sentence Counsel for contempt. While in custody defense counsel would be allowed to hold conference with his client and prepare for the trial.

US Supreme Court rejects federal ban on gun ‘bump stocks’

14th June, 2024

The US supreme court have declared unlawful a federal ban on “bump stock” devices that enable semiautomatic weapons to fire rapidly like machine guns – a rejection of yet another firearm restriction.

In a 6-3 ruling presided by  Justice Clarence Thomas, the court upheld a lower court’s decision  that, a US agency improperly interpreted a federal law banning machine guns as extending to bump stocks.