In 2026, the United States marks the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision in Gregg v. Georgia, a landmark ruling that restored capital punishment under revised constitutional standards and shaped the modern framework for death-penalty sentencing.
Read moreLeading with Purpose: Mariann Sears, First Woman Director of Harris County Hainsworth Law Library
Each March, Women’s History Month offers an opportunity to reflect on the leaders who have shaped institutions and strengthened communities. At the Harris County Robert W. Hainsworth Law Library, that reflection includes the remarkable leadership of Mariann Sears, whose tenure as Director marked a historic moment in the library’s long history.
Read moreCelebrating 40 Years of WALT: The Terminal That Helped Bring Legal Research Into the Digital Age
In 2026, the Harris County Robert W. Hainsworth Law Library commemorates the 40th anniversary of WALT — the West Automated Legal Terminal — a pioneering technology that marked the Library’s entry into the world of online legal research and helped reshape how attorneys, judges, and self-represented litigants access the law.
Read moreThe Nuremberg Trials - On the Road to Justice (Part III)
Fred Romero from Paris, France, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
On Tuesday, October 1, 1946, those traveling the road to justice - defendants, prosecutors, and witnesses alike - reached their final destination. After 218 days, 22 men* would learn of the fate that awaited them. Following remarks by defendants on August 31, 1946, the International Military Tribunal (IMT) adjourned to consider its judgment in a trial that began on November 20, 1945.On Tuesday, October 1, 1946, those traveling the road to justice, defendants, prosecutors, and witnesses alike, reached their final destination. After 218 days, 22 men* would learn of the fate that awaited them. Following remarks by defendants on August 31, 1946, the International Military Tribunal (IMT) adjourned to consider its judgment.
Read moreThe Nuremberg Trials - On the Road to Justice (Part II)
Nuremberg Trials. Looking down on defendants dock, circa 1945-1946
Ray D'Addario, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
In Courtroom 600 in the Nuremberg Palace of Justice, the most historic and perhaps significant trial of the twentieth century began. As Justice Jackson, Chief Prosecutor for the United States spoke, 21 men, leading figures and officers in the Nazi regime accused of atrocities that the world had never experienced, sat in the prisoners’ dock, stone-faced, listening through headphones that relayed the words into their own tongue. For the next 11 months, prosecutors would methodically reveal to the court (and the world) the heinous crimes that these men perpetrated and permitted in the years leading up to and during World War II.
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