DailyWrit

The State of Louisiana filed for reharing in Louisiana v. Kennedy, the landmark death penalty case in which the Court held, 5-4, that capital crimes cannot Consitutionally include non-life ending crimes such as child rape. The state filed a petition for rehearing earlier this summer and since then the Federal Government has asked to join […]

Justice Kennedy’s majority in Kennedy v. Louisiana is an interesting, albeit frustrating one. He sets out to splatter every argument he can against the wall in the hopes that at least a few will stick. Whether or not he succeeds is up to the reader and more importantly, future generations of Supreme Court Justices who […]

The Supreme Court today issued an orders list and rejected eleven Baze claims. Justice Stevens wrote brief opinions (here and here) relating to two of the cases where he said:
While I agree with the Court’s decision to deny certiorari in this case, it is appropriate to emphasize, as I have in the past, see, e.g., […]

The Supreme Court handed down one of the most high-profile decisions of its term, the lethal injection case Baze v. Rees. The Court upheld Kentucky’s use of the execution method, holding that “that petitioners have not shown that the risk of an inadequate dose of the first drug is substantial.”
Chief Justice Roberts wrote the plurality […]

The Supreme Court today issued a temporary stay in the execution of Thomas D. Arthur (here). Not a lot of real analysis required in this case- the Court has been doing this since mid-October. Its getting old.

The New York Times has an article that outline the facts surrounding the Court’s recent stay reversal. They slide in this blurb:
Even without a written opinion, the Supreme Court’s action Tuesday night clarified a situation that had become increasingly confusing as state courts and the lower federal courts, without further guidance from the justices, wrestled […]

In a surprising turn of events, the Supreme Court offered a stay in the case of Earl Barry. Just yesterday, they had denied stay in the case.
Barry was scheduled to be executed around 6:00 local. Apparently, the Court granted stay 15 minutes before he was scheduled to meet his maker.
In the Order, the Court specifically […]

Yesterday, The Supreme Court released an order in Berry v. Mississippi. In an unusual move, the Court denied Earl Berry’s stay for execution and proceeded to briefly explain their decision:
The judgment of the Mississippi Supreme Court relies upon an adequate and independent state ground that deprives the Court of jurisdiction.
The Supreme Court has now granted […]

I blogged a few days ago about the surprising turn of events in which the Court refused to stay an execution on Tuesday but granted a stay in a nearly identical case on Thursday.
According to TheRegister (via Engadget), Michael Richards was unable to receive a stay on his execution because his attorney was 20 minutes […]

On Thursday the Court issued a stay on the execution of Texas inmate Carlton Turner.
07A272 TURNER, CARLTON A. V. TEXAS
The application for stay of execution of sentence of death presented to Justice Scalia and by him referred to the Court is granted pending the timely filing and […]

Before I get into any more of the recent death penalty cases, let me clear up the Penry decision that seems to be central in all three of these cases. The state of Texas had created a system of questions or “special issues” (the court uses the latter term) for juries to answer that were […]

We all know that Justices Scalia and Thomas have always written the best dissents and Justice Alito’s dissent in Smith is no exception. Even though Justice Alito avoided most of the classic traps of writing a dissenting opinion like excessively broad analysis and only barely touching on the issues that the majority addresses, he is […]

I tried desperately yesterday to find something worth blogging about but my searches were all in vain. Today, however, the Court’s ruling in three death penalty cases is just asking to be blogged about.
In Smith v. Texas, the Court, in an opinion written by the ever-swinging Justice Kennedy, held that Texas’s Court of Criminal Appeals […]