A win for one capital defendant, an interesting DIG, and more Booker GVRs

As so well covered over at SCOTUSblog, part of this busy morning at the Supreme Court included a victory for a capital defendant in Deck v. Missouri (04-5293), where the Court ruled, 7-2, that “it is unconstitutional to require an individual, appearing before a jury for a possible death sentence, to be restrained by shackles and handcuffs throughout the proceeding.”  The lengthy Deck opinion can now be accessed at this link.

And, in an interesting development in another capital case, the Court also dismissed Medellin v. Dretke (04-5928) as “improvidently granted.”  Medellin, you will recall, was to address the impact of rulings by the World Court on respecting consular rights in context of US death penalty cases.  The lengthy Medellin opinion can now be accessed here.

And, continuing a Monday morning tradition, the Supreme Court’s also issued some more Booker-inspired GVRs, although I count only 8 this morning on this order list.