Follow-up on Ninth Circuit’s victim rights ruling

As first discussed here, last Friday the Ninth Circuit addressed an important and essentially new issue of sentencing procedure by exploring “whether the Crime Victims’ Rights Act, 18 U.S.C. § 3771, gives victims the right to allocute at sentencing” in Kenna v. US District Court for the Central District of California, No. 05-73467 (9th Cir. Jan. 20, 2006) (available here).  Today I see two interesting follow-up items:

1.  This article from The Recorder discusses the ruling and notes that, although the Kenna ruling is “a victory for crime victims, [Kenna’s lawyer] said the ruling underscored that courts are not yet prepared to deal with new judicial guidelines mandated by the act.  It took more than eight months for Kenna’s case to be decided, even though the law directs that such petitions be decided within 72 hours.”

2.  Thanks to this tip from Appellate Law & Practice, I see that Professor Shaun Martin has more than a few choice words here about Judge Kozinski’s work in Kenna.  Here’s a taste: “Judge Friedman [in a short separate opinion] may say more smart things in those three paragraphs — and definitely says a lot fewer stupid things — than Judge Kozinski does in his 13-page opinion for the majority.”