Supreme Court to take up Blakely retroactivity!

Though I was prepared for the big SCOTUS sentencing news to emerge from new opinions, instead the news comes from a cert grant.  As reported here at SCOTUSblog:

The Court also agreed to hear a case on the retroactivity of its ruling in Blakely v. Washington, one of a series of rulings limiting criminal sentences when facts have not been found by a jury, but by a judge.  The new case is Burton v. Waddington (05-9222). The case tests whether Blakely established a new rule and, if it did, whether it applies retroactively. The Court’s grant of review of these issues was something of a surprise, since the Court has repeatedly refused to hear retroactivity claims on the Apprendi line of cases.

One of many ironies here, of course, is that Blakely retroactivity is one of the few major post-Blakely issues that has not generated much of a lower court split in the states or in the federal system.  Nevertheless, this issue has long been on my list of post-Blakely issues that SCOTUS should resolve.  And I am, of course, please to see SCOTUS take my advice to fill its fallow docket with Blakely and Booker issues.

Right now, I know nothing about the particulars of Burton v. Waddington except that it comes from the Ninth Circuit.  Readers are encouraged to fill me in, and I’ll be doing a bit of my own digging. Good thing I already have this Apprendi/Blakely Retroactivity category archive collecting my posts on this topic.