Still more Texas capital clean-up for SCOTUS
As detailed in posts at SCOTUSblog and at Crime & Consequences, on Friday the Supreme Court added another set of Texas death penalty cases to its docket. Here are the basics from SCOTUSblog:
The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear a new death penalty case from Texas. It granted review of two cases, and consolidated them for oral argument: Abdul-Kabir v . Quarterman (05-11284) and Brewer v. Quarterman (05-11287). The case involves another test of whether Texas juries have an adequate opportunity, in capital cases, to consider mitigating factors when deciding whether to impose a death sentence. A lawyer for the two men told the Court in the two appeals that the Fifth Circuit Court has consistently failed to follow Supreme Court precedent on the mitigation issue.
I wonder if anyone has charted how many capital cases SCOTUS has reviewed from Texas, California and Arizona in, say, the last decade. My own impression is that the Justices give a whole lot of their ever-shrinking docket to (micro)managing capital punishment procedures in a few states.