A December to remember
As if October and November weren’t exciting enough (as detailed here and here and here), this month has had nearly a full year’s worth of notable sentencing events. Of course, this month is only half over and, among other coming events, tomorrow brings the top-side briefs in the Claiborne and Rita cases (background here). Nevertheless, since some are already celebrating Festivus, I could not help doing a mid-month review of sentencing highlights:
LETHAL INJECTION DEVELOPMENTS AND COMMENTARY
- Major California ruling on lethal injection protocol
- Governor Jeb Bush orders moratorium after botched execution
- An ugly (and fitting?) end to the capital year
- Isn’t it finally time for Congress to do something about lethal injection problems?
- Who will demonstrate lethal injection leadership?
OTHER DEATH PENALTY DEVELOPMENTS AND COMMENTARY
- Recapping the capital year
- All the death data
- Major capital ruling from en banc Fifth Circuit
- Crazy capital developments in two states
- Executions and clemency in Ohio
SUPREME COURT DEVELOPMENTS AND COMMENTARY
- At least another month until Cunningham
- Slow-poke SCOTUS: a sign of division?
- SCOTUS takes up three new criminal cases
- Solving the SCOTUS docket mystery
- Additional SCOTUS docket dissection
- Recapping the SCOTUS docket discussion
BOOKER DEVELOPMENTS AND COMMENTARY
- What wrong with equitable Booker retroactivity in the Ninth Circuit?
- Laughing all the way to the (en) banc after Booker
- Seventh Circuit upholds another large upward variance
- Eighth Circuit follows the herd on crack sentencing
- Ninth Circuit decides to punt reasonableness en banc
- What the latest USSC data reveal
- Shouldn’t express statutory text trump perceived policy?
ALTERNATIVE SENTENCING DEVELOPMENTS AND COMMENTARY