Kansas murderer Gavin Scott is trying to get the Kansas Supreme Court to throw out that state's death penalty again on the same theory reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court in Kansas v. Marsh, this time invoking the state constitution. John Hanna reports on the oral argument for AP.

Japan's new Justice Minister, Kunio Hatoyama, came down squarely in favor of retaining capital punishment in an interview Friday, Jun Hongo reports for Japan Times.

Scientology: "A Belgian prosecutor on Tuesday recommended that the U.S.-based Church of Scientology stand trial for fraud and extortion, following a 10-year investigation that concluded the group should be labeled a criminal organization," Constant Brand reports for AP.

Catnapping: The beloved cat of 78-year-old Mary Lamar Grancher was kidnapped, and she received a ransom demand of $20,000. From her own son, AP reports.

Nebraska's death penalty is the subject of this story by Robynn Tysver in the Omaha World-Herald. Issues covered include prosecutor discretion, vagueness of some aggravating circumstances, and the impact of the victim's family's position.

Hearsay: Joel Jacobsen at Judging Crimes has this post on an interesting Crawford domestic violence case from Hawaii. Unlike Joel's own case (NM v. Romero, cert. pending), the perp. didn't murder the victim to silence her, but she suffers from unaccountable memory loss. Is the Confrontation Clause satisfied when the witness is physically present and available for cross-examination but claims to remember nothing about the incident? Opinion here; dissent here.