Homelessness: Julia Vitullo-Martin of the Manhattan Institute has this op-ed on urban street homelessness in the Wall Street Journal. She refers to Bush Administration policy as "a sort of Nixon-goes-to-China reversal of expectations."

Alien Smuggling Deaths Case: The Houston Chronicle reports that Tyrone Williams will get a life sentence for killing 19 illegal immigrants by abandoning them in his truck. The story doesn't specify if this is an actual unanimous decision by the jury or the result of the federal system's misguided rule that a penalty phase deadlock goes to the defendant. The jury deliberated 5 1/2 days.

Smith v. Texas. A New York Times story by reporter Linda Greenhouse discusses yesterday's high court argument in the Smith case. Robert Barnes has this article in the Washington Post, also discussing how large a portion of the Court's docket the capital cases are.

Indiana murderer Norman Timberlake has received a stay of execution from a sharply divided state supreme court, as reported by Jon Murray in the Indianapolis Star. Timberlake, sentenced to death for gunning down state trooper Michael Greene in 1993, claims that he is too mentally ill to be executed. Last month the Indiana Supreme Court ruled him competent. This month, the Court reversed itself and granted a stay to await the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Panetti v. Quarterman, which was accepted for review on January 5. The fifth circuit opinion in the Panetti case is here.

A South Carolina criminal wanted for nine armed robberies received justice in the end last Saturday when he was shot in the buttocks while trying to carjack a Columbia couple according to an Associated Press story.