Sex Offenders will receive a life sentence if a civil commitment bill passes in Vermont as reported in an AP story here. Supporters and drafters of the bill, Sen. Richard Sears and Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie, say the new bill calls for an increase in reporting status and providing more personal information to the states' sex offenders registry after release from prison.

Whorton v. Bockting The Supreme Court's unanimous decision today, reversed the Ninth Circuit and reinstated the 1988 conviction of a Nevada child molester. The holding, which will later be commented on here, announced that Crawford v. Washington's limitation on the admission of out-of-court statements is a new rule, but not fundamental and therefore not retroactive.

The U.S. Supreme Court refused, last Monday, to reconsider a Texas Court of Criminal Appeals decision which overturned, on direct appeal, the conviction and death sentence of Robert Burns Springsteen. The Texas court held that a statement by a co-defendant was introduced at trial in violation of Crawford v. Washington. The Charleston Daily Mail reports that Springsteen was 17 at the time of the murders but was convicted and sentenced to death ten years later for murdering four people in 1991 at a yogurt shop in Austin, Texas.