Cunningham Aftermath: Bob Egelko reports in the SF Chron on the oral argument in the California Supreme Court yesterday in the Black and Sandoval cases, regarding how to cope with Cunningham v. California for sentences presently pending on appeal. The Legislature passed a fix for new cases.

Micro-stamping Guns? Measure AB1471 written by Mike Feuer (D) of Los Angeles was passed yesterday by the California state Assembly. The bill would impose that all semiautomatic pistols be fit with a mechanism that would micro-stamp the make, model and serial number on every single shell casing every time the pistol is fired starting with pistols sold in 2010. The bill now proceeds to the state Senate and if passed, California would be the first in the nation that would require such measure as published in this AP story by Don Thompson.

Indiana Supreme Court: Yesterday, the Indiana Supreme Court reinstated Ronnie Dontell Drane’s 85-year sentence for the rape and murder of Tamarra Taylor in 2002 (opinion here). Last year, the Indiana Court of Appeals reversed Drane’s February 2005 sentence because the case lacked sufficient evidence. Drane's murder spree continued and in October 2002, he murdered his 50-year-old aunt Delores Buchanan and 27-year-old cousin Larry Peaches, Jr., and six months later murdered another cousin, 31-year-old Herman Marcel Buchanan. Drane’s trial for the October 2002 murders will begin on July 30 according to today's Post-Tribune story by correspondent Ruth Ann Krause.

Sex Offender Registration regulations have been published in the Federal Register by US DoJ.

The Kevin Cooper case remains undecided 5 months after oral argument, notes Rod Leveque in this article in the Inland Daily Bulletin (Ontario, CA). This is the case that the concurring judges assured us "can be quickly and definitively determined by means of a simple test...." That was over three years ago, and every test he has demanded has confirmed his guilt. What is so hard to decide?