Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court adopted amendments to the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. The amendments implemented the Crime Victims' Rights Act (18 U.S.C. §3771). Yesterday's order amended Criminal Rules 1 (Scope; Definitions), 12.1 (Notice of an Alibi Defense), 17 (Subpoena), 18 (Place of Prosecution and Trial), 32 (Sentencing and Judgment), 41 (Search and Seizure), 45 (Computing and Extending Time), 60 (Victims’ Rights), and added Criminal Rule 61 (Title). The Court's order adopting the amendments can be found here.

For the most part, the Court's order rubber-stamped the September 2007 recommendation of the Federal Judicial Conference, which had adopted the May 2007 proposals of the Federal Advisory Committee on Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. One interesting deviation from the recommendation was the U.S. Supreme Court's decision not to adopt the Advisory Committee's amendments to Rule 45(a) for "Computing and Extending Time." The Court did amend Rule 45(c) slightly to conform to last year's revision of Civil Rule 5.

The amendments take effect December 1 unless Congress acts to the contrary.