U.S. Sentencing Commission On Retroactivity of Crack Amendment: Thanks to Douglas Berman at Sentencing Law and Policy for his post on the U.S. Sentencing Commission's release of data on the retroactive application of the crack amendment. The Commission's data, found here, compiles the preliminary data on cases in which a motion for a reduced sentence was considered under 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(2). The data compiles cases that were received by the Commission before April 14, 2008. Berman notes that he hopes the data is frequently updated.
Lara Jakes Jordan at the Associated Press also had this story on the Commission's findings.

Vienna Convention Post-Medellin: Howard Bashman at How Appealing provided this post, and a link, to the Second Circuit's decision that failure to inform detained aliens of the prospect of consular notification, as required by Article 36 of the Vienna Convention, cannot be vindicated by a private action for damages. While Article 36 has been addressed by courts in a variety of contexts, the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Medellin v. Texas did not directly address this issue. Instead, the Medellin decision assumed, without deciding, that Article 36 creates the judicially enforceable right to request that consular officers be notified of their detention.