Ohio Trial Court's Lethal Injection Decision: Doug Berman at Sentencing Law and Policy posted today on the Catch-22 of lethal injection reform in the United States. In his post, Berman discusses a press release from a "team of medical, ethical, and legal scholars" that claims as "jurist demand lethal injection protocol changes" state officials are "employing the tools and methods of biomedical inquiry without its ethical safeguards." The press release appears to be yet another attempt by "medical, ethical, and legal scholars" to delay implementation of death penalty sentences. Berman's post also links to an AP article discussing the Ohio decision, also noted in the News Scan below, and gives a link to the opinion.

Judge Kozinski's Personal Website: Howard Bashman at How Appealing has a post inviting bloggers to comment on whether The Los Angeles Times be praised or condemned for reporting on the pornographic images posted on Ninth Circuit Chief Judge Alex Kozinski's personal web site. Bashman says he will post the most thoughtful comments. Bashman also poses some interesting questions in his post, such as whether this story is newsworthy only because Kozinksi is presiding over an obscenity trial? and "[I]f Judge Kozinski decides to recuse from presiding over the criminal obscenity prosecution in which a jury has already been selected and perhaps seated, can a new judge be brought in to take over the trial from that point forward, or will it be necessary to declare a mistrial and start over?"