Supreme Court's Opening Conference: SCOTUSblog posted yesterday on the Court's upcoming week. The Supremes will hold their opening conference today, and are scheduled to review a petition for rehearing in Kennedy v. Louisiana. SCOTUSblog expects the Court to release orders from the conference tomorrow, and will provide coverage on its site. One of the cases the Supreme Court will review in conference is Kennedy v. Leach, et ux.. The Attorney General of Kentucky has asked the Court to address whether "Is it reasonable to initiate a 'knock and talk' investigation at a back door used as the main public entrance of a residence?" The Court of Appeals of Kentucky found the behavior to be a violation of the Fourth Amendment. Another interesting question is raised in Kansas v. Ventris, which asks "Whether a criminal defendant’s "voluntary statement obtained in the absence of a knowing and voluntary waiver of the [Sixth Amendment] right to counsel," Michigan v. Harvey, 494 U.S. 344, 354 (1990), is admissible for impeachment purposes." SCOTUSblog's Petition's to Watch post lists others.

Economics and the Death Penalty: Doug Berman at Sentencing Law and Policy posted yesterday on Jack Payden-Travers' Op-ed in the Pasadena Star News. The Op-ed argues the "Price isn't right for the death penalty." Berman provides text from the op-ed. The text references the results of a recent death penalty report from the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice. Kent has blogged about the "dubious" results of the report, as well as the Commission's biased selection of those it funded to do research studies for the report. Posts like Kent's provide important context when reading an op-ed that concludes "The death penalty is a failed government program for many reasons. One is that it is a colossal waste of government resources."

Obama's Potential Supreme Court Nominee: Bench Memos has a post from Ed Whalen discussing the "[l]egal blog[]" buzz surrounding Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick as a potential Supreme Court nominee. According to Whalen, Patrick has left a mark on the legal field of racial preferences. Thus far, according to Whalen, Patrick has made it clear that he supports racial preferences "in employment, government contracting, and gerrymandering."

Special Journal Edition on Criminal Profiling: Psychology and Crime News has a post briefly reporting on the Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology's Special Issue on Criminal Profiling. The Special issue is edited by Craig Bennell, the Director of the Police Research Laboratory in Canada. The Journal is available for a fee through Springerlink.