The Blogs Are Alive With The Sound of Opening Arguments: With the first Monday in October came opening arguments at the United States Supreme Court, as well as several blog posts reporting on its activities. SCOTUSblog has a post reporting on today's activities at the Court, along with a link to today's transcripts and an analysis of oral arguments in Altria Group, et al., v. Good, et al. (07-562). Denniston also provided a post discussing today's Orders from the Court, and how the Court did not address Troy Anthony Davis’ appeal today. Dan Slater at Wall Street Journal Blog posted on the Altria argument, as well as Justice attendance an the annual Red Mass. And over at NRO, Jonathan Adler provides a preview of cases the Court will hear this term. At the end of his post Adler notes the Court has only accepted 53 cases for the term. According to Adler, the Court is likely to accept "at least a dozen or two more in the coming weeks." Without a lot of high profile cases on this year's docket, Adler reports this "is likely to be a relatively quiet year on the Court."

The Pace of Executions Post-Baze: Doug Berman has a post discussing the Death Penalty Information Center's (DPIC) report on executions in the United States after last term's decision in Baze v. Rees. Berman finds it "remarkable" that post-Baze states have executed prisoners at an average rate of about four executions per month, and "that we have not seen any post-Baze increase in executions even though the Baze case led to a halt of all executions for over six months." Berman's post also states that the DPIC report shows only Texas and Ohio with more than one upcoming set execution date.

Free Access to Sage Journals: Psychology and Crime News reports that Sage Journals will provide free access to all of its online journals through October 31st. All a reader needs to do is register first. Psychology and Crime News recommends that readers take a look at the newest issue of Criminal Justice and Behavior a special on “Pseudoscientific Policing Practices and Beliefs" for articles on criminal profiling, as well as a "critique of the FBI’s programme to introduce Critical Incident Stress Debriefing for its agents."