Re-sentencing Ordered for Co-Ed Murderer: The Idaho Supreme Court has overturned the death sentence of Darrell Payne, convicted in in 2002 of the kidnapping, rape and murder of Boise State student Samantha Maher. The Court's decision focused on victim impact statements, made during sentencing, that were inadmissible and might have influenced the judge's sentencing decision. An Associated Press story on the case is here.
More Victim Impact: Meanwhile, in Stockton, California, serial rapist/murderer William Jennings Choyce was formally sentenced to death for killing Victoria Bell, Gwendolyn Lee, and Lawanda Beck, reports Scott Smith for the Record. Further background is available at Smith's blog. He recounts that after an earlier story where he reported that Ms. Lee was a prostitute, he got a call from her sister. "Valerie wanted to talk to me and explain that her sister, Gwen, was a mother, a sister, an aunt - a person. She was right, so I asked if she and some of her relatives would agree to talk with me in front of a camera." The resulting video story is here.
Pro Bono and Radical Chic: William McGurn of the WSJ has this column on the swarm of lawyers from academia and blue-chip law firms who are eager to defend the Guantanamo detainees "pro bono publico." The result is that the government lawyers are badly outnumbered. At one hearing, McGurn says, "half a dozen Justice Department lawyers [were] waiting in a room packed wall-to-wall with high-priced partners -- many backed up by legions of associates, outside legal experts, human-rights centers, and concerned law students." Sound familiar, capital habeas litigators?
More Victim Impact: Meanwhile, in Stockton, California, serial rapist/murderer William Jennings Choyce was formally sentenced to death for killing Victoria Bell, Gwendolyn Lee, and Lawanda Beck, reports Scott Smith for the Record. Further background is available at Smith's blog. He recounts that after an earlier story where he reported that Ms. Lee was a prostitute, he got a call from her sister. "Valerie wanted to talk to me and explain that her sister, Gwen, was a mother, a sister, an aunt - a person. She was right, so I asked if she and some of her relatives would agree to talk with me in front of a camera." The resulting video story is here.
Pro Bono and Radical Chic: William McGurn of the WSJ has this column on the swarm of lawyers from academia and blue-chip law firms who are eager to defend the Guantanamo detainees "pro bono publico." The result is that the government lawyers are badly outnumbered. At one hearing, McGurn says, "half a dozen Justice Department lawyers [were] waiting in a room packed wall-to-wall with high-priced partners -- many backed up by legions of associates, outside legal experts, human-rights centers, and concerned law students." Sound familiar, capital habeas litigators?
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