Academics Discuss Changes to the U.S. Supreme Court: At SCOTUSblog, Erin Miller reports on conference held entitled "Rethinking the Law Governing the Structure and Operation of the Supreme Court." The conference, held last Friday, at George Washington University Law School, proposed four different changes to the Court: (1) the regular appointment of Justices; (2) Seven-year term limits for the Chief Justice; (3) creation of a certiorari division; and (4) an obligation for disabled Justices to retire. Miller's post provides quick summaries of each panel discussion. She notes, "panelists and audience members were often skeptical about both the
specifics of the proposals and whether the problems that the proposals
were designed to remedy in fact existed."
Kentucky's Death Penalty: Doug Berman posts on Sentencing Law and Policy that Kentucky's Governor, Steve Beshear, has been asked to both halt all executions and set execution dates for three death row inmates. According to a Courier-Journal article by R.G. Dunlop, the ABA has asked Governor Beshear to halt all executions until a 10-member team of state lawyers and former judges can assess Kentucky's death penalty system. Another article, by Stephenie Steitzer reports on the Kentucky Attorney General's request that the Governor set execution dates for Ralph Baze Jr., Robert Foley and Gregory Wilson. According to Attorney General, Jack Conway, all three have exhausted all of their "matter of right" appeals in state and federal courts. Ralph Baze Jr. has made several attempts to appeal his sentence. He challenged Kentucky's lethal injection procedure in the landmark case Baze v. Rees. Doug Berman comments that he is "inclined to assume that the AG's request for execution dates will...eclipse the ABA's request for a moratorium," but notes that Kentucky has carried out only three executions "in the modern era."
Victims' Rights in Juvenile Court: CrimProf Blog editor, Kevin Cole, posts an abstract and link to Kristin Henning's new article, "What's Wrong with Victims' Rights in Juvenile Court?: Retributive Versus Rehabilitative Systems of Justice." Henning, a professor and the co-director of Georgetown University's Juvenile Justice Clinic, believes that "[s]tatutes that allow victims to attend juvenile hearings and present oral and written impact statements have shifted the juvenile court's priorities and altered the way judges think about young offenders." She argues "that victim impact statements move the juvenile court too far away from its original mission and ignore the child's often diminished culpability in delinquent behavior." The argument that we should not punish young offenders because of their diminished culpability is something we've seen before, most recently in Graham v. Florida and Sullivan v. Florida. Our brief for the cases notes that "where teenagers are treated as adults, the increase in delinquent behavior among young males is either extremely mild or completely absent[,]" and "when societies become Westernized that adolescent delinquency rises."
Kentucky's Death Penalty: Doug Berman posts on Sentencing Law and Policy that Kentucky's Governor, Steve Beshear, has been asked to both halt all executions and set execution dates for three death row inmates. According to a Courier-Journal article by R.G. Dunlop, the ABA has asked Governor Beshear to halt all executions until a 10-member team of state lawyers and former judges can assess Kentucky's death penalty system. Another article, by Stephenie Steitzer reports on the Kentucky Attorney General's request that the Governor set execution dates for Ralph Baze Jr., Robert Foley and Gregory Wilson. According to Attorney General, Jack Conway, all three have exhausted all of their "matter of right" appeals in state and federal courts. Ralph Baze Jr. has made several attempts to appeal his sentence. He challenged Kentucky's lethal injection procedure in the landmark case Baze v. Rees. Doug Berman comments that he is "inclined to assume that the AG's request for execution dates will...eclipse the ABA's request for a moratorium," but notes that Kentucky has carried out only three executions "in the modern era."
Victims' Rights in Juvenile Court: CrimProf Blog editor, Kevin Cole, posts an abstract and link to Kristin Henning's new article, "What's Wrong with Victims' Rights in Juvenile Court?: Retributive Versus Rehabilitative Systems of Justice." Henning, a professor and the co-director of Georgetown University's Juvenile Justice Clinic, believes that "[s]tatutes that allow victims to attend juvenile hearings and present oral and written impact statements have shifted the juvenile court's priorities and altered the way judges think about young offenders." She argues "that victim impact statements move the juvenile court too far away from its original mission and ignore the child's often diminished culpability in delinquent behavior." The argument that we should not punish young offenders because of their diminished culpability is something we've seen before, most recently in Graham v. Florida and Sullivan v. Florida. Our brief for the cases notes that "where teenagers are treated as adults, the increase in delinquent behavior among young males is either extremely mild or completely absent[,]" and "when societies become Westernized that adolescent delinquency rises."
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