LWOP and the Death Penalty: Yesterday, Doug Berman posted two articles addressing the relationship between the death penalty and LWOP on his website Sentencing Law and Policy. The first post, Second chance for killer kids?, discusses Michigan's attempts to prohibit life without the possibility of parole sentences for juveniles. The story, by L.L. Brasier, is featured in today's News Scan. In his post, Berman acknowledges that the two states with largest number of
mandatory life sentences for juvenile offenders are Michigan and Pennsylvania, and notes that neither has a functioning death penalty. He compares the two states to Texas, which has eliminated mandatory life for juveniles, but will readily sentence individuals to death. Berman believes the policies demonstrate an "inverse relationship between use of the death penalty for the worst murderers and use of other extreme punishments for less culpable offenders." In his second post, Berman links to Mike Farrell's piece in the Huffington Post. On Saturday, Farrell, a death penalty abolitionist, argued that "The Death Penalty is Dying." Berman posts an excerpt from the piece, and comments on some of the inconsistencies in Farrell's argument.
No Kiyemba This Term: Tony Mauro writes on Blog of Legal Times that today, the Supreme Court removed a a key Guantanamo detainee case from March's oral arguments calendar and sent it back to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. About a month ago, the Supreme Court asked for new briefing when the Department of Justice's merit's brief demonstrated that the Obama administration had found homes outside the United States for the Uighur detainees, eliminating "the factual premise" that "petitioners have no possibility of leaving Guantanamo Bay except by being released in the United States." Today, the Supreme Court vacated the D.C. Circuit ruling and asked that court to determine what further proceedings are needed for the "full and prompt disposition" of the case. Lyle Denniston's post on SCOTUSblog provides more information on Kiyemba, et. al. v. Obama, et al. Howard Bashman posts media coverage of the Court's decision on his blog, How Appealing.
A Senator Reacts to Liu's Nomination: At Wall Street Journal's Law Blog, Ashby Jones posts on Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) reaction to President Obama's nomination of Berkeley law professor Goodwin Liu. In a press release Senator Sessions stated that he is "very disappointed by President Obama's nomination of Professor Goodwin Liu to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit..." Senator Sessions stated that the Ninth Circuit is "already an activist court," and he "fear[s] that Professor Liu will be an activist judge in this same mold." Sessions will withhold his vote until he examines Professor Liu's record, but his initial reaction is that Liu's "judicial philosophy does not respect the American ideal of judges as neutral arbiters of the law."
No Kiyemba This Term: Tony Mauro writes on Blog of Legal Times that today, the Supreme Court removed a a key Guantanamo detainee case from March's oral arguments calendar and sent it back to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. About a month ago, the Supreme Court asked for new briefing when the Department of Justice's merit's brief demonstrated that the Obama administration had found homes outside the United States for the Uighur detainees, eliminating "the factual premise" that "petitioners have no possibility of leaving Guantanamo Bay except by being released in the United States." Today, the Supreme Court vacated the D.C. Circuit ruling and asked that court to determine what further proceedings are needed for the "full and prompt disposition" of the case. Lyle Denniston's post on SCOTUSblog provides more information on Kiyemba, et. al. v. Obama, et al. Howard Bashman posts media coverage of the Court's decision on his blog, How Appealing.
A Senator Reacts to Liu's Nomination: At Wall Street Journal's Law Blog, Ashby Jones posts on Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) reaction to President Obama's nomination of Berkeley law professor Goodwin Liu. In a press release Senator Sessions stated that he is "very disappointed by President Obama's nomination of Professor Goodwin Liu to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit..." Senator Sessions stated that the Ninth Circuit is "already an activist court," and he "fear[s] that Professor Liu will be an activist judge in this same mold." Sessions will withhold his vote until he examines Professor Liu's record, but his initial reaction is that Liu's "judicial philosophy does not respect the American ideal of judges as neutral arbiters of the law."
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