Author: Kent Scheidegger

Supreme Court Orders Friday and Today

by · Jan 11, 2021 2:32 pm

The U.S. Supreme Court held a conference Friday, resulting in a short orders list the same day and a longer one today. Some criminal cases were taken up, but no blockbuster ones.

Among cases we are following, the Marathon Bomber Case was relisted for this coming Friday, as expected. A grant on the second listing is a good possibility for this high-profile case.

In Poole v. Florida, the Court turned down a request to say that it didn’t really mean what it said in McKinney v. Arizona (see this post), i.e., that the Sixth Amendment has nothing to say about whether the weighing of the aggravating versus mitigating circumstances in capital cases, and hence the sentencing decision, must be done by a jury or a judge. Yes, it really did mean that. Continue reading . . .

An Easy Retroactivity Case Made Difficult — Part III, Teague‘s Phantom Exception

by · Jan 7, 2021 4:34 pm

This post concludes the series on the U.S. Supreme Court case of Edwards v. Vannoy, No. 19-5807, argued December 2. The question presented is whether the Court’s decision last term in Ramos v. Louisiana is retroactive to overturn judgments that were already final on direct appeal when the decision came down. On the well-established body of law under Teague v. Lane, the answer is very clearly no, yet the Court seemed to have a surprising amount of difficulty with it during the argument.

The previous two posts (see index at the end) demonstrated that the conditions for the Teague rule to come into play were met. Ramos is certainly a “new rule” within the meaning of the Teague cases. It is a rule of procedure and not substantive law. The remaining question is whether it qualifies for an exception that no new rule in the three decades since Teague has qualified for. The answer, again, is clearly no. Continue reading . . .

Time to End Tolerance of Political Violence

by · Jan 7, 2021 9:22 am

President-elect Biden said this yesterday:

“Let me be very clear. The scenes of chaos at the Capitol do not reflect a true America, do not represent who we are. What we’re seeing are a small number of extremists dedicated to lawlessness. This is not dissent. It’s disorder. It’s chaos. It borders on sedition, and it must end now.”

That is entirely correct. It is high time that we came to a consensus as a people that in the United States in the twenty-first century violence, destruction of property, and occupation of any place belonging to the public or another person for political ends are never justified, never excusable, and should never be tolerated. Those who engage in such actions are criminals and should be treated as such. Continue reading . . .

Full USCA-DC Rejects Rehearing For Notorious Murderer

by · Jan 5, 2021 11:53 am

On New Year’s Day, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit vacated the stay of execution for notorious murderer Lisa Montgomery. Today, the full court turned down her rehearing petition. Matthew Schwartz had this story for NPR Saturday:

Lisa Marie Montgomery said she was interested in purchasing a puppy. But once the Kansas woman arrived at Bobbie Jo Stinnett’s Missouri home in 2004, she attacked the pregnant 23-year-old, using a rope to strangle her until she lost consciousness.

With a kitchen knife, Montgomery cut the 8-month-old fetus out of Stinnett’s womb, taking it to raise as her own. Stinnett was found later by her mother, dead in a pool of blood. Continue reading . . .

Court upbraids Jerry Brown on ballot measure

by · Jan 5, 2021 10:21 am

Dan Walters, a veteran commentator on California politics, has this column with the above title at CalMatters on the California Supreme Court decision last week in In re Gadlin. See also my post on the decision last week. Walters writes:

A political saga that began more than four decades ago came full circle last week when the state Supreme Court, including four Jerry Brown appointees, indirectly upbraided the former governor.

Unanimously, the court declared that Proposition 57, a major criminal justice overhaul sponsored by Brown and overwhelmingly passed by voters in 2016, did what its critics said it would do, not what Brown told voters.

Continue reading . . .

Recalling a District Attorney

by · Dec 30, 2020 4:36 pm

Although George Gascón ran as a “criminal justice reform” candidate for Los Angeles District Attorney, a great many people are surprised and horrified at how far he is going to dismantle sentencing in criminal cases. As a result, many people are asking whether and how a district attorney can be recalled. The short answer is yes, but the process cannot be officially started until early March, and it is going to take either a big pot of money or a large army of volunteers to gather signatures. Continue reading . . .

Lying to the Voters in Ballot Arguments

by · Dec 28, 2020 2:46 pm

The ballot materials provided to California voters include pro and con arguments on the initiatives and other measures submitted to the voters. Opponents tend to exaggerate how extreme the measures are, and proponents tend to play down these claims.

What happens when a proponent’s argument simply lies about what the initiative’s language says? Not surprisingly, the California Supreme Court held today that the plain language controls over the argument. Does it matter if the shamelessly lying proponent is the Governor of the State? Nope. Continue reading . . .