Fifth Circuit: No New Trial for Black Panther

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (via AP) is reporting on a Fifth Circuit decision yesterday (not yet available from the court's website): Appeals court rejects new trial for Black Panther ajc.com.

Update (2:20 PM): The decision is linked here.  Also, ABC News coverage of the earlier district court decision is here.

DC Circuit: No Certificate of Innocence for Deceased Man

The DC Circuit "is so small [geographically] that it does not have a federal prison within its boundaries, so prisoner petitions—which make up a notable portion of the docket nationwide on other courts of appeals—are a less significant part of its work."  John G. Roberts, Jr., What Makes the D.C. Circuit Different?  A Historical View, 92 Va. L. Rev. 375, 376 (2006).

This week, the DC Circuit decided a case that can be traced to one (and in some senses, three) of these relatively few prisoner petitions.

Quote: The Key Swing Vote . . . Justice Scalia?

[T]he one area of law where I do think that the sort of 5-4, "Where is Justice Kennedy going to come out?" dynamic does not hold true increasingly is the criminal docket of the Court. . . . [I]n some ways on the criminal docket, the key swing vote is actually Justice Scalia.

There are a number of cases in the Apprendi line of cases, other Sixth Amendment cases, also cases involving the Confrontation Clause, where Justice Scalia has [ruled in favor of the criminal defendant].

Paul D. Clement
Former Solicitor General and Partner, King & Spalding
Sixth Circuit Judicial Conference
May 5, 2010

Judge Sid Thomas, Recent Opinions, Part III

The last of Judge Sid Thomas' three most recent opinions, covered on this blog in the past few days, is the shortest: a one-page concurrence (see page 5788). It is also the most recent, filed less than a month ago on April 19, 2010.

Judge Sid Thomas, Recent Opinions, Part II

As noted in yesterday's post, the most recent majority opinion of Judge Sid Thomas upheld a death sentence.

In some ways, the case is unremarkable: a garden-variety habeas matter including typical claims such as ineffective assistance of counsel. However, there is one startling aspect, in that the defendant actually requested the death penalty, telling the judge that he was a violent person fascinated with killing who did not believe he could be rehabilitated. Later, the defendant changed his mind, resulting in a chain of appeals nearly thirty years long. Judge Fletcher dissented from Thomas' majority opinion, finding that ineffective assistance of counsel in the case had been prejudicial.