Capital Punishment

A conservative's argument against the death penalty.

What did the jury decide?

The lone dissenter from a stay of execution takes the time to channel Glenn Beck in a written opinion.

Can you believe the egregious Brady violations in this case? The Ninth Circuit barely could, it seems....

* If you swap out a menorah and put in a dreidel, does your Hanukkah display avoid violating the Establishment Clause? I know, I know, WAR ON HANUKKAH. [Huffington Post] * I wonder why Martha Minow (law dean, HLS) or Robert Post (law dean, YLS) doesn’t write an op-ed defending the value proposition of going to law school? Wouldn’t you like to hear this argument from somebody who isn’t desperate to fill their class seats? [Constitutional Daily] * Isn’t the concept of the “last meal” the best thing about death row? Granted, that’s a low bar, but still. Having a last meal sounds so civilized. No wonder Texas and Florida want to take it away. [Legal Blog Watch] * Do patent trolls have a weakness to fire, just like videogame trolls? Because, I’d like for them to get burned. [Business Insider] * The fact that voter suppression doesn’t work doesn’t make it right. [Election Law Blog] * Ignoring losses until they go away sounds like the basis of any sound financial strategy. [Dealbreaker]

* Want to know what they call the Supreme Court attorney who deals with requests for stays of execution? The death clerk. Paging John Grisham, because this guy’s nickname would make a great book title. [New York Times]

* “If you’re going to sue, it’s better to sue earlier rather than later.” Probably why battleground states like Florida, Iowa, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin are in a tizzy over their election laws. [Washington Post]

* WikiLeaks or it didn’t happen: Bradley Manning’s lawyer has demanded that seven years be cut from his client’s prospective sentence due to allegations of improper treatment while in military custody. [The Guardian]

* Michigan Law’s Sarah Zearfoss, she of Wolverine Scholars fame, finds media coverage about the awful job market for recent law grads “really frustrating.” Try being unemployed. [Crain’s Detroit Business (reg. req.)]

* Kris Humphries is being sued for allegedly giving a girl herpes. But alas, the plaintiff seems to have no idea who actually gave her the herp — four John Doe defendants are identified in the complaint, too. [Star Tribune]

* “Given the police idiocy, one wonders where the boobs really are.” A nude model who was arrested during a body-painting exhibition in Times Square won a $15K false-arrest settlement from the cops. [New York Post]

* The ABA is gearing up for its annual meeting in Chicago. I’ll note (with a lack of surprise) that I was not invited. [ABA Journal] * At that meeting, the ABA will once again consider accrediting foreign law schools. American lawyers have shouted down this idea twice before, but if the ABA has a chance to screw over its constituents it simply must keep trying. [National Law Journal] * Here, we see NYU’s Dean Richard Revesz defend the economic value of an “expensive” NYU Law degree without actually using any economic facts or statistics. [Constitutional Daily] * Please tell me this Ted Cruz character isn’t going to become an ongoing part of my life. [Mother Jones] * Only lawyers could complicate the word “shall” to the point that it loses all meaning. [Legal Blog Watch] * I thought casinos killed you with the expensive gambling, not the free alcohol. [Overlawyered] * Another positive review for Mark Hermann’s Inside Straight. [New York Personal Injury Law Blog] * An interesting conversation with NYU professor David Garland about the death penalty. It won’t kill you to check it out. [Cruel and Unusual]

Singapore's definition of "relaxed" punishment is still pretty intense...

An exhaustive new report from Columbia Law School persuasively argues that Texas executed an innocent man. We talked with one of the student authors about how the project shaped her law school experience.

* Dewey need to take a look at the Biglaw industry in general before more firms implode? Hell yes, says an author who’s written on the economics and management of law firms. [DealBook / New York Times]

* Wal-Mart was served with its first shareholder suit over its alleged bribery scandal, because the only thing on rollback this week is the price of the company’s stock shares. [Reuters]

* Does diplomatic immunity give you a free pass for getting handsy with the maid? Guess we’ll see next week, when a judge rules on DSK’s motion to dismiss his civil suit. [New York Daily News]

* As long as you’ve got money, the TSA will totally look the other way if you’ve got suitcases filled with drugs. Vibrators, on the other hand, are simply out of the question. [Bloomberg]

* As of yesterday, Connecticut became the seventeenth state to kill the death penalty. But not so fast, death row inmates. You still get to die. Isn’t that nice? [CNN]

* Franchise agreements be damned, because even judges can understand that sometimes, you just need to eat a delicious sandwich while you’re getting a lap dance. [KTVN]

Two men who helped pass the death penalty bill in California 30 years ago have completely changed their minds. Why?

We've previously written about the mailroom of death at Sullivan & Cromwell. To make a long story short (read our prior posts for the full background), a mailroom mix-up at 125 Broad Street caused an Alabama death-row inmate to miss a deadline for filing an appeal. The Eleventh Circuit rejected the condemned man's attempt to reopen his case. Presumably feeling bad for what had happened, S&C appealed to the Supreme Court. Yesterday, the Supreme Court handed down its ruling in Maples v. Thomas. What did the high court have to say?

* Andrews Kurth had such a good year that they’re not just giving their high performers bonuses, they’re giving raises to 25 associates! [Texas Lawyers] * Davis Polk is taking a jump across the pond. [The Lawyer] * When I’m struggling to think creatively, I have a drink. When that doesn’t work, I have another. […]

* DLA Piper is blaming the Occupy Wall Street movement for Biglaw’s sad, 2011 bonus season. It looks like we can expect a Cravath match from that firm. [Thomson Reuters News & Insight] * We could really use some more law schools — fourth tier law schools, in particular. Say hello to the Savannah Law […]

We live in a country where some states have the death penalty. Capital punishment. The "ultimate justice," people like Rick Perry say with a smirk, as if justice that ends in death is somehow preferable to justice that respects the dignity of human life. Do you not know what those sanitized words mean? Do you not know what the death penalty is? Why the hell are people so worked up over Troy Davis?

* SCOTUS halted Duane Buck’s execution in Texas last night. How did it take 16 years for this to happen? Slow and steady doesn’t win the race on death row. [CBS News] * Casey Anthony owes the state of Florida a pretty penny. At this rate, she may as well go to law school, because […]

Revelations continue to spill forth regarding Stephen McDaniel, the recent Mercer Law School graduate accused of killing his former classmate and neighbor, Lauren Giddings. Was he framed? Is he innocent? Take our reader poll and find out more....

* Interesting historical perspective from Professor Dave Hoffman on the current debate over legal education. One critic wrote that “there are too many lawyers in this country,” “many of them are not busy,” and “many of them are on the margin of starvation” — back in 1932. [Concurring Opinions] * And some thoughts on the […]

In our coverage of Stephen Mark McDaniel, the 25-year-old Mercer Law School graduate who has been charged with the murder of Lauren Giddings, his former classmate and neighbor, we have repeatedly stressed that McDaniel remains innocent until proven guilty. We have pointed to past examples of individuals who were viewed by the public as almost […]

* Some bloggers stand up to dubious defamation lawsuits. [Techdirt] * And some settle: St. Thomas Law (or its insurer) is paying $5,000 to Joseph Rakofsky. [Simple Justice] * Another day, another lawyer accused of trying to kill someone — but not succeeding. (We might have more to say about this case next week; send […]