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Interesting Justice alignments in SCOTUS affirmance of state death sentence in Wood v. Allen

By Douglas A. Berman

Though another SCOTUS opinion day has come and gone without any blockbuster rulings, the Court did this morning hand down a ruling Wood v. Allen, 08-9156 (Jan. 20, 2010) (available here), affirming a state death sentence.  Though full commentary on this latest capital ruling will have to wait because I now need to go teach my sentencing seminar at Fordham, the line-up of the Justices already makes the ruling interesting.  Specifically, the opinion for the Court was written by Justice Sotomayor, with Justice Stevens dissenting along with Justice Kennedy. I think some folks may have been hoping (or worried) that Justice Sotomayor would be a consistent vote against the death penalty.  This ruling suggests that she can find some death sentences she likes...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on January 20, 2010 (boomark / email).