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Justices take another long break without resolving Baze

By Douglas A. Berman

Lawyers and judges in state and lower federal courts in regions with active capital punishment systems are accustomed to speedy appellate litigation in which complicated death penalty issues must be resolved sometimes in a matter of days or hours because of a looming execution date.  I suspect some of these lawyers and judges will join me in being disappointed and concerned with how long the Supreme Court is taking with the Baze lethal injection case. We are now approaching six months since the Justices took up the Baze case in September, and it has been nearly two full months since the Court heard oral arguments in Baze.  In my view, neither the legal or factual issues in Baze are that complicated.  Moreover, the Justices have had the benefit of two recent ruling in this area (Hill and Nelson), and also the benefit of lots of lower court and amici input...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on March 03, 2008 (boomark / email).