SCOTUS TAKES UP 1984 MURDER CASE | Trump Hotline Blings Barry O.
December 15, 2016
IN THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM
|Yesterday, the Supreme Court justices agreed to hear arguments in a 1984 high-profile murder case that resulted in eight Washington D.C. men being sentenced to prison for the brutal sexual assault and murder of a Northeast Washington woman. Attorneys for the convicted men argue that prosecutors violated Brady v. Maryland, a 1963 Supreme Court decision that required prosecutors to turn over favorable evidence to the defense. They say prosecutors failed to disclose information about other possible suspects, chiefly one man who went on to be convicted of killing another woman in a similar manner. The lawyers also contend that prosecutors withheld information about an eyewitness who had described seeing a person in the alley at the time Fuller was killed, not the group of teenagers who were ultimately held responsible for the murder.
WHAT'S THE NAME OF THE GAME
|Attorneys for The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to take up a yuge issue affecting litigation against businesses: the ability of patent holders to funnel infringement claims through courts with a plaintiff-friendly reputation.
GIVING UP AND GIVING IN
|“It has seemed to most that the end of GARLAND’S nomination was a foregone conclusion and the President-elect DONALD TRUMP would fill the vacancy created by the February death of JUSTICE ANTONIN SCALIA. But OBAMA has not withdrawn Garland’s nomination.” For The Washington Post, Robert Barnes wonders if President Obama is throwing in the towel and giving up for good on Judge Merrick Garland’s nomination to the Supreme Court.
274
|The number of days since PRESIDENT OBAMA nominated JUDGE MERRICK GARLAND to the United States Supreme Court.
WHEN YOU'RE READY JUST SAY YOU'RE READY
|The president-elect’s future chief of staff REINCE PRIEBUS said yesterday that DONALD TRUMP will be prepared to name a Supreme Court nominee around the time he takes office. Priebus: “Obviously, I think that’s going to be something that we’re going to start after the new year, and certainly by the time we get to inauguration, either shortly before or shortly thereafter.” Hold on to your hats boys because this is the day we’ve been patiently waiting for.
A LIE BY OMISSION
|Cristian Farias with The Huffington Post reports Alabama SENATOR JEFF SESSIONS, nominated to be our next attorney general, submitted a questionnaire to the Senate Judiciary Committee that is missing a rather significant detail: that very same committee defeated his nomination to be a federal judge in 1986. Curious, especially since the questionnaire expressly asks, “Also, state chronologically any unsuccessful candidacies you have had for elective office or unsuccessful nominations for appointed office.” Last month, Amber Phillips in The Washington Post reported that when Sessions came before the Judiciary Committee for his hearing to become a federal judge, “his career in law was almost destroyed when former colleagues brought forward troubling accusations about things Sessions had said to them with regard to race.”
YEAH YOU'RE ALL THE WAY DOWN
|Mark Berman with The Washington Post reports executions in the United States have fallen to a 25-year low. In 1999, the number of executions peaked at 98 and that number has steadily declined in the years since. With no other executions scheduled for this month, 2016 will end with 14 executions. Berman: “The decline in executions continues a recent trend, as 2016 will be the fourth consecutive year with fewer executions than the year before. It also speaks to a country that has shifted away from the death penalty in many places, while those states still trying to execute inmates have struggled with court challenges, drug shortages and issues with carrying out executions.”
HOTLINE BLING
|Late night hosts CONAN O’BRIEN and STEPHEN COLBERT have been giving a lot of thought to what our current and past presidents must think of DONALD J. TRUMP becoming our 45th president. This week, Conan shared a must-see video which portrays phone calls between Obama and Trump where Trump seeks the advice of his predecessor. In one exchange Trump asks, “Hey, Bar, what’s SCOTUS?” Obama replies, “It’s an acronym for Supreme Court of the United States.” Yes, yes it is.
OTHER NEWS
SCOTUS Poll: 66 Percent Back Term Limits for Justices
NewsmaxThe results of the McLaughlin and Associates/Fix the Court poll of 1,000 likely voters revealed nearly 66 percent of Americans think Supreme Court justices should have term limits.
Can a nonlawyer judge send you to jail? Supreme Court is asked to hear case
ABA Journal“A cert petition before the U.S. Supreme Court shines a light on the power of some nonlawyer judges in the United States. The cert petition asks whether a defendant’s due process rights are violated when he is tried by a nonlawyer judge with the power to send him to jail, and there is no opportunity for a new trial before a judge who is a lawyer.”