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SCOTUS overturns "OJ death sentence" in Snyder

By Douglas A. Berman

As detailed here at SCOTUSblog, "Supreme Court ruled 7-2 on Wednesday that the trial judge in a Louisiana murder case ? one that involved a prosecutor?s use of the O.J. Simpson case to try to help win a death sentence against a black man ? was wrong in rejecting a challenge to the denial of a seat to one black juror."   Thanks to SCOTUSblog, the decision in Snyder v. Louisiana can be downloaded here. The voting pattern may be the most interesting aspect of this ruling: "ALITO, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which ROBERTS, C. J., and STEVENS, KENNEDY, SOUTER, GINSBURG, and BREYER, JJ., joined. THOMAS, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which SCALIA, J., joined." Especially at a time when we are having a national political dialogue about race, I will have a lot of reflections on this case (and on the complexion of the Supreme Court Justices) in future posts...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on March 19, 2008 (boomark / email).