Appellate Law

Odds and Ends

By S. COTUS

Cleaning out the Bloglines ?Keep New? list here.

• Kennedy isn?t what you think it is.  CaafLog probably can be credited with having started the whole ?The Supremes Counted Noses wrong in Kennedy thing? has a post which explains the view that, in fact, the military isn?t to be counted when determining whether killing people for crimes that don?t result in death violations the 8th amendment.
• It?s okay for a judge to help the government says the Ninth. Ninth Circuit Blog discusses how the Ninth Appears to give a free pass to a judge that helped out an AUSA that wasn?t detail-oriented.  See, usually a prosecutor that lacks attention to detail (like many of them, in my experience) loses cases when they fail to prove an element. Some judges, that are biased on favor of a government represented by non-detail-oriented prosecutors decide to help them out.  The Ninth gives the judge a pass and encourages prosecutors not to prepare their cases well, because they will know that should they forget to prove something, the judge will always be there to help.  Somehow, judges don?t seem too interested in telling the defense how they can conclusively rebut prosecution evidence.
• Sua Sponte R. 11 Sanctions.  Federal Civil Practice Bulletin (which I am reluctant to cite, because they don?t link to free opinions, which I think should be required of members of the blogosphere) explains the split between whether R. 11 Sanctions and be imposed on the court?s own motion.
• Crack Reduction Procedure.  And SL&P points to two cases regarding crack reduction motions.  The first remands when the judge doesn?t explain why, and the second remands when the judge didn?t appoint counsel or even appear to take the process seriously. 
  

Full post as published by Appellate Law and Practice on September 15, 2008 (boomark / email).