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Defense lawyers win: initial reflections on the SCOTUS term that was

By Douglas A. Berman

How Appealing collects here links to a lot of Supreme Court end-of-term discussions.  Because the Term truly was a mixed bag, it defies ready summary (though Linda Greenhouse rightly spotlights that Justice Kennedy remained a swing vote in the biggest 5-4 cases).  Reflecting on the major criminal justice rulings, I think it is fair to saw that defense lawyers were the biggest winners. Though I have not done a systematic review, criminal defendants generally seem to have faired quite well with important victories in Gall and Kimbrough and Danforth and Boumediene and Begay and Kennedy and Giles. But, defendants took hits in cases big and small with loses in Medellin and Baze and Rodriquez and Edwards and Irizarry.  However, even when criminal defendants lost, there were victories to be found for criminal defense lawyers...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on June 29, 2008 (boomark / email).