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Statutory interpretation at center of debate in SCOTUS clemency case

By Douglas A. Berman

Adam Liptak has this article in the New York Times, headlined "Weighing Reach of Law in Appeals for Clemency," discussing the oral argument before the Supreme Court yesterday in Harbison v. Bell.  Here are excerpts: In an unusually testy argument, the Supreme Court on Monday tried to make sense of a federal law that provides lawyers to poor inmates on state death rows when their cases move to federal court.  The question for the justices was whether the law also requires the federal government to pay those lawyers to present clemency petitions to governors and other state officials.... The law in question says lawyers handling federal capital cases must also be paid to represent their clients in ?proceedings for executive or other clemency as may be available to the defendant...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on January 13, 2009 (boomark / email).