Legal Commentary

Earlier this evening, I had a chance to read the new SCOTUS opinion in Graham (invalidating life without parole sentences for juveniles convicted of nonhomicidal crimes) and it's a doozy. I'm supposed to write something up on Graham over the next month for the Federal Sentencing Reporter, where Michael O'Hear is hosting a gathering of folks to offer some short reflections on the significance of Graham. The group includes scrubs like me alongside Rachel Barkow, Richard Frase, Alice Ristroph, John Stinneford, Jae Lee, Eva Nilsen and David Gray.

Unsurprisingly, Doug Berman's already had a lot of interesting reactions to Graham over at the SLP blog. And over at Concurring Opinions, Jae Lee has highlighted a key paragraph from the majority's opinion that potentially paves the way for eroding the silly death is different jurisprudence. Certainly Justice Thomas' sharply written dissent seems to concur with Jae!  If they are right about what Graham augurs, and I think and hope that they are, then it also means that we'll be able to see the logic of Panetti v. Quarterman (no execution of the presently incompetent) get some traction outside the death penalty context, a point I explored and argued for in this article from last year. Stay tuned for more on the doctrinal specifics of that to come.