David Kelley's new reality show featuring lawyers trying cases is now casting:

Emmy Award-winning writer-producer David E. Kelley ("The Practice," "Ally McBeal," "L.A. Law") returns to NBC to create his first reality drama, in an eight-episode commitment that will feature competitive legal eagles.

NOW CASTING
Looking for smart, outgoing, and industrious men and women who are ready to argue real cases on this exciting new primetime show. You must be a member of the Bar Association in good standing and trial experience is a must. Contestants will compete for large cash prize.

Check out the application (pdf). As Smythesworld says, the qualifications are more rigorous than those for getting a job as a federal judge in the Bush Administration.

The Supreme Court refused to retroactively apply its Ring vs. Arizona decision which held that juries, not judges, must decide facts used to determine the death penalty, to more than 100 similar cases pending around the country:

The 5-4 decision spares at least four states from having to decide whether to spend millions of dollars for new sentencing hearings or consent to prison sentences for the convicted killers. It was issued on the two-year anniversary of the Supreme Court's ruling that the constitutional right to a trial by jury means that jurors should weigh factors that determine whether a particular killing merits death or life in prison. Justices said in the follow-up decision that the 2002 ruling does not apply retroactively.

....The ultimate question for the Supreme Court, which does not automatically make its rulings retroactive, was whether this one involved "watershed" rules. It did not, said Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the court. "The right to jury trial is fundamental to our system of criminal procedure, and states are bound to enforce the Sixth Amendment's guarantees as we interpret them," Scalia wrote.

It does not follow, however, that when a defendant has had a full trial and has lost the appeal of his conviction "he may nonetheless continue to litigate his claims indefinitely on hopes that we will one day have a change of heart," Scalia wrote.

The dissenters: John Paul Stevens, David H. Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer. Ginsburg authored the 2002 Ring decision. The opinion (html) is here. (Schriro v. Summerlin).

Update: The decision could spell trouble for Mumia. We received this by email from Karl at Capital Defense Weekly:

We have railed several times against the "anti-gang bill", S. 1735, co-sponsored by Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-CA) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT). (Here too.) So has the ACLU. Congressional Quarterly (subscription only) reports today it has passed the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Sen. Durbin's and Kennedy's proposed Amendments, that would have ameliorated some of the worst aspects, have been rejected:

The Senate Judiciary Committee approved legislation Thursday that would increase federal law enforcement’s role in cracking down on gang violence. The Committee voted 13-6 in favor of the bill (S 1735) that would make it a federal crime to participate in a “criminal street gang,” defined as three or more people who cooperate to commit two or more “gang crimes.” The bill would also authorize $650 million for gang prevention and suppression programs.

...The committee rejected 12-7 a substitute offered by Richard J. Durbin, D-Ill., that would provide more money for witness protection programs, allow rural communities and smaller jurisdictions to apply for grants to combat gangs and not expand prosecution of juveniles as adults. “It’s a mistaken impression if we leave this room and say United States attorneys do not have existing laws to deal with gang crimes,” Durbin said. “What they need is our help with preventive funds.”

The Guardian has a lengthy interview with Bill Clinton, in which he discusses a variety of topics, including whether Hillary will run for President.

She considered running this year, he admits, but instead "wanted to honour her commitment to the people of New York" to serve a full term in the senate. Political convention demands that he say Kerry will triumph this year? "He has a slightly better than 50-50 chance to win," says Clinton - and that therefore there will be no Democratic vacancy for eight years. So maybe that could be Hillary's moment?

"We have no idea what the future holds. If, you know, eight years from now or sometime in the future she got a chance to serve, I have no doubt about her skills. She is the ablest person I've ever known in public life. And she does some things better than I do, better than I ever do. She is very well organised, she is very strong ... I have no doubt she could do it ... Who knows what will happen in the future?"

[link via Political Wire.]

Federal prosecutors interviewed George Bush today at the Oval office concerning the leak of CIA Agent Valerie Plame's identity, which is the subject of a grand jury investigation. The questioning lasted 70 minutes and was done by chief prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald. Bush's personal lawyer, Jim Sharp, whom he retained for the occasion, was present.

Just when you think you've heard it all....A petition has been filed by the Oklahoma Attorney General to remove an Oklahoma judge for "pleasuring himself" on the bench, through the use of a "male enhancement pump." ....Smoking Gun has the petition here.The petition alleges he even used the pump while presiding over a murder trial. [link via Drudge.]

The Judge acknowledges the pump sat under the bench but denies using it and says it was a gag gift. Here's the details:

Update: Law Prof Jeff Cooper of Cooped Up has resumed blogging. This is great news, as he was one of our daily reads.

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Yale Law Professor Jack Balkin, who writes the excellent Balkanization, has just added two esteemed professors to the blog: Sanford Levinson and Cass Sunstein. Go take a look, and don't miss this post of Jack's on elections and the Constitution. Here's a piece, but go read the whole thing:

New York's highest appeals court has declared the state's death penalty unconsitutional. The decision affects all four of the state's death row prisoners:

In a 4-3 ruling, the court said New York's sentencing rules might unconstitutionally coerce jurors into voting for a death sentence rather than risk a deadlock by holding out for life without parole. If a jury deadlocks, the judge imposes a sentence of 20-25 years to life, giving the possibility of parole.

The prospect of that lesser sentence may coerce the jury to choose the death penalty when they do not want to, the court said.

Legal experts don't often agree on complicated issues with political overtones. But they do when it comes to the White House memo suggesting that the President can unilaterally decide to forego the Geneva convention and allow torture in some cases. Both sides slam the policy.

The White House took an unusual step by releasing a thick stack of documents to defend itself against charges it had authorized the abuse of war prisoners, but a number of experts said the most significant decision may have been the administration's disavowal of the memo contending the president can claim he is above the law on torture if he says he is defending the country.

The 2-year-old legal analysis said only the most egregious physical abuse constituted torture under the law and concluded that the president and the soldiers he commands were effectively exempt from any anti-torture treaties or criminal statutes. The memo's fundamental position has turned into the one issue that experts from both sides of the political spectrum have condemned. (our emphasis)

A few weeks ago we wrote about Gunner Palace: Baghdad Musical , a documentary film of American soldiers in Iraq. Today's Guardian has an interesting interview with its creator, Mike Tucker.

For eight weeks, the documentary-maker Mike Tucker lived in Uday Hussein's "obscenely ornate" Baghdad palace with 400 soldiers, filming as they took mobile phone calls from wives and girlfriends in the middle of firefights, searched family homes for weapons caches and rapped out their fears and frustrations to the camera. Tucker shadowed the soldiers of 2/3 Field Artillery, also known as the Gunner Battalion, in September 2003 and February 2004. The documentary he came away with, Gunner Palace, follows soldiers as they go on patrol, come under fire from insurgents and try to relax in the grounds of the sumptuous palace.

Tucker describes the now-overcrowded home of Saddam's older son as "Gone With the Wind meets Dubai". Uday left a pool, a putting green and stocked fishing pond, and the US military added Playstations, a gym and an internet centre. But the filmmaker found that, far from softening the reality of war, the modern communications seemed to make the situation more difficult.

Blogger Matt Yglesias (who also writes for Tapped) has lost him mom. The funeral is today. You can leave your condolences on his site here.

Defendants got one win today from the Supreme Court, and it's a pretty big one. Many states around the country have sentencing schemes which call for a certain sentence or range of sentence for an offense unless the judge determines that there are aggravating factors--in which case a greater sentence can be imposed. The Supreme Court today ruled that for the Judge to decide on the aggravating factor, rather than a jury, violates a defendant's Sixth Amendment rights under its Apprendi decision (the same Apprendi it decided today did not apply retroactively in death cases.)

Here's the syllabus of Blakely v. Washington (html). The text of the opinion (html) is here. It was written by Justice Scalia. The basic facts at issue: