Today's Supreme Court Actions
Scotus Blog has this early post up:
The Supreme Court, on a day on which it issued six decisions, released none of the major controversies still to be decided -- the Ten Commandments displays cases, music and movie downloading and copyright, government seizures of private property for private re-development, and access to cable companies' broadband lines for high-speed Internet connections. Eleven cases overall remain to be decided....
The Court did issue a decision in a habeas case involving the one year filing deadline under AEDPA, and I'll update when it's available.
Also, the court reversed a death penalty sentence for ineffective assistance of counsel in Rompilla v. Beard, No. 04-5462:
The Supreme Court on Monday ordered a new trial for a Pennsylvania death row inmate in a 17-year-old murder case, ruling that his attorney was sloppy in failing to investigate possible evidence of mental retardation.
In his appeal, Rompilla argued that public defenders were wrong when they failed to review records showing mitigating evidence of mental retardation and a traumatic upbringing, even after prosecutors gave warning they planned to use the documents against him.
Writing for the majority, Justice David H. Souter agreed.
"We hold that even when a capital defendant's family members and the defendant himself have suggested that no mitigating evidence is available, his lawyer is bound to make reasonable efforts to obtain and review material that counsel knows the prosecution will probably rely on," Souter wrote.
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