News and Developments 2007: U.S. Supreme Court

On Tuesday, Dec. 4, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in Snyder v. Louisiana, a case involving a black defendant sentenced to death by an all-white jury after the prosecution used its peremptory strikes to exclude all of the qualified black jurors.  During Allen Snyder’s 1996 trial for the murder of a man his estranged wife was dating, prosecutor James Williams of Jefferson Parish urged the all-white jury to sentence the defendant to death so that Snyder would not "get away with it" like O.J. Simpson.

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case in which it will decide how appellate courts are to evaluate claims of ineffective assistance of counsel in plea negotiations. The case, Arave v. Hoffman (07-110), is the latest effort by the Justices to decide whether mistakes made by a defense lawyer warrant overturning a criminal's conviction or sentence. The appeal stems from a Idaho 1987 murder committed by Max Hoffman and two other men.

The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) has filed a judicial complaint against the Presiding Judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, Sharon Keller (pictured), the first time the group says it has ever filed a complaint against a judge. NACDL has asked the Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct to review Judge Keller's decision to turn away the last appeal of a death row inmate because the rushed filing was submitted past the court's 5 p.m. closing time. Attorneys for Michael Richard, who was executed on the same day the U.S.

On October 10, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in Medellin v. Texas, a case that will determine whether President Bush overstepped his authority by ordering state courts to comply with a 2004 International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling. The case involves Texas death row inmate Jose Medellin, one of 51 Mexican foreign nationals who were denied their right to contact Mexican consular officials after their arrest. The ICJ's 2004 ruling called on U.S. courts to review the cases in light of this treaty violation, but Texas refused to review Medellin's case and he petitioned the U.S.

In a case with broad national implications, the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to consider the constitutionality of lethal injections as practiced in Kentucky. The Justices will hear a challenge filed by two Kentucky death row inmates, Ralph Baze and Thomas Clyde Bowling, Jr. The two men sued Kentucky in 2004 claiming that the state's lethal injection process amounts to cruel and unusual punishment, noting that the procedure can inflict unnecessary pain and suffering on the inmate. Prior to today's decision, the U.S.