In praise of Slate's recent sentencing coverage

The great work of regular columnists like Emily Bazelon (lastest here) and Dahlia Lithwick (latest here) makes me a regular reader of Slate's jurisprudence columns.  But I have to give the Slate team an extra shout out of its many great recent columns on sentencing-related issues.

Earlier this week, as noted here, Slate published Alexandra Natapoff's strong piece about snitching.  And then yesterday, Slate published this great piece by Noah Leavitt, which discusses a range of important international sentencing issues in explaining why "Mexico and the United States ... are miles apart in terms of how they think about the rights of criminals — both foreign and domestic."

Completing a potent troika today is this terrific piece by Judge Coleman, which effectively and insightfully deconstructs California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's "Statement of Decision" denying clemency to Stanley 'Tookie' Williams.  Here's a taste: "Arnold Schwarzenegger's five-page statement denying clemency to Stanley 'Tookie' Williams earlier this week could well be included in future criminal-law casebooks.... Chances are even the most java-jolted law student wouldn't notice it didn't come from a court."