More on Blakely in Indiana

I previously noted here that oral arguments on a set of Blakely cases are already scheduled in the Washington Supreme Court for November 9th and 10th. I have now learned from a great friend of the blog that the Indiana Supreme Court is also scheduled on the morning of November 10th to have combined oral argument in two Blakely cases, Heath v. State and Smylie v. State. Helpfully, interested persons can listen to these arguments live via webcast or through the Indiana Supreme Court's online archive here. (I find it fascinating (and sad) that a state supreme court webcasts its arguments live, while a week later we still await just a written transcript from the Booker and Fanfan arguments to appear here.)

For background on the Smylie case, I would highly recommend the exegesis provided here by attorney Michael Ausbrook. More generally, Michael's relatively new blog INCOURTS is providing a lot of effective Indiana-specific Blakely coverage. And for some general background on Indiana's "presumptive" sentencing scheme, Michael Ausbrook recommends this article by Mike Limrick in a periodical put out by the Indiana State Bar Association (which comes courtesy of Marcia Oddi's great Indiana Law Blog).