Still more death penalty SCOTUS litigation

As effectively documented in this AP article, the Supreme Court yesterday granted cert. on two more death penalty cases.  Interestingly, both cases involve state appeals of lower court victories by death row inmates. 

Also quite interesting is that both cases come from the 6th Circuit, which is not thought to be an especially liberal court (although, as these cases show, the 6th Circuit has often been more searching in their review of capital cases).  I am inclined to joke that perhaps the cert. petitions in these cases were handed to the Justices upside-down so they thought they were granting cert. on two 9th Circuit death penalty reversals.