More on Roberts and capital punishment

Over at FindLaw, Elaine Cassel has this commentary exploring the impact that a Justice Roberts could have on the Supreme Court's death penalty jurisprudence.  I find the tone of the piece quite disconcerting: the chief goal seems to be to bash Roberts even though his record on the death penalty is virtually non-existent.  (This Washington Post article by Charles Lane from earlier this month provided a much more balanced review of these issues). Nevertheless, the FindLaw piece does spotlight a range of capital issues that could garner the Supreme Court's time and attention in coming terms.

I have discussed Roberts and the Supreme Court's capital punishment work in a number of prior posts, some of which are linked below:

• Stevens, Roberts, Gonzales and the death penalty
• Roberts, the cert pool, and sentencing jurisprudence
• Is Judge Roberts personally against capital punishment?
• Will O'Connor's replacement shift capital jurisprudence?
• Considering O'Connor's capital sentencing legacy
• The impact of SCOTUS's heightened scrutiny in capital cases