Gearing up for Alito hearings

As I predicted back in October (here and here and here), Judge Sam Alito's background as a prosecutor (as well as his long record as a circuit judge) has led to plenty of criminal law discussion leading up to his confirmation hearings.  Indeed, the Washington Post's recent long article, "Alito, In and Out of the Mainstream," included a section headed, "A Prosecutor's View."  Based on an analysis of 33 criminal cases (listed here), that section had these insights:

[H]e sided with criminal defendants only three times, aligning with prosecutors more often than the average GOP-appointed judge in divided cases....  Alito voted in two-thirds of the criminal cases to uphold the rulings of a lower-court judge.  His votes in one small group of those criminal cases — four appeals from inmates facing death sentences — were even more consistent. Every time, he voted against sparing the prisoner from execution.  Nationally, federal appeals judges in disputed cases vote to give relief to prisoners sentenced to death about a third of the time.

Gearing up for the hearings next week, I have assembled below some of my coverage of Alito and SCOTUS work in the crime and sentencing arena:

ALITO NON-CAPITAL SENTENCING COVERAGE

• Why some defendants hope Alito is like Scalia
• Will Alito continue with the Constitution Project's Sentencing Initiative?
• New insights on Alito and the post-Booker world
• Full Daily Journal article on Alito and the Constitution Project
• An intriguing view of Judge Alito's view of guideline sentencing
• Hints about how a Justice Alito might view post-Booker players
• More on Alito and the criminal docket
• A terrific examination of Alito and criminal law
• Of sentencing interest in Alito questionnaire

ALITO CAPITAL SENTENCING COVERAGE

• Alito and the death penalty 
• Alito and Feingold discuss the death penalty 
• More on Alito the prosecutor and Alito on the death penalty 
• Still more on Alito and the death penalty 
• Critical commentary on Alito's death penalty work 
• Counterpoint on Alito and the death penalty
• White paper critical of Alito's death penalty work
• Well, now the Alito nomination is in trouble...

GENERAL SCOTUS/SENTENCING COVERAGE

• Will the next SCOTUS nominee have any criminal law background?
• Does SCOTUS need a trial judge?
• Brave New Justice and sentencing issues
• Roberts, the cert pool, and sentencing jurisprudence
• Assailing the lack of criminal justice questions at the Roberts hearing
• Can Roberts bring consensus to SCOTUS sentencing jurisprudence?