« Great blogosphere coverage of lethal injection mess | Main | Why isn't the severe Georgia sentence constitutionally problematic? »

December 18, 2006

Top-side briefing begins in Claiborne and Rita

I am pleased (and overwhelmed) that the first sets of briefs have now been filed in Claiborne and Rita, the SCOTUS reasonableness cases now set to be argued on February 20.  Specifically, counsel for the defendants and their amici filed briefs today, and my e-mail in-box is overflowing.

In this post when cert was granted, I placed the early over/under for amicus briefs at 10.  Looks like the over might win.  Here's what I know has been filed (in no particular order) in addition to the two petitioner briefs:

  1. A joint brief from the NACDL
  2. Two briefs (one for each case) from the NYCDL (which I help with some)
  3. A joint brief from the FPCD and the NAFD
  4. A joint brief from FAAM
  5. A Claiborne brief from The Sentencing Project and the ACLU
  6. A Rita brief on behalf of two veterans' groups
  7. A joint brief from the WLF

Also, I know there are at least two law professor briefs in the mix.  I was involved in one, which was technically filed on behalf of none of the parties, and I know casebook co-authors Marc Miller and Ron Wright were working up another. 

I hope that someone soon will be creating a special page with all these briefs (and the parties briefs) in one place so I can avoid having to post them all here.  There is lots and lots of important reading in these works, and I will be posting details and copies as soon as a I figure out an orderly way to do so.

UPDATE: The New York Council of Defense Lawyers has created this helpful webpage spotlighting its amicus work and providing links to the other briefs filed today.  And in this post I discuss my chief amicus efforts.

December 18, 2006 at 06:29 PM | Permalink

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
https://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d83451574769e200d835059ce769e2

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Top-side briefing begins in Claiborne and Rita:

Comments

"which was technically filed on behalf of none of the parties"

What does that mean?

Posted by: Bobbie | Dec 18, 2006 8:58:22 PM

Post a comment

In the body of your email, please indicate if you are a professor, student, prosecutor, defense attorney, etc. so I can gain a sense of who is reading my blog. Thank you, DAB