Reading list, legal edition

Chicago law professor Geoffrey Stone notes that the Bush administration is undermining a legal right that, according to Justice Scalia, "dates back to Roman times."

Speaking of, Jacob T. Levy has posted a roundup of Balkinization entries on "executive power, torture, and the Bush administration's extravagant constitutional claims."

Radley Balko has a good article at Reason on the case of Cory Maye. He is still on was sent to death row for self-defense, in what appears to qualify as a judicial lynching.

In December 2005, as Evans was preparing Maye's appeal, he received a phone call from Prentiss Mayor Charlie Dumas, who is close to Officer Ron Jones' family. Dumas told Evans that several of the town's aldermen had expressed concern about his decision to handle Maye's appeal. Although representing an indigent defendant on appeal was Evans' job as the town's public defender, Dumas told Evans he could lose that job if he continued to act as Maye's attorney. Evans ignored the threat.

Six weeks later, in January 2006, Dumas called Evans with the news that Prentiss had fired him as its public defender. Evans says Dumas explicitly cited his representation of Maye as the reason for his termination.

Update: An appeals judge has ruled that Maye will receive at least a new sentencing trial, so for the moment Maye is no longer sentenced to death. Also, we now know who the confidential informant responsible for all of this is -- and it would be hard to imagine more racism oozing from one person.

| Posted by Wilson at 16:41 Central | TrackBack
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