As I have mentioned to some of you, for the week of April 27, I will be available for conferences only on Monday and Wednesday afternoons.  The following weeks, I am available most afternoons, though a scheduled appointment (ideally via comments to this post) is the best way to ensure I am in my office…

The moot argument in in the Bobby v. Bies case (briefing here) will take place in the faculty lounge starting at 3pm, and I hope everyone eager to take advantage of this opportunity will come by at whatever time possible. I also hope that anyone who attends any part of the moot will consider discussing the…

Because we got distracted by the (important) story of mandatory minimum sentencing statutes (both in policy and in practice), next Wednesady's class will focused primarily on wrapping up the guidelines debate concerning Judge Kent and working in the story of Blakely and Booker.  Though I suspect and fear that the Blakely/Booker story in turn will carry…

I mentioned in class a few famous/notable cases involving interesting guideline calculation issues, and here now are some links to facilitate further reading for those who might be interested.  Let's start with Michael Vick, whose case is in the news again these days.  As you may recall, Vick pleaded guilty (like our friend Kent) and…

We will return to our discussion of the sentencing of former federal district judge Samuel Kent in class this week, and everyone should be sure to review again all the key case documents (here and here) and your own proposed pre-guideline and guideline sentence for defendant Kent.  You should recall that, in our discussion just before break, students proposed…

As we ended class, it was obvious to me that many were troubled by my use of the "term" rapist to describe former Judge Kent.  Though I would be happy to have folks comment/debate on that label, a more contemporary and valuable label to consider is "sex offender."  Specifically, I am eager for everyone to consider (both…

I heartily encourage students using a variety of different means to try to figure out what kind of (now advisory) guideline sentence former Judge Kent is to be facing.  But I also wanted to help folks get a running start with these links to materials provides on the official website of the US Sentencing Commission:…

As mentioned in prior posts and in class, our in-class examination of non-capital sentencing and of modern sentencing reforms will focus — at times a lot and at times a little — on the real case of former federal district judge Samuel Kent.  There is lots and lots of background information about this case available on…

We have two weeks together before Spring Break, and I wanted to make sure everyone knew my plans for these weeks: 1.  The first week's classes will have us wrap up our discussion of the death penalty, with Wednesday's class focused on the Ted Kaczynski hypo (details here) and Friday's class dedicated to an "open…

In order to effectively draw lessons about the modern realities of modern death penalty law, I encourage everyone to try to seriously imagine how one might seek as a defense attorney to avoid a death sentence for Theodore Kaczynski under the capital punishment statutes of Florida, Ohio and Texas.  To aid in this endeavor, it will be…

Because I found today's guest lecturer so interesting, I am sorry we did not have hours and hours to continue discussing what our guest said and how everyone reacted to what she said (and how I (over?)reacted to how others reacted).  Fortunately, we can and should continue these dialogues via this blog (and here people can (and…

in the form of being among the first to know that we do NOT have class on Friday, January 30.  (I am in Califorina for this Stanford Law Review symposium, so I have to cancel.)  I planned to annouce this at our class on Wednesday, but the snow got in our way. Sorry for the slow…

I hope everyone is as excited as I am for the week of capital review we will be having to kick of April: On Tuesday, the Reynolds habeas case will be heard by the Sixth Circuit at Moritz. On Wednesday, we will discuss habeas procedures in general (readings here). On Thursday, we will discuss how…

As mentioned before Spring Break, we will have a set of very special guest speakers in our Thursday class next week: two Ohio death row exonerees and the public defender primarily responsible for Ohio’s lethal injection litigation.  More details about the speakers scheduled to appear can be found in the flier available for downloading here:…

A student made the very sensible suggestion that I post our schedule of class blogging/coverage.  I have updated the schedule and it can be downloaded here: Download 2007_blog_schedulesyllabus.rtf

I am about to leave to teach the first class that this blog is about.  At some point during my first class, I am planning on showing the entire uncut video of Saddam Hussein’s hanging (which can be found here as one of many links).  Among other benefits, this class activity will give my students…