This and That

The New York Times notes in an editorial, Prisons and Budgets, that the US has less than 5% of the world's population, but about 25% ot is prisoners.  The costs of such incarcerations are a huge issue for many states.

Adam Liptak reports on the decision by the American Law Institute to abandon efforts at creating a modern framework for the death penalty.  The ALI disavowed the structure it had created "in light of the current intractable institutional and structural obstacles to ensuring a minimally adequate system for administering capital punishment."

A case concerning prosecutorial conduct has been dismissed by the US Supreme Court as moot, after an Iowa county and two men freed after spending 26 years in prison for murder settled the case for $12 million.  Prosecutors had knowingly used false evidence to convict the two men.  The case was argued before the Court in November.   

Via Sentencing Law & Policy, The Department of Justice has established new guidance for federal prosecutors regarding criminal discovery.