Entries tagged with “discovery” from Harmfulerror

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.

Apparently there's a lot of consensus at the United States Supreme Court lately, as today's five opinions are all unanimous as to the judgment and there's only one concurring opinion in the group.

Van de Camp v. Goldstein - Prosecutors are absolutely immune from liability in section 1983 civil rights suits brought against prosecutorial actions that are "intimately associated with the judicial phase of the criminal process," and this includes a District Attorney's supervision, training and information-system management claims associated with providing discovery and impeachment information to a defendant in a criminal case.   Absolute immunicty may not apply when a prosecutor is not acting as "an officer of the court," but is instead engaging in investigative or administrative tasks, but discovery issues are directly connected with a trial's conduct and therefore absolute immunity applies.  Justice Breyer authored the opinion.

 Arizona v. Johnson - Terry v. Ohio -- which authorizes "stop and frisk" searches if the temporary detention is lawful (the officer reasonably suspects that the person apprehended is committing or has committed a crime) and the officer reasonably suspects that the person is armed and dangerous -- applies to passengers during a traffic stop.  Based on the "same weighty interest in officer safety," a passenger may be frisked for weapons if an officer reasonably concludes that the passenger might be armed and dangerous.  Justice Ginsburg authored the opinion.

Crawford v. Metropolitan Government of Nashville - The antiretaliation provisions of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act extend to an employee who speaks out about discrimination in response to answering questions during an employer's internal investgation, not just claims made on her own initiative.  Justice Souter authored the majority opinion.  Justice Alito authored a concurring opinion that was joined by Justice Thomas.

Kennedy v. Plan Administrators for Dupont Savings - ERISA, divorce, assignment and alienation.

US v. Eurodif - uranium and anti-dumping 

The Nevada Supreme Court has issued a stay of discovery ordered by Judge Mosley in the capital case of State v. Curtis Bonilla.  I don't remember how to download a pdf and the order is not published on the Court's website, so here's the text:

"This is an original petition for a writ of mandamus or prohibition challenging a district court order granting the State's motion for production of discovery pursuant to NRS 174.245, including materials to be presented during the penalty phase in a death penalty case.  Petitioner requests a stay of the proceedings and requests this court to prohibit the district court from ordering pretrial discovery of petitioner's penalty phase evidence before a finding of guilt is returned.  Cause appearing, we grant a stay of the district court's order to the extent that it compels discovery of petitioner's penalty phase evidence before the jury returns a verdict on the guilt phase of the trial.

Further, we have reviewed the petition, and it appears that petitioner has set forth issues of arguable merit and may have no plain, speedy and adequate remedy in the ordinary course of the law.  Accordingly, the State, on behalf of respondents, shall have 10 days from the date of this order within which to file an answer, including authorities, against issuance of the requested writ."