It was a short week, but not a slow week. Here in North Carolina, the News and Observer has this story describing the increase in post-release supervision resulting from the Justice Reinvestment Act, and noting the lack of any additional supervising officers to handle the influx. Officers’ caseloads are way up, and the Division of Community Corrections plans to ask the General Assembly for money to hire new personnel. Of course, at least in theory, the JRA is supposed to pay for itself and then some by reducing prison expenditures. In other news: Reviled former Illinois police officer Drew Peterson has been convicted of killing the third of his four wives. (The fourth has “disappeared.”) According to news reports, “prosecutors [built] their case largely on hearsay thanks to a new law, dubbed ‘Drew’s Law,’ tailored to Peterson’s case. That hearsay, prosecutors had said, would let his third and fourth wives ‘speak from their graves’ through family and friends to convict Peterson.” As far as I can tell, the Illinois legislature literally changed the state’s evidence rules in anticipation of this particular prosecution, loosening the hearsay rules to allow the wives’ statements to be admitted. The New York Times ran this interesting piece about how the United States Supreme Court prepares for last-minute litigation in capital cases. The work is coordinated by the Court’s “death clerk,” who does not wait passively for motions to be filed, but rather, actively tracks every late-stage capital case in the country and actively reaches out to [...]
Faculty Coordinators
