It’s the first Monday in October, which means it’s the first day of the Supreme Court’s 2015 Term. Read on to learn about the criminal law cases that the Court will consider. The list so far. SCOTUSblog’s list of cases that the Court will hear this Term, together with a statement of the issue in each case, is here. The Court is likely to accept more cases for this Term in the coming months, so this will end up being a partial list. However, depending on how one counts habeas cases and prison rights cases, there are already ten or so criminal law cases on the docket. Capital cases up early. Several capital cases will be argued early in the Term. They’re discussed in detail in this SCOTUSblog post, but I’ll call out two specifically. First, in two days, the Court will hear the companion cases of Kansas v. Gleason and Kansas v. Carr. The main issue is whether jurors in a capital case must be instructed explicitly that mitigating circumstances need not be proved beyond a reasonable doubt. It’s an interesting case but perhaps of little direct impact in North Carolina, where N.C.P.I. – Crim. 150.10 already informs jurors that the standard of proof for mitigating circumstances is a preponderance of the evidence. Second, in November, the Court will hear Foster v. Chatman, a Batson case from Georgia involving evidence of possible racial bias by the prosecutor discovered years after trial in response to a public records request. Miller retroactivity [...]
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