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Short article about me

rpackrat Apr 28 2006 02:15 PM

in today's Wall Street Journal Online Law Blog: [url]http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2006/04/28/from-big-firm-to-death-penalty-work/[/url]

ScarletKnight41 Apr 28 2006 02:19 PM

]Today, rpackrat plays a quasi-judicial role for the court, reviewing federal habeas petitions for the 20 district court judges. He reviews the state-court record, drafts an opinion for the judge, and then tracks the case through the appeals process. Though a permanent position, it’s something akin to a federal clerk with a specialty in the arcane area of death-penalty law. Wow - you have a major hand in deciding who shall live and who shall die! Very interesting stuff packrat.

rpackrat Apr 28 2006 02:32 PM

Thanks. I'm lucky to have a really interesting job.

cooby Apr 28 2006 04:42 PM

Nice article packrat...any news on that bill you told us about last year?

rpackrat Apr 28 2006 08:59 PM

It's been complicated. After some hearings by the Senate Judiciary Committee, Specter proposed some amendments that watered down the most egregious aspects of the bill. It appears that the SPA is now dormant (no action in either house since last November), but most of Specter's amended version made its way into the new version of the Patriot Act that became law last month. This version doesn't effectively suspend habeas corpus as the original version of the SPA would have, but it's still pretty bad. It vests authority in the Attorney General to determine whether a state has adequate procedures for securing postconviction counsel for death row inmates. If the A.G. (essentially, the chief prosecutor of the U.S.) determines that a state provides adequate counsel, then the state can qualify for a fast track schedule that cuts the federal statute of limitations in half (from 1 year to 6 months), and imposes certain time limits on the federal courts' disposition. I find this problematic for a few reasons: First, the old law also had a fats track provision, but the determination of whether a state met the requirements was with the courts. It seems to me that neutral courts, not a prosecutor, should be making this determination. Second, the 6 month statute of limitations is draconian. These cases are often complicated, it can take time to find competent counsel to represent these guys, and developing the claims often takes investigation. The shortened limitations period will make it far more difficult to conduct adequate investigation. The most mind-boggling thing is that it addresses a largely non-existent problem. Capital habeas cases make their way through the federal courts pretty quickly -- I know this from personal experience and from statistics compiled by the Federal Judicial Center. The backlogs and delays occur, for the most part, in state court. So, while proponents of this law complained that a decade or more often passed between sentence and execution, this law will probably not shorten that wait by more than a few months. These cases will still take years to wend their way through the state courts. The difference is that petitioners will ave less of an opportunity to develop their claims for federal review.

TheOldMole May 08 2006 09:43 AM

Good article. Way to go.

metirish May 11 2006 01:02 PM

Very cool stuff.