Texas v. The Hague, in the U.S. Supreme Court

On April 30, the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari to hear the case of Jose Ernesto Medellin, a Mexican national sentenced to death in a Texas state court for rape and murder. But this is no ordinary death penalty case. The International Court of Justice has ruled that this case as well as fifty others were illegal under the 1963 Vienna Convention because the defendants were not provided legal help available to them under the convention. The Bush administration, which agreed to uphold the decision of the ICJ, directed the Texas courts to conduct a new trial. The Texas courts, however, declined to do so, and the Bush administration has filed an amicus brief siding with Medellin and the ICJ in requesting a new trial. You can read more about the case in this article from the Associated Press, or in Akin Gump's Supreme Court Blog, which contains links to the merits briefs.

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Study Details Wide Divergences in Jury Practices

In a first-ever comprehensive study on state court jury practices, the National Center for State Courts has identified both best practices as well as stark contrasts in methods of selecting juries and even in juror compensation. For instance, much more time is spent on voir dire in Connecticut, where 63% of all prospective jurors are questioned individually, than in North Carolina where only 3% of jurors are questioned individually. Jurors are compensated $41.20 a day in New Mexico but in California a juror would only receive $15 a day, starting on the second day of service. The study is summarized in an article in The National Law Journal, and the complete study is available for download from the NCSC by clicking this link.

NBC and Viacom File Amicus Briefs in YouTube Case

Two more media companies have joined the fray against Google's YouTube service. NBC Universal and Viacom have filed an amicus brief in a case in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, to protest what they contend is piracy of their content on YouTube. The underlying suit, in which Los Angeles News Service employee Robert Tur has sued Google for hosting his footage of trucker Reginald Denny being beaten during the 1992 Los Angeles riots. Google contends in the suit that YouTube and Google are protected under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, because they remove infringing content when rights-holders identify it.