Holiday Rush
Well, I should have seen that coming.
The Supreme Court has two new justices joining the bench in January, replacing Lanzinger and Pfeifer, who were aged out. That means all the cases that the court had yet to rule upon had to be decided by the end of this year, or oral argument would have to be re-held.
That wasn't going to happen, so last week the court handed down a half-dozen decisions in criminal cases, all wins for the defendants. Lest you think that this heralds the transformation of the Ohio Supreme Court into the second coming of the Warren Court, put away the party hats: four of them were four to three decisions, with Lanzinger and Pfeifer in the majority.
And, of course, the 8th District, my home base, has gone into warp mode, issuing almost three dozen decisions, just in criminal cases, in the past two weeks.
On the plus side, my work load has receded to non-Herculean proportions (cleaning out the Aegean stables would have been an apt metaphor), so I'll have time to get back to the four-day-a-week posting schedule, which has been honored mainly in the breach these past few months.
In fact, despite the holiday, next week we'll do five posts. (I can only imagine your boundless excitement at the prospect of nursing your New Year's Eve hangover as you revel in my keen wit and incisive prose.) On Monday, we'll do a Case Update, dealing with three of the less consequential Supreme Court decisions, while also checking out if anything's happened down in DC (a good bet) and in the courts of appeals (ditto). On Tuesday, we'll catch up with the 8th.
Wednesday we'll discuss State v. Walker, the court's decision on what the State needs to prove to establish prior calculation and design in an aggravated murder case. We'll take a look at the two decisions on juveniles, State v. Aalim and State v. Moore, and discuss whether they, and State v. Thomas, a decision this past summer, can be applied retroactively. Friday we'll do a roundup of events from the World of Law.
The following week, I'll key you in on a sure-fire method of winning drug cases, and announce a cure for psoriasis.
Party on.
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