Monday, May 17, 2010

Hank Skinner Update: No Decision Today

The Supreme Court has handed down its rulings for today, 17 May 2010. There is no mention of Hank's petition for a writ of certiorari.  The next time the court will announce its rulings is next Monday, 24 May.

So that you understand how difficult it is to get the Supremes to grant the sort of relief requested by Hank Skinner, I counted the number of petitions for writ granted (2) and the number denied (228). That's less than one chance in 100.  (I have a math background. Don't try this at home.)

I've been anxiously awaiting word on Hank's petition. I guess I can take the tension I feel, multiply by infinity, then maybe have some sense of what Hank and Sandrine and Rob Owens and the others might feel. (Once again, do not try such emotional math at home.)

Those of you who wish to read of Supreme Court decisions as they are being announced, I recommend SCOTUSblog.  SCOTUS is the acronym for Supreme Court of The United States. Hopefully, that will make the name of the blog self-explanatory.

When the court hands down its decisions, usually Mondays beginning at 10 AM eastern time, SCOTUSblog has a reporter in the courtroom sending back information on the decisions as they are announced in open court. You can follow the live-blog of the court session from the SCOTUSblog home page. It's pretty cool, actually.

During that live-blog session today, the reporter provided the link to the written summary of decisions. There are far too many decisions to speak to each individually in court, so the court speaks briefly to just a few. I followed the link provided by the in-court reporter, searched that document for Skinner, and came up with zero hits. I then went line-by-line searching and counting, so you don't have to. Unless I'm missing something, no decision today. Maybe next Monday.

And by the way, I guess I was wrong yesterday when I predicted the court would have a decision today.