Shirley Smith was found guilty of shaking her infant grandson to death. In its only opinion released yesterday, the Surpeme Court reversed the Ninth Circuit, which had previously found that no rational trier of fact could have found Smith guilty.
The majority's unsigned opinion in Cavazos v. Smith stated that "it is the responsibility of the jury—not the court—to decide what conclusions should be drawn from evidence admitted at trial" and that "[b]ecause rational people can sometimes disagree, the inevitable consequence of this settled law is that judges will sometimes encounter convictions that they believe to be mistaken, but that they must nonetheless uphold."
Justice Ginsburg authored the dissent, with which Justices Breyer and Sotomayor joined, stating, "By taking up the case, one may ask, what does the Court achieve other than to prolong Smith’s suffering and her separation from her family. Is this Court’s intervention really necessary? Our routine practice counsels no."
Ninth Circuit's opinion here.
News and commentary:
SCOTUSblog
NPR
ABA Journal
Sentencing Law and Policy Blog
Los Angeles Times Blog
Christian Science Monitor
CNN
The majority's unsigned opinion in Cavazos v. Smith stated that "it is the responsibility of the jury—not the court—to decide what conclusions should be drawn from evidence admitted at trial" and that "[b]ecause rational people can sometimes disagree, the inevitable consequence of this settled law is that judges will sometimes encounter convictions that they believe to be mistaken, but that they must nonetheless uphold."
Justice Ginsburg authored the dissent, with which Justices Breyer and Sotomayor joined, stating, "By taking up the case, one may ask, what does the Court achieve other than to prolong Smith’s suffering and her separation from her family. Is this Court’s intervention really necessary? Our routine practice counsels no."
Ninth Circuit's opinion here.
News and commentary:
SCOTUSblog
NPR
ABA Journal
Sentencing Law and Policy Blog
Los Angeles Times Blog
Christian Science Monitor
CNN