No new grants today

This morning the Supreme Courtissued orders from last weeks private conference. The justices granted four cases from that conference on Friday afternoon, so they did not add new cases to their docket today.

The justices denied review in the case ofVictor Saldano, an Argentinian citizen who has been on death row in Texas for over 30 years. Saldano was convicted of the kidnapping and murder of Paul King, who was on his way to buy food for a Thanksgiving lunch for his fellow employees at a Best Buy store. Saldanos case had drawn intense interest from Argentina, which (along with other Central and South American countries) had fileda friend of the court briefarguing that Saldanos treatment violated international law and urging the justices to take up his case.

The justices also turned down apetition from Martin Shkreli, who was sentenced to seven years in prison and ordered to pay fines, forfeiture and restitution totaling nearly eight million dollars after he was convicted of securities fraud.

Two years ago, inHoneycutt v. United States, the Supreme Court unanimously agreed that, under a criminal-forfeiture statute for drug offenses, a defendant can only be required to forfeit property that he actually acquired as a result of the crime. Today the justices denied a petition from a mother-son pair who were convicted of violating drug and financial conspiracy laws, and who were challenging an order that would require them to collectively forfeit over a million dollars. Sharon Elder and Allen Peithman told the justices that the courts of appeals are divided on whether the Supreme Courts ruling inHoneycuttapplies to forfeitures under a more general criminal forfeiture statute. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit ruled that it does not, reasoning that the language of the more general statute at issue in Elder and Peithmans case is broader than the statute at issue inHoneycuttand less focused on whether the defendant owned the property to be forfeited.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented from the courts decision not to hear Elder and Peithmans case. She pointed out that the government now concedes that the Supreme Courts reasoning inHoneycuttalso applies to the statute at issue in this case, even if there is another reason to uphold the lower courts ruling. She would have sent the case back to allow the Eighth Circuit to reconsider its decision in light of the Governments concession.

The Supreme Court did not act onthe case of Texas death-row inmate Rodney Reed, who was convicted of the 1996 murder of Stacey Stites but has consistently maintained that he is innocent. Reeds execution was scheduled for later this week, but on Friday a state appeals court blocked his execution and sent the case back to the trial court for it to consider new evidence.

The justices next conference is scheduled for Friday, November 22.

This post was originally published at Howe on the Court.