Christopher Edley, Stephen Bundy, and Howard Shelanksi Say New Faculty Hire Will Help Boost Bar-Pass Rate

The Recorder, April 24, by Petra Pasternak
http://www.law.com/jsp/ca/PubArticleCA.jsp?id=1208947728506

“Though our first-time pass rates remain markedly higher than the overall pass rate for ABA-accredited law schools, we do not regard the 2007 results as acceptable,” Edley wrote in a memo to third-year students and LL.M.s on April 17. “We do not yet know whether those results reflect statistical variation or real changes in preparedness among our graduates.”

Howard Shelanksi noted that 82 percent is not bad compared with the overall pass rates for the California bar. But that’s little comfort to Boalt students, he added. “We want to push back up to our historic levels of bar-pass.”

“The bar is the mother of all closed-book in-class exams,” Bundy said. “I think the hiring of Kristen [Holmquist] provides a chance for us to look at the way these issues play out through the curriculum.”

Ty Alper Predicts Lethal Injection Ruling Will Result in New Litigation

Associated Press, April 16, by Mark Sherman
http://www.mercurynews.com//ci_8944471?IADID=Search-www.mercurynews.com-www.mercurynews.com

Ty Alper, a death penalty opponent and associate director of the Death Penalty Clinic at the University of California-Berkeley School of Law, said he expects challenges to lethal injections will continue in several states.

Columbus Dispatch, April 17, by Alan Johnson
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2008/04/17/LETHAL.ART_ART_04-17-08_A1_7V9V10B.html?sid=101

“States and the federal government have cloaked their lethal-injection procedures in secrecy,” said Ty Alper…. “But the discovery process has revealed alarming problems with the administration of lethal injection in many states, and nothing in today’s decision prevents the lower courts in those states from addressing those problems under the Eighth Amendment.”

Sacramento Bee, April 17, by Denny Walsh
http://www.sacbee.com/111/v-print/story/868661.html

“What’s now holding up executions in California is that case,” Alper said. “We won’t know what the state’s procedure might be until that case plays out.”

KPFA, April 20, by Mitch Jeserich
http://www.kpfa.org/archives/index.php?arch=25900

“The controlling opinion in the ruling said that where there is a failure of the first drug … there is a constitutionally unacceptable risk that the second two drugs in the procedure will cause excruciating pain and suffering. Now a majority of the court found that the Kentucky plaintiffs … didn’t make their case that that risk was there. But the opinion certainly left the door open for death row inmates in other states to bring forth the kind of evidence that the court suggested would amount to a constitutional violation.”

Washington Post, April 23, Darryl Fears
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/22/AR2008042202728_pf.html

Ty Alper said the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Kentucky case means nothing has changed: State officials will try to carry out executions and opponents will question their procedures. “It’s going to be like it was before,” Alper said. “In some states, prison officials are going to be pushing for round-the-clock injections—there are 40 or 50 in Texas. The open question will be whether those states can reach the standard that the court has set for lethal injection.”

Elisabeth Semel Analyzes Supreme Court Lethal Injection Ruling

Chicago Tribune, April 16, by James Oliphant
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-death-penaltyapr17,0,23259,print.story

“The door is not closed,” said Elisabeth Semel … who helped bring the challenge to Kentucky’s lethal injection procedures. Semel said the court’s opinion made it clear that states can be forced to institute alternative lethal injection procedures if it can be proved they can alleviate a substantial risk of pain.

Chicago Tribune, April 16, by James Oliphant
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-death-penaltyapr17,0,23259,print.story

“The door is not closed,” said Elisabeth Semel … who helped bring the challenge to Kentucky’s lethal injection procedures. Semel said the court’s opinion made it clear that states can be forced to institute alternative lethal injection procedures if it can be proved they can alleviate a substantial risk of pain.

The Press-Enterprise, April 16, by Janet Zimmerman and Richard K. De Atley
http://www.pe.com/rss/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_D_death17.3b4796e.html

“Some proponents of the death penalty would see this as a victory. But in terms of challenges to lethal injection, I think the ball is still very much in play,” said Elisabeth Semel…. The fact that even the justices who voted in the majority had different reasoning for doing so shows that “it’s not black and white,” she said.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer, April 16, by Jennifer A. Dlouhy
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/printer2/index.asp?ploc=t&refer=http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/359334_scotus17.html

Elisabeth Semel … said “The court’s ruling today approves Kentucky’s lethal injection procedures based upon the evidence presented.” Nevertheless, Semel said, the ruling “calls into serious question the procedures in a number of other states.”

KCBS/AP, April 16, by Doug Sovern
http://www.kcbs.com/pages/2016425.php

“I don’t know who is whispering in his (govenor’s) ear, but I think he needs a new lawyer,” said Semel.

NBC11/AP, April 16
http://www.nbc11.com/news/15904785/detail.html

“The court has addressed the constitutional standard and now we move forward from here,” said Elisabeth Semel…. “Where I believe we move is into legal challenges that will persist in California and go on across the country.”

Californian, April 17, Associated Press and Sunita Vijayan
http://www.thecalifornian.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008804170302

Semel said there are “unnecessary risks” to using a three-drug formula when there other, safer alternatives, including barbiturates used by veterinarians in euthanizing animals. “It said that you have to prove there’s substantial risk that a person executed suffers substantial pain,” Semel said. “How do you prove it?”

New York Times, April 17, by Adam Liptak
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/17/washington/17lethal.html?sq=Berkeley&st=nyt&adxnnl=1&scp=2&pagewanted=print&adxnnlx=1208450898-UmmoW1vCXmmGDW7iz7DT5A

Professor Semel said the fractured decision, the relatively sparse information available about practices in Kentucky and the new standard announced by the court would produce fertile ground for additional litigation, particularly in states where flaws in the administration of lethal injections were documented.

“If it looks like California or it looks like Missouri or it looks like Tennessee,” she said, “then it’s not a substantially similar protocol to the one in Kentucky.”

San Francisco Daily Journal, April 17, by Brent Kendall
http://www.dailyjournal.com/law/index.cfm

Semel said the evidentiary record in Kentucky, which has executed just one inmate using lethal injection, was sparse, while cases in California, Missouri and Tennessee were much better developed, with evidence showing botched executions, poorly mixed lethal injection drugs and badly trained execution personnel. “The outcomes in those jurisdictions could be quite different,” Semel said.

San Jose Mercury News, April 17, by Howard Mintz
http://www.mercurynews.com//ci_8955620?IADID=Search-www.mercurynews.com-www.mercurynews.com

“The court’s ruling today approves Kentucky’s lethal injection procedures based upon the evidence presented, but calls into serious question the procedures in a number of other states,” said Elisabeth Semel…. “Things are still very much in flux.”

USA Today, April 17, by Joan Biskupic
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/judicial/2008-04-16-Lethalinside_N.htm

“We cannot hold our breath for this court to stay executions again, certainly not in the wake of this case,” says Elisabeth Semel…. “But if we can gain traction in other states and develop records about how executions are actually carried out, it is likely we could meet the court’s test” for when an execution method is unconstitutional.

Washington Post, April 17, by Robert Barnes
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/16/AR2008041601419_pf.html

Elisabeth Semel … said that in Tennessee, where executions were halted by a federal judge, evidence of alternative methods already exists. The headline on a statement from the clinic showed how death penalty opponents view the decision: “Nationwide Lethal Injection Challenges to Move Forward.”

Elisabeth Semel Supports Victim’s Rights in Sentencing, but Warns of Conflicts

The Daily Record, March 30, by Caryn Tamber
http://www.mddailyrecord.com/article.cfm?id=4872&type=UTTM

“I think the role of the victim in a determination of the sentence is at least more legally, or I would even say constitutionally, justifiable, but I think we have to take very, very great care to distinguish between the victim’s interest, which … may be in conflict with the range of considerations that a just sentencing requires,” Semel said.

Elisabeth Semel Thinks Death Penalty Hiatus May Increase Opposition

ABC Science, March 27, by Agence France-Presse
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/03/27/2200771.htm?site=science&topic=latest

“On the positive side … we haven’t had an execution in six months and the world hasn’t fallen off its axis. Life has not changed…. It’s not so much a dramatic thing in California where we have executions on a very occasional basis, but in states like Texas, where executions are quite frequent, one could look around and say ‘So? We can live without it.'”

Christopher Edley Emphasizes the Role Race Plays in National Issues

NPR, Tell Me More, March 26, by Michel Martin
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89109192

“When [Barack Obama is] governing, race will be important simply because it’s required to address it, I believe, in order to forge the kind of moral and political consensus we need on issues whether it’s immigration or whether it’s when do we use troops abroad…. If you hide from the issue of race than you’re going to fail in your obligations as a leader to build bridges that will connect people across lines of class and color.”