A Criminal Enterprise


"We started this blog to think about criminal law issues beyond the scope of our respective caseloads. We hope that by taking the pulse of criminal law news and scholarship (including relevant developments in other fields), we can create a bridge between people in scholarship, policy, and law practice. The posts inevitably reflect our own views, which are largely informed by our experiences representing indigent capital defendants in the South."

Author: Rob Smith serves as counsel for the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice. He is also a (remote) staff attorney at the Capital Appeals Project in New Orleans. Bidish Sarma is a staff attorney at the The Justice Center’s Capital Appeals Project in New Orleans.

Blawg Related Categories: Criminal Justice • Death Penalty

Recent Posts from A Criminal Enterprise


  • What Does the Constitution’s Text Say About Juvenile Life Without Parole Sentences?

    Yesterday, the much-awaited and highly-anticipated oral arguments in Sullivan and Graham took place at the Supreme Court.  The transcripts of those arguments are available here and here. Though the Justices focused much of their attention…

  • Juvenile Life Without Parole Cases Argued Today

    This morning, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Graham v. Florida and Sullivan v. Florida.  These cases have received lots of attention in the media.  Several articles, op-eds, and editorials are linked to on…

  • More Scrutiny Needed in Texas, Where Death Penalty Continues to Run Rampant

    Sorry for the radio silence the past few weeks.  Things have ramped up at work for all of the bloggers here, but we hope to reconnect with the blog more fully very soon. In the…

  • Criminalizing the Vulnerable: Asylum seekers an easy target

    Since 2001, ‘asylum seeker’ has become a dirty word in Australia. ‘Boat people’, ‘illegal immigrants’ and (used far less frequently) ‘refugees’ are terms used interchangeably to refer to people arriving on Australian shores by boat…

  • Court-Watching: Smith v. Spisak

    On October 13, I sat in on the two oral arguments scheduled for the morning: Padilla v. Kentucky and Smith v. Spisak.  For this post on the Spisak case, I’ve relied on my own notes…

  • Court-Watching: Padilla v. Kentucky

    On October 13, I sat in on the two oral arguments scheduled for the morning: Padilla v. Kentucky and Smith v. Spisak.  For this post on the Padilla case, I’ve relied on my own notes…

  • Is There A Free-Standing Actual Innocence Claim?

    See Previous Post: The Next Round for Troy Davis (discussing background of SCOTUS action on Troy Davis’ Original Writ Application) On August 29, Judge William Moore of the United District Court for the Southern District of…

  • Abolitionist Australia proves indecisive on capital punishment

    When people down here in the South ask me why I have come all the way from Australia to work in an anti-death penalty law office, I reply that I’m really interested in the work…

  • This Week at the Supreme Court

    This Tuesday and Wednesday, I’ll be watching four oral arguments at the Supreme Court (assuming I can get in line earlier enough both mornings). Professor Berman the Sentencing Law and Policy blog notes in this…

  • Court-Watching: Johnson v. United States

    I had the opportunity to sit in on the second oral argument that the Supreme Court heard this Tuesday: Johnson v. United States.  For this post, I’ve relied on my own notes from the argument…