Author Archives: nskam

Donating a Kidney as Condition of Prison Release

Mississippi sisters, Jamie and Gladys Scott, serving double life sentences for their roles in an $11 armed robbery will be released on condition that the younger sibling donate her kidney to her sister whose failing organs are costing the state a lot of money in dialysis treatment. This condition, proposed by the sisters themselves, comes at the end of a grassroots movement to have the sisters released from prison.

There seems to be something problematic with allowing an inmate to trade a vital organ for freedom. A gambler couldn’t tender the pink slip for his kidney to his bookie (assuming the debt were legal) as one would a car. Yet somehow this is washes with the Mississippi Governor.

Under Mississippi Code of 1972 §41-39-131 selling body parts within the Magnolia State:

(a)  Except as otherwise provided in subsection (b), a person that, for valuable consideration, knowingly purchases or sells a part for transplantation or therapy if removal of a part from an individual is intended to occur after the individual’s death commits a felony and upon conviction is subject to a fine not exceeding Fifty Thousand Dollars ($50,000.00) or imprisonment not exceeding five (5) years, or both.

It is interesting to note that the Revised Mississippi Uniform Anatomical Gift Act (UAGA), of which § 41-39-131 is a part, will be repealed on January 1, 2012. Whether the repeal is to make way for a new human organ law or to provide a new revenue stream for po’ folk is unclear. Regardless, the law is in effect at the time of Gov. Haley Barbour’s decision.

Separately, this goes to a question of morality, specifically: why didn’t Gladys fork over her kidney a long time ago? Two kidneys are great and all but most of the time she doesn’t need them both. Perhaps she was just waiting to use her organ as a bargaining chip or maybe she just never wanted to give Jamie that kidney. Either way, from a policy perspective do we really want inmates offering up body parts for shorter prison sentences?

Via the NYTimes.

Wikileaks Book Deal

Everyone knows that legal representation is costly. Julian Assange claims that he’s already spent $300k on attorneys and that’s just to avoid going back to Sweden. Now, book publisher Random House has offered a staggering $1.3 million book deal to Assange, which will keep the legal machine going for long into the future. From the Times:

Mr. Assange will reportedly be paid $800,000 by Random House’s Alfred A. Knopf division for the American rights and another $500,000 by Canongate for the British rights. He stands to make more money from subsequent translations and serializations.

From the NYTimes.

Man hides veins to escape death row, State gets a second shot

Romell Broom, the only person in modern history to survive an execution, was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1984 rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl.

Last year, Ohio executioners spent two hours sticking Broom with a needle a total of 18 times unable to find a vein. That execution was stopped by Governor Ted Strickland and Broom’s lawyers took the case all the way to the Ohio Supreme Court, arguing 8th amendment and double jeopardy violations (ha!).

Unfortunately for Broom, the Court would hear none of it and gave the State the go ahead to try and execute Broom again. Broom’s in good company:

From the Chron.

Prop 8 and the 9th Circuit

Orin Kerr of the Volokh Conspiracy has penned a novel take on the Ninth Circuit review panel which includes Judge Stephen Reinhardt, “the most-reversed Court of Appeals judge in the land.” As Kerr points out, Reinhardt’s liberal leanings are good for Prop 8 opponents at the appellate level but bad in the end game:

But the word “Reinhardt” is radioactive at 1 First Street. Reinhardt writes like there is no Supreme Court, and as a result his opinions have a remarkable ability to annoy the Justices. In return, the Supreme Court loves to reverse Reinhardt. They love to reverse opinions he signs, and they love to reverse opinions he participates in. So the fact that he’ll likely be involved in the panel decision probably hurts opponents of Prop 8 in the long run.

While it would be nice to imagine that a losing track record plays as big a role as Kerr suggests, it’s absurd. The idea that because Justices “love” to reverse Reinhardt will have any impact on the decision of whether to acknowledge civil rights held by millions of Americans is reaching at best. To suggest that a grudge (if it is that at all) would affect the most important ruling of the 21st century is asinine.

Via the Volokh Conspiracy.

July 2010 California Bar Exam by the Numbers

Howard B. Miller, 85th President of the California Committee of Bar Examiners

Number of test takers: 8,562 (6,084 first-timers; 2,478 repeaters)

Number of passers: 4,690 (54.8% of all test takers)

Percentage of first-time takers who passed: 68%

Percentage of repeaters who passed: 22%

Mean scaled MBE score in California: 1,453

Mean scaled MBE score nationwide: 1,436

Via CalBar.