Kentucky Law Review

SCOKY: Portrait of former Justice Wintersheimer to be presented May 15 to Supreme Court of Kentucky

Frankfort, Ky. -- The portrait of the Honorable Donald C. Wintersheimer will be presented to the Supreme Court of Kentucky at a dedication ceremony at 2:00 p.m. on Thursday, May 15, 2008.  Honorable William T. Robinson, III., chairman of the resolution committee composed of lawyers who had worked with Wintersheimer, will make the presentation to the Court.  The portrait will hang in the corridors of the second floor of the Capitol Building.

SCOKY: Minton New Chief Justice

John D. Minton Jr. elected new chief justice of Kentucky

FRANKFORT, Ky. -- On Monday, May 12, the justices of the Supreme Court of Kentucky elected the first new leader of the Judicial Branch in a decade. The justices chose John D. Minton Jr. as the fifth chief justice of Kentucky. Justice Minton will succeed Chief Justice Joseph E. Lambert, who announced April 24 that he would retire June 27.

Chief Justice Lambert will administer the oath of office for Chief Justice-Elect Minton at a formal investiture service at the Capitol on Friday, June 27. The public and the media will be invited to attend the swearing-in ceremony.

SCOKY: HL writer reports on "squabble" at SCOKY over AOC Director's Appointment

Brandon Ortiz with the Herald Leader has posted a story on an internal dispute at the Kentucky Supreme Court.  Since few of us get any insight into the persons and the personalities on the bench and how they do business, I am posting the entire story (but 2 days later after it was published on 5/6/2008 to allow Brandon the full news cycle for his work; so if you have read about this in the paper, then move on.).  The reason for the entire posting is due to the bar's probable interest and the short posting cycle of some newspapers.

Chief Justice Lambert is retiring June 27, and two of the sitting justices, Justice Schroder and Justice Minton, are vying for the Chief Justice seat.  Justice Mary Noble has withdrawn her name.

Supreme Court justices feuding over appointment

A squabble among state Supreme Court justices over a key appointment spilled into public view Monday as members of the state's highest court jockey for the title of chief justice.

Justice Wil Schroder of Covington criticized outgoing Chief Justice Joseph Lambert on Monday for reappointing Jason Nemes last month as director of the Administrative Office of the Courts after the state Senate declined to confirm Nemes.

Taking the rare step of making an internal disagreement public, Schroder said Lambert's action does not respect "what we call the rule of law in Kentucky."

"People don't get to pick and choose which laws they follow, including the Supreme Court," Schroder said.

Schroder said Nemes' appointment to head the administrative arm of the state court system has become an issue in the race to replace Lambert as chief justice. Lambert will retire in June.

SCOKY CASES: "Ky. Supreme Court says judge's call right on self-representation"

Ky. Supreme Court says judge's call right on self-representation HERALD LEADER

A judge properly allowed an eastern Kentucky man to represent himself during a murder trial, the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled.

The high court rejected Alger Ferguson's contention that Lawrence Circuit Judge Daniel Sparks erred in letting him represent himself at trial. * * *

The Supreme Court found that Sparks repeatedly questioned Ferguson's decision and ability to represent himself. Ferguson told the judge he was familiar with court proceedings. He had represented himself in other criminal matters on at least two other occasions.

Click here for nonpublished decision's full text.

SCOKY: "Supreme Court reverses two murder convictions"

Supreme Court reverses two murder convictions WAVE3

The Kentucky Supreme Court has reversed the murder conviction of a Louisville man because the prosecutor improperly played a rap song at the start of his trial.

SCOKY DECISIONS: "Use of rap song results in new murder trial" [Parker v. Com.]

Use of rap song results in new murder trial FROM CJ

The Kentucky Supreme Court has ordered a new trial for a Louisville man convicted of murdering an 18-year-old Central High School graduate, saying a prosecutor improperly played a rap song at the trial's start.

CLICK HERE FOR FULL TEXT OF SCOKY PUBLISHED DECISION.

SCOKY: Ruling Keeps Case Alive Involving Kentucky resident and granddaughter of Jerome Kern re: trust

Supreme Court sides with granddaughter of Oscar-winning composer HERALD LEADER

The granddaughter of the late composer Jerome Kern won the latest round in a long-standing legal dispute with the manager of a trust that oversees royalties from hits like "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" and "The Way You Look Tonight."

For the published decision, full text, click here.

SCOKY: U.S. Chief Justice Roberts appoints Kentucky Chief Justice Lambert to national Committee on Federal-State Jurisdiction

U.S. Chief Justice Roberts appoints Kentucky Chief Justice Lambert to national Committee on Federal-State Jurisdiction

               

Chief Justice of the United States John G. Roberts Jr. has appointed Kentucky Chief Justice Joseph E. Lambert to membership on the Committee on Federal-State Jurisdiction of the Judicial Conference of the United States. The three-year appointment was effective Oct. 15, 2007.

         

Chief Justice Lambert is one of six new members appointed to the 14-member committee. The membership includes state Supreme Court chief justices from Delaware, Kentucky, Montana and Pennsylvania; four U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judges; four U.S. District Court judges; one U.S. bankruptcy judge; and one U.S. magistrate judge.

 

The Judicial Conference of the United States established the Committee on Federal-State Jurisdiction in 1987 to study proposed changes in federal jurisdiction and to serve as a liaison with the state courts. Topics previously considered by the committee include class action/mass torts, patients' rights, immigration reform, asbestos litigation, private property rights, diversity jurisdiction and habeas corpus procedures. The committee usually meets in January and June of each year to consider pending business and to make recommendations to the Judicial Conference when appropriate.

   

"Your experience and knowledge concerning the judicial process will be of great value to the committee's work and I look forward to working with you in the years ahead," said Committee Chair U.S. District Judge Janet C. Hall in a letter to Chief Justice Lambert on his appointment. "The committee's consideration of proposals is enriched by its diverse composition. The presence of the chief justices also allows us to learn more about the views of the Conference of Chief Justices, an organization that facilitates consultation among state courts."

   

"I am honored to be appointed by Chief Justice Roberts to this important committee," said Chief Justice Lambert. "Federal and state courts exist to serve the citizens of this nation and their work often overlaps. This committee endeavors to assure that judicial resources are used efficiently and to recognize the distinct role of state and federal courts."

Chief Justice Lambert was elected to the Supreme Court in 1986. In 1998, he became Kentucky’s fourth chief justice by a vote of his fellow justices. He has since been elected to two additional four-year terms as chief justice.

POSTSCRIPT: KySupremeCourtLIVE

I received a remark or two that my post "SCOKY WEBCAST: On line and successful" was a tad glowing.

Well, it was.  If anyone thought the on-line broadcasting of live Kentucky Supreme Court arguments went forward flawlessly based upon my review, then I apologize.

If anyone overlooked the historicity of the event, a feeling of not going backwards, and a realization that this was the beta test and it can only get better, then think again because the technological bugs of freeze frames, slow feed, bandwidth problems on your end, will surely end or be addressed soon. 

The bells and whistles should be forthcoming and the minimal glitches removed.

In the future, you might expect to see:

• Better server and/or broadcasting feed with minimal or non-existent freeze frame blips in future "live" feeds.  Of course, the remedy may be poorer and less intense video, however, let us leave that to the techno-folks.
• Arguments archived by case number and/or names, and dates.
• Archived files with better title pages (eg., labeled with case names, numbers, parties, issues, etc.; all of which can be culled from the argument calendar and copied into the leader).
• Opening the broadcast feed to a dummy page (eg., "Kentucky Supreme Court Live") five minutes before the arguments actually begin so you have the buffer open and running and do not have to keep "clicking" on the feed and potentially miss the intro.

Of course, the AOC's web site may need to integrate these elements better in the case information pages, eg., links to briefs, orders/opinions or lower courts, opinions of SCOKY on the case, and links to the oral arguments on line.

Next month, the eye will be a little more critical as we watch for improvements or simply acceptance of the status quo.  Innovation has its price - greater expectations!

The archived arguments should be "titled".

BTW:

The state's law schools might want to consider separately archiving the arguments on their own servers or having a direct and higher speed feed to a large screen (at the school) for selected arguments of wider appeal and interest.

I also understand with the consideration of "wifi" on the second floor of the Jefferson Judicial Center that bringing the arguments home is being considered.  However, do not forget that wireless has some speed limitation and thus bandwidth and freeze frames would/should/could ensue.

SCOKY WEBCAST: On line and successful

At 9:00 a.m. this morning, I witnessed history in the making as the Supreme Court of Kentucky went live web casting of oral arguments! [updated: feel free to make comments on this development, signed or anonymously does not matter].[updated again: HERE IS A DIRECT LINK TO THE PAGE AT UK COLLEGE OF LAW FOR THE LIVE ARGUMENTS.  http://www.uky.edu/Law/news/07_10_23_KYSupremeLIVE.html.]

1750 Viewers were on-line.  WOW!  Who woulda thunk. [update: Does this mean "Shark" will be cancelled?  Just kidding.]

My PC is cable based using the Windows Media program.  The small screen at the UK web site worked fine; my separate (and larger screen) with Windows Media operated a little less smoothly except for the bandwidth limitations of the streaming video.

The occasional freeze frames stopped the presentation, but other than this occasional bump, the webcast caught up smoothly and nothing was lost.  [UPDATED: I went into the medial player and increased my "buffer" from 5 seconds to 60 seconds under the "performance option" with 60 seconds being the "max", and this reduced the freeze framing issues. I might tinker with this option again, but if any techofolks out there have a suggestion, please make a comment.]

Due to bandwidth issues, the argument in real time was actually a few minutes ahead of my media player, but I can live with that incredible delay (winking) which is through no fault of the AOC but an inherent technological limitation.

The name of the case was identified by the Chief Justice during the opening.

Each time the microphone/camera clicks on to the justice, they are identified by name.

Although counsel were not identified, this would/is not reasonable during a live web cast since a single microphone is at the podium and you cannot dedicate a name or identifier to that microphone in "real time".

I predict in the future they will add bells and whistles to the archived copies which might include the case name, case no., date and time, and identify of appellant/appellees and their counsel on the screen; and it would be useful to have the case number in small print at the bottom or top corner throughout the video in this archived video.  An "audio only" option might be an option for those who wish to listen in their cars.

Kudos for SCOKY, the staff, the tech team, counsel, and the Court.  Oh yeah, kudos for the lawyers  and public (1750 plus!) who scoped it out today from around the state and  to UK for hosting and posting.

The preparation of the Court and counsel for this first and historical argument was self-evident. [update: Just in case anyone thought this was a slight, trust me it was not.  The justices were very well prepared, and counsel was ready.  The high quality of the work by justices and counsel was very much in evidence.]

One parting thought, will live casting change the manner and content of the delivery and presentation?  Admittedly, walking in off the street and watching an argument that all participants have been intimately familiar with for the past few years is a little difficult without prior understanding of the issues or the briefs.  That is why we post the argument list with issues, parties, counsel, times, and links to the briefs and prior decisions.  I will update those posts with links to the archived arguments in the future.

Again, today was a culture shift in the way cases are heard and to be heard in the Commonwealth.

Arguments started on time at 9:00 am and finished at 9:43.

UPDATE:  The first argument went smoothly except for the audio/video "blips", but there were apparent server issues during the second argument when it went off-line briefly.  During the third argument there were more blips due to buffering problems as the download at times was half the rate of the first argument.  Maybe there will need to be more server capability or simply a less intense video (but saving the more detailed video with the archive).  All in all, still pretty good.

For a link to the calendar of this week's arguments, go to:  SCOKY Arguments with Briefs and Underlying COA Opinions for Oct. 24 and 26, 2007 (Reminder - Live Web Casting A First]