... uphold 'em on the back page."

OK, I know that's the opposite of the old saw, "convict 'em on the front page, reverse 'em on the back page" -- but it makes sense when you find that you have to go to the Bennington (Vt.) Banner to find out that a federal appeals court recently overruled the trial court judge who found the federal death penalty to be unconstitutional.

Read more here

Funny how one got so much more attention than the other, isn't it?

Same thing for the publicity on Miller-El (the capital murder defendant from Dallas who claimed a Batson violation at his trial from so many years ago). When the SC reversed it, the newspapers made it sound like there was rampant racism by Dallas prosecutors.

The real story was that the SC only ruled that Miller-El was entitled to a certificate of appealability. Not quite so juicy.

And the end of the story was that this week the 5th Circuit, on remand, found that the prosecutors had appropriate, rational reasons for striking the jurors. End result: death penalty affirmed. Did anyone read about that?

Only read about it in this forum.