Readers may recall my satisfaction at the 2002 Supreme Court ruling mandating that death sentences be imposed only by juries and not by ‘judicial override’ of a jury’s finding of a lesser sentence. Now the Supreme Court says its earlier ruling applies only to forthcoming death penalty cases, not retroactively to those cases already pending appeal. Antonin Scalia wrote for the majority that this is because the 2002 ruling was just “procedural” and not a “watershed” rule of criminal procedure. It seems to me it violates the fundamental dictum of equal protection under the law. (Reuters)