It's the end of the Term as We Know it

My friend Doug Berman has some interesting thoughts on the criminal justice cases from SCOTUS this past term over at Sentencing Law and Policy.  Doug's astutely noticed that a significant number of cases during the Term have to do with the intricate regulation of the death penalty.  He argues that fetishizing death regulation over sentencing generally is unwarranted, and to some degree, unjust, since it leaves thousands of people imprisoned (unduly) for longer by deferring the resolution of the Blakely/Booker chaos.  He quotes Mike from Crime and Federalism, who chides the court's "liberals" especially for this state of affairs:

What's up with the Court's granting cert. on so many death cases?  The death penalty is rarely meted out.  If the members of the Court really cared about sentencing, they'd grant cert. on the various Blakely/Booker issues.  If the "liberals" cared so much about justice in sentencing, they'd not have crafted their lame and unprincipled Booker remedial scheme. Sure, "death is different," but death is also rare.  The horrors of prison are real and frequent.  Why not ensure that only those found guilty by a jury of their peers spend time in prison?