As previously noted, Monday was the deadline for filing amicus briefs in the Roper v. Simmons case, which will test the consitutionality of executing juvenile offenders.
Here's one thing I found interesting. Seven states filed friend-of-the-court briefs supporting abolition of the juvenile death penalty. Six states filed friend-of-the-court briefs defending the juvenile death penalty. (This is in addition to Missouri, which is the plaintiff in the case and is asking that the death sentence of Christopher Simmons be reinstated.)
The anti-juvenile-death penalty brief was filed by the New York attorney general and joined by the attorneys general for the states of Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, New Mexico, Oregon and West Virginia.
The pro-juvenile-death penalty brief was filed by the attorney general of Alabama and joined by the attorneys general for the states of Delaware, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah and Virginia.
It's not quite the Civil War revisited, but it does point to an interesting cultural divide.
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