“Tragic cases could change juvenile sentencing laws”: Bill Mears of CNN.com has this report.

“Supreme Court £350 fee for papers attacked”: Monday’s edition of Financial Times will contain an article that begins, “The new Supreme Court will charge members of the public a minimum of £350 a time to access documents — a fee critics say makes a mockery of official promises of open justice in the country’s most important cases.”

“Execution of Beltway sniper John Allen Muhammad is on schedule; In 2002, then-Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft ‘made the right call’ to try Muhammad and his accomplice in Virginia instead of Maryland; On Tuesday, he is set to die by lethal injection”: David G. Savage of The Los Angeles Times has this news update.

“Supreme Court to decide: What kind of innovations get a patent? The Supreme Court on Monday takes up this fundamental question in patent law; The answer holds billion-dollar implications for the US economy.” Warren Richey of The Christian Science Monitor has this report.

“Supreme Court case: juvenile offenders serving life in prison; The Supreme Court on Monday takes up two cases that explore the question: Should juveniles convicted of nonlethal crimes be sentenced to life in prison without parole?” Warren Richey of The Christian Science Monitor has this report.

Today’s edition of The Lakeland Ledger contains an article headlined “High Court To Review Sentences of Fla. Youth.”

Yesterday’s edition of The Nashua (N.H.) Telegraph contained an article headlined “High court may redefine case.”

Michael Kirkland of UPI has a report headlined “U.S. Supreme Court: Life without parole for a 13-year-old.”

CBS News legal analyst Andrew Cohen has a CourtWatch essay headlined “Young Lives, Long Sentences.”

And today in The News Journal of Wilmington, Delaware, law professor Alan E. Garfield has an op-ed entitled “Do kids belong in prison? The answer will say a lot about what type of society we are.”

“Kentucky’s troubled death-penalty system lets cases languish for decades”: This article appeared yesterday in The Louisville Courier-Journal, along with an article headlined “Killer’s appeals drag on 29 years.”

“Quick, Patent It!” Today’s edition of The New York Times contains an editorial that begins, “The Supreme Court hears arguments Monday in a case about what kind of inventions deserve patents.”

And today in the News & Observer of Raleigh, North Carolina, Rob Tiller has an op-ed entitled “Patent law must not stifle innovation.”

“Wild card on the court”: Today in The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Brad Bumsted has an essay that begins, “To say the least, the state’s new Supreme Court Justice-elect, Joan Orie Melvin, who ran as a reformer and turned down the judicial pay raise, will be viewed with considerable skepticism by her colleagues on the high court. Her brethren will treat her with respect and courtesy, of course. But many of the justices will have a constant eye out for this Marshall mother of six. She now is, without question, the court’s wild card.”

“Muhammad execution nears, some victims’ families move on”: Frank Green has this article today in The Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Today’s edition of The Virginian-Pilot contains an article headlined “How the Beltway Sniper came to face death.”

And The Associated Press reports that “Killings remain unsolved as sniper execution nears.”