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Missing the literal deadline in Texas

By Karl R. Keys, Esq.

The Houston Chronicle Sunday examined nine cases where counsel missed the AEDPA one year statute of limitations & subsequently got their client killed or otherwise effectively waived habeas in a capital case. Three men on Texas? death row ? and six others already executed ? lost their federal appeals because attorneys failed to meet life-or-death deadlines, essentially waiving the last constitutionally required review before a death sentence is carried out. Johnny Johnson, executed in February for a Houston murder, was the most recent: His lawyers missed a federally mandated filing deadline by 24 hours. One of his attorneys made the same mistake in the case of death row inmate Keith Steven Thurmond, a former Montgomery County mechanic now on death row awaiting execution, according to case records...continue to full post

Full post as published by Capital Defense Weekly on March 22, 2009 (boomark / email).