Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> StandDown Texas Project

Criminal Law

: StandDown Texas Project

Dallas Morning News Editorials

By standdown

The Dallas Morning News, which supports abolition of the death penalty, keeps its spotlight on the Texas Legislature with two editorials this weekend.First is, "Don't prejudice juries against mentally retarded."Seven years have passed since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that executing the mentally retarded was unconstitutional. Yet the state of Texas has stubbornly resisted writing guidelines for fairly determining whether a defendant is mentally retarded. Long overdue legislation would lay out a process aimed at delivering an objective assessment of a defendant's mental capacity. In Texas, defense attorneys don't have the option of seeking a ruling on this question before or during a capital murder trial. Right now, the issue of mental retardation is raised during the punishment phase ? after the jury has returned a guilty verdict...continue to full post

Full post as published by StandDown Texas Project on March 30, 2009 (boomark / email).