Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> Capital Defense Weekly

Criminal Law

: Capital Defense Weekly

looking at the next edition

By Karl R. Keys, Esq.

Caselaw from the next edition includes: Favorable to the Accused or the Condemned James Aaron Miller v. State, 2010 Ark. LEXIS 3 (Ark 1/7/2010) “We find that reversible error occurred in the penalty phase of the trial, however, when two victim-impact witnesses improperly recommended to the jury that they impose the death penalty.” Ronnie Ferrell v. State,  2010 Fla. LEXIS 42 (FL 1/14/2010) (dissent).”When viewed in conjunction with the other failures of trial counsel regarding the lack of investigation into mitigation, the failure of trial counsel to object to even one of these clearly improper remarks left the State’s case virtually untested. The State’s arguments that the jury would be violating their lawful duty if they did not vote for death, the statement that the age mitigator could only apply to someone younger than Ferrell, the statement that this case deserved the death penalty, the statements vouching for the credibility of various witnesses, and the mercy argument, all serve to strengthen the contention that our confidence in the outcome of the penalty phase is undermined...continue to full post

Full post as published by Capital Defense Weekly on January 18, 2010 (boomark / email).