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Capital cases confirm shifting vote patterns on CCA

About a week ago I posed the question, "Is Sharon Keller's influence waning on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals?," focusing on a couple of recent Fourth Amendment cases in which the Presiding Judge was in the minority. Now via the prosecutors' association user forum I notice a related article from the June 16 San Antonio Express-News ("Death penalty winds shifting on high court") identifying a similar trend in capital cases. The story opened:Seldom do judges on Texas' top criminal court side with death row inmates, but last month they did so twice.And last week they did it twice again, this time in decisions issued only a day apart.Sparing a mother who smothered her infant and delaying the executions of three other convicts, including a San Antonio kidnapper, the rulings aroused speculation that something new might be afoot at the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on June 26, 2010 (boomark / email).