Criminal Law
Capital Defense Weekly 
Covering Capital Defense
Post Frequency: 3.1/day Last Entry: November 19, 2009 at 23:21:36 Recent Entries: 916
By Karl R. Keys, Esq.
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One to watch: commutation recommended in Texas
Posted on November 19, 2009The Texas Board of Pardon and Paroles on Thursday recommended a commutation to a life sentence for Robert Thompson. Thompson, 34, was sentenced to die in a law-of-parties case stemming from the December 1996 slaying of clerk Mansoor Rahim during a robbery at a Braeswood Boulevard convenience store...
Texecution
Posted on November 19, 2009In a case that many thought would get a stay, Texas Wednesday killed Danielle Simpson. From the wires: anielle Simpson, 30, had decided this summer to drop all his appeals in the case, effectively volunteering himself for execution, but recently changed his mind and allowed his lawyers to seek a suspension...
We get mail
Posted on November 19, 2009John Maki does new media work for midwest innocence projects, including the Center on Wrongful Convictions, the Wisconsin Innocence Project, the Ohio Innocence Project, and the Michigan Innocence Clinic. As part of his work, he does short (5-8 minutes) youtube documentaries about wrongful convictions...
Texas stay still hlding
Posted on November 17, 2009via local media: Gerald Eldridge, 45, was condemned for the fatal shooting of his ex-girlfriend and her daughter nearly 17 years ago in Houston. Attorneys contended he was too mentally ill to receive lethal injection and made those arguments in an appeal to the courts...
Virginia kills
Posted on November 17, 2009via the wires: A former Army counterintelligence worker has been executed by electric chair in Virginia for killing a couple in 2001. Larry Bill Elliott was pronounced dead at 9:08 p.m. Tuesday at Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt. The last execution by electric chair in the U...
Cory Maye conviction vacated
Posted on November 17, 2009From the wires: Cory Maye has won a new trial in the slaying of a Prentiss police officer because a judge denied Maye his constitutional right to be tried in south Mississippi’s Jefferson Davis County. Maye was convicted and sentenced to death in 2004 in Marion County for the slaying of officer Ron Jones...
Case law review
Posted on November 16, 2009This week’s working draft of case law since the Nov. 2 is her e. Other than State v. Millard Price, a pretrial case from Delaware, nothing unusually interesting since the last edition.
LWOP & the Texas death penalty
Posted on November 16, 2009Appearing in the Sunday Fort Worth Star-Telegram was a great look at Texas and LWOP: Death sentences have dropped sharply after life without parole became possible. “While the debate over capital punishment rages anew in Texas, new inmates going to Death Row have hit a 35-year low as prosecutors are pushing for fewer death sentences [...
Error correction, Belmontes and the Ninth, again
Posted on November 16, 2009The Court again entered in to its “error correction mode with a per curiam decision in Wong v. Belmontes (08-1263), reversing and remanding the judgment of the 9th Circuit; the opinion is per curiam. Having reversed the Ninth Circuit twice in this case, a reversal the third time came as no shocker...
Sunday morning blogging
Posted on November 15, 2009Not sure how long it has been since I ran one of these: Running low on funds, city stops paying public defenders, jail releases all but the exceptionally hardcore. Ohio is switching to a one drug protocol. I suspect this could be a huge step forward towards providing a more humane execution protocol...
collateral damage
Posted on November 13, 2009via the wires: Mildred Muhammad, 49, told The Associated Press in a phone interview that she and her three children watched news coverage of John Muhammad’s execution in silence at their Maryland home. When his death was announced, the children – John, 19, Salena, 17, and Taalibah, 16 – went into different rooms and cried...
Headlines heading into the weekend
Posted on November 13, 2009Heading in to the weekend, bombshell news that at least some of the GTMO detainees will be tried in NYC. Other news, some overlooked: Editorial: The Lethal Injection College Fund / Here?s one billion dollars. Kill a few people, or help thousands? Khadr to face U...
FTI’s director elected mayor
Posted on November 12, 2009Deathwatch has this: Mark Kleinschmidt, director of the Fair Trial Initiative and counsel for several North Carolina death row inmates, has been elected mayor of Chapel Hill. And he didn’t run from his day job. From Mark’s blog: As many know, my day job is being the Executive Director of a the Fair Trial Initiative...
this week’s “edition”
Posted on November 10, 2009from this week’s intro: Two Monday morning opinions from the Supreme Court dominate this edition. The first is the per curiam decision in Bobby v. Robert J. Van Hook, No. 09-144. The Court in Van Hook engages it so-called “error correction mode...
Pennsylvania?s Senate Bill 1110
Posted on November 10, 2009Pennsylvania?s Senate Bill 1110 calls for a moratorium on executions. Tuesday 11/10 is/was a day of action with two goals. The first is to have 1,110 people contact a PA state Senator (preferably their own if they live in state) – by phone, fax, email, or personally – and ask them to [...
Pennsylvania moratorium day of action
Posted on November 10, 2009Pennsylvania?s Senate Bill 1110 calls for a moratorium on executions. Tuesday 11/10 is/was a day of action with two goals. The first is to have 1,110 people contact a PA state Senator (preferably their own if they live in state) – by phone, fax, email, or personally – and ask them to [...
weekly email editions
Posted on November 09, 2009A few days from now will mark the 12th anniversary of the email edition of Capital Defense Weekly. As has been done from time to time during those 12 years I’m changing the day of the week the email goes out. For the foreseeable future, we’ll post a link Sunday nights to where a working [...
NV PP IAC grant
Posted on November 06, 2009via JoNell @ Harmful Error: In a 4-3 unpublished order, in Rodriguez v. State, the Nevada Supreme Court vacates a sentence of death and remands the case for a new penalty hearing. The ruling was based upon a finding of ineffective assistance of counsel in the penalty phase for failure to investigate mitigation evidence.
The Effective Death Penalty Appeals Act
Posted on November 04, 2009Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA) has introduced H.R. 3986, “The Effective Death Penalty Appeals Act.” The Act would permit a federal court to grant habeas relief in a capital case upon a showing that the petitioner is more likely than not innocent...
Out Monday
Posted on November 02, 2009Working through a little larger than normal edition of the case law roundup. The working draft is here.
The Kentucky Journey of Hope
Posted on November 02, 2009The Kentucky Journey of Hope kicks off Monday [more] UNIVERSITY OF LOUISVILLE- Monday, November 2, 5:30 p.m – 7:00 p.m – Elaine Chao Auditorium in the Ekstrom Library KENTUCKY STATE UNIVERSITY- Tuesday, November 3, 11 a.m – 12:00 p.m – Hathaway Hall Auditorium, Rm #123 GEORGETOWN COLLEGE – Tuesday, November 3, 7 p...
new edition
Posted on November 02, 2009The latest edition is now available. Leading off this edition is the Supreme Court’s decision in Joseph Corcoran v. Levenhagen. The district court in this case granted habeas relief as to Mr. Corcoran?s death sentence due to a ?Sixth Amendment violation,? and decided not to address the remaining claims of error asserted by Mr...
Beard v. Kindler
Posted on November 02, 2009The Court today heard arguments in Beard v. Kindler. With Justice Alito apparently recusing himself the Government needed to pick up both Justice Kennedy and one other Justice in addition to every Justice in its usual block of justices (the Chief, Scalia, J...
Great commentary on the flaws of postconviction and Reggie Blanton’s case
Posted on October 30, 2009The Dallas Morning News’ Michael Landaeur sums up well a beef I have had a hard time formulating: [T]he complex and confusing system is more like a chess game than a system of justice that seeks the truth. It seems like claims of actual innocence need to be made a a very specific time in the [...
Yogurt shop murder prosecution over?
Posted on October 29, 2009A Travis County district judge dismissed charges Wednesday against ?The Yogurt Shop Two,? Robert Springsteen and Michael Scott, who were accused of raping and killing four teenage girls in 1991. Mr. Springsteen ended up on death row. Stand Down Texas has the skinny...
Florida stay
Posted on October 28, 2009The scheduled death of Paul Beasley Johnson for next week been placed on hold by the Florida Supreme Court. The Court issued the indefinite stay because of ?significant issues raised? in Johnson?s appeal regarding prosecutorial misconduct, the order reads...
RIP Reginald Blanton
Posted on October 27, 2009Texas killed Reginald Blanton Tuesday night in arguably the highest profile execution so far this year. Mr. Blanton’s supporters claimed: The Initial suspect could not be found. The only two witnesses were forced to sign statements against Reginald, under threats of being charged with the crime...
Catching up
Posted on October 26, 2009I think I’m likely to finally be coming up for air after about six weeks of work heck. In the last few days there has been more than a few stories I’ve wanted to cover but time simply didn’t permit it. Smith v. Spisak, argued last week, appears to have gone to the executioner...
Balko scores again
Posted on October 26, 2009Radley Balko is the type of libertarian that so many of us love. Not just a pro-weed, anti-tax guy, he actually walks walk the walk on the power of the State to ruin lives. Today he took on the failure to adequately make bad prosecutors pay. Anthony Caravella was released from a Florida prison last [...
ALI withdraws MPC 210.06
Posted on October 25, 2009The American Law Institute’s Model Penal Code section 210.06 has been the model from which most death penalty statutes in the United States derive. Earlier this year in the Report of the Council to the Membership of The American Law Institute On the Matter of the Death Penalty a recommendation was made that the ALI [...
Weekly schedule
Posted on October 25, 2009The weekly edition, if it goes out at all this week will go out late as I short notice trial date for Monday morning.
State of the art Louisiana, 1993-1995
Posted on October 22, 2009In a post entitled “Incompetent Lawyer or Incompetent System?” Dane Ciolino takes a great look at the quality of Louisiana counsel in the mid-90s. On October 9, 2009, a hearing committee of the Louisiana Disciplinary Board recommended dismissal of all disciplinary charges lodged against Baton Rouge criminal-defense lawyer Kevin P...
Clarification about this week’s email editions
Posted on October 20, 2009There was unintentionally two email editions this week. Last week’s edtion was never sent by YahooGroups. My apologies for the confusion.
Georgia kills
Posted on October 20, 2009Georgia tonight killed Mark McClain Condemned inmate Mark McClain was killed by lethal injection at 7:24 p.m. tonight in Jackson. McClain, 42, was sentenced to death by a Richmond County jury for the 1994 murder of a Richmond County Domino’s Pizza store manager, Kevin Brown...
First opinion of the new term, a summary capital reversal in favor of the condemned
Posted on October 20, 2009The United States Supreme Court in Joseph Corcoran v. Levenhagen summarily remanded. The district court in this case granted habeas relief as to Mr. Corcoran’s death sentence due to a “Sixth Amendment violation,” and decided not to address the remaining claims of error asserted by Mr...
Mosley v. Thaler
Posted on October 20, 2009The United States Supreme Court, without comment denied certiorari in Mosley v. Thaler. The Court had previously stayed Kenneth Mosley’s killing in light of a pending case from Alabama, Wood v. Allen.
Another DPIC report, this time on costs and missed opportunities
Posted on October 20, 2009DPIC today released a new report on the costs of capital punishment and the views of police chiefs. The Death Penalty Information Center has released its latest report, “Smart on Crime: Reconsidering the Death Penalty in a Time of Economic Crisis...
email edition
Posted on October 19, 2009This week’s email edition is now available: Following a week that was light on published opinions, this week’s edition is likewise light on new decisions. In the news the Todd Willingham controversy continues in Texas and Stand Down Texas continues to have the best coverage of the lates developments there...
Ohio stay
Posted on October 19, 2009Kenneth Biros in Ohio has been granted a stay due to problems with that state’s lethal injection scheme.
Tom Dunn in the NYT
Posted on October 19, 2009The New York Times today has a wonderful piece on Tom Dunn, formerly of the Georgia Resource Center, and his decision to take up teaching. I just walked in here and fell in love with the place,? Mr. Dunn recalled. His day begins at 8 a.m., when he stands by the school?s buzzing metal detector, checking [...
Ethics check: Willingham style
Posted on October 17, 2009Your client is executed. Are you then free to speak about that client’s guilt or non-guilt? David Martin was Cameron Todd Willingham’s lawyer. Despite what appears to be the requirements of the profession Mr. Martin believes that yes, yes he can speak on his client’s both factual and legal guilt and the investigation in to [...
catching up
Posted on October 15, 2009As most know, I’m a line felony trial attorney these days. I’m coming off a longer than expected trial and recuperating, as well as catching up. Posting should return very shortly, or to put it more aptly, as soon as I can sort wheat from chaff.
email edition
Posted on October 13, 2009from this week’s edition: This edition leads off with developments in Ohio. A Sixth Circuit panel stayed the upcoming execution of Lawrence Reynold due to concerns about a repeat of Mr. Broom’s botched execution. Governor Strickland then stayed all imminent executions in light of the problems with the botched execution of Mr...
scratch copy
Posted on October 12, 2009Initial scratch copy of the weekly edition is after the jump. Final edition out sometime Columbus Day [more] Week of October 5, 2009 ? In Favor of the Accused or Condemned (initial list) Lawrence Reynolds v. Strickland, 2009 U.S. App. LEXIS 21816; 2009 FED App...
‘bama kills
Posted on October 09, 2009Alabama kills: An Alabama death row inmate has been executed by lethal injection for the 1992 kidnapping, robbery and killing of a store owner.Max Payne died at 6:25 p.m. Thursday as his two sisters and other family members wept quietly in the witness viewing room...
email edition not going out this week
Posted on October 03, 2009Trial week with four trials scheduled to go this Monday (most likely trying a one witness cross racial ID case, with a cop as the eyewitness). Rather than running the weekly email edition I’m trial prepping. My apologies & blogging is likely to be light until the jury goes out.
Cert grants from the long conference
Posted on September 30, 2009The so-called “long conference” cert list is down. No capital cases are noted, although a fair number of criminal cases were granted. A case not granted today is likely to be, but not guaranteed to be, denied Monday, October 5, 2009. SCOTUSBlog has the details.
Pigs fly: Texas CCA grants relief
Posted on September 30, 2009The CCA in Ex Parte Carl Buntion, NO. AP-76,236, granted relief in light of Penry II issues. Specifically: The nullification instruction given to applicant?s jury was not a sufficient vehicle to allow jurors to give meaningful effect to the mitigating evidence presented by applicant...
Shuffling the chairs on the Titanic & the Texas Forensic Science Commission
Posted on September 30, 2009From the wires: In a surprise move, Gov. Rick Perry today appointed two new members to a state commission investigating case of a Corsicana man who some believe was wrongly executed for murdering his children ? forcing the cancellation of a meeting on the case scheduled for Friday...
SCOTUSBlog issues final “Petitions to Watch”
Posted on September 29, 2009The SCOTUSBlog has issued their final “Petitions to Watch.” This list is heavy on criminal cases, especially capital and homicide cases.
weekly email edition is available
Posted on September 28, 2009The weekly email edition is available. From the intro Leading off this week is the Illinois Supremes Court’s holding in People v. Laurence Lovejoy. Pretrial the prosecution furnished in discovery an expert?s report indicating that the substance in which a footprint, identified as Lovejoy’s print, was discovered was not blood, at trial, however, the expert testified [...
A LI challenge to watch in Ohio
Posted on September 28, 2009via NYT: Lawyers for that inmate, Lawrence Raymond Reynolds Jr., who is scheduled to die on Oct. 8, said training and procedures for the execution team were inadequate to prevent cruel and unusual punishment. They cited the problems associated with the unsuccessful execution of Romell Broom, who was convicted of the 1984 abduction, rape and murder [...
Another failed costly government program
Posted on September 28, 2009This morning, the New York Times came out with an editorial urging states to consider abolishing the death penalty on the ground that it costs too much and depletes already sapped state budgets. It is far from a national trend, but some legislators have begun to have second thoughts about the high cost of death row...
Pennsylvania legislative development
Posted on September 28, 2009Pennsylvania is the only state in the northeast where both chambers of the state legislature have not for repeal of the death penalty. Pennsylvania took a step in the direction Monday with the introduction of Senate Bill 1110. The bill calls for a two-year suspension of executions while a thorough study of the capital punishment system [...
Texas stay
Posted on September 24, 2009The Supreme Court has stayed the execution of Kenneth Mosley: The U.S. Supreme Court Wednesday night stopped the scheduled execution of Texas death row inmate Kenneth Mosley a day before he was to receive lethal injection for the fatal shooting of a suburban Dallas police officer...
New scholarship on race and the death penalty
Posted on September 24, 2009Professor Scott Phillips, University of Denver has just published”Racial Disparities in Capital Punishment: Blind Justice Requires a Blindfold,” jin the latest edition of Advance: The Journal of the ACS Issue Groups. From ACS: In Harris County, Texas, the death penalty is more likely to be imposed against black defendants than white defendants, and death is more [...
Texas kills
Posted on September 22, 2009via the Morning News: A convicted hit man was executed Tuesday evening for a triple slaying in Houston nearly 14 years ago. Christopher Coleman, 37, was condemned for his part in a scheme by a Colombian man who hoped to eliminate a drug debt by staging a robbery...
Broom postponed indefinitely
Posted on September 22, 2009The New York Times indicates that Romell Broom’s potential (re)execution date has been pushed back indefinitely. As Doug Berman points out here, the real question is now whether any execution will be permitted to go forward in the Sixth Circuit.
For those who can’t wait,
Posted on September 21, 2009For those who can’t wait, the cases from the next edition are here. The email edition should be sent out Monday night.
this week’s edition is up
Posted on September 21, 2009This week’s edition is available here. Leading off this week are two decisions, the Florida Supreme Court’s Timothy Lee Hurst v. State and the Ninth Circuit’s Michael Allen Hamilton v. Ayers. In both cases the outcome is the same, a new sentencing hearing ordered...
updates
Posted on September 21, 2009Note: I’ve updated the execution dates to the right. Additionally, I’ve added below the execution dates the RSS feed from my delicious bookmarks for news stories that may or may not make it here pertaining to indigent defense, the death penalty, as well as other criminal defense & civil liberties issues (for some [...
Ohio stay – Broom
Posted on September 18, 2009NYT reports that An Ohio prisoner whose execution was halted after two hours on Tuesday because technicians were unable to find a usable vein that could be injected with lethal drugs won a stay Friday against another attempt to put him to death next week...
More on Cameron Todd Willingham’s death
Posted on September 18, 2009Nightline Thursday night covered in depth the Cameron Todd Willingham execution. The video is below:
Texas kills
Posted on September 17, 2009via AP: Stephen Moody, 52, strapped to the Texas death chamber gurney at Walls Unit in Huntsville, about 70 miles north of Houston, addressed his victim’s mother and son as they watched through a window. “I was unable to respond to you in the courtroom,” he said...
Florida penalty phase grant of relief
Posted on September 17, 2009The Florida Supreme Court Thursday in Timothy Lee Hurst v. State, No. SC07-179, unanimously granted a new sentencing hearing. The Court granted Mr. Hurst relief as trial counsel failed to present evidence that inclued his low IQ, borderline intellectual functioning and possible brain damage due to fetal alcohol syndrome.
Relief denied in DA/Judge affair
Posted on September 16, 2009Wire accounts note: The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals issued a ruling today that convicted murderer Charles Dean Hood should have raised concerns about the affair between the now retired court officials in earlier appeals. The ruling overturned a lower court’s recommendation that Hood be able to argue for a new trial...
this week’s edition
Posted on September 15, 2009This week’s edition is available. From the intro. Numerous defense favorable cases are noted in this edition covering cases since late August. Leading off, the Sixth Circuit in Gregory Thompson v. Bell remands in this Rule 60(b) appeal. The Bell panel remands on two separate and distinct sets of claims...
Ohio botch
Posted on September 15, 2009Ohio badly botched this morning’s execution. Possible double jeopardy challenge on the way. From DPIC: Romell Broom (pictured) was to be executed at 10 AM on Tuesday, September 15, in Ohio. The execution was delayed as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit considered granting him a hearing...
On holiday
Posted on September 06, 2009We’ll be back midweek from an extended Labor Day holiday. The weekly email edition will run next week.
Images of mitigation
Posted on September 03, 2009The Herald Tribune has some amazing photos of the mitigation presentation during the Michael King trial. h/t Brooke Butler.
Catching up on reading
Posted on September 02, 2009Ok, I confess, I read law review articles on an eliptical. When you don’t see law review articles posted here you can assume I’m not hitting the eliptical machine as much as I should. That doesn’t mean, however, that there hasn’t been new germane law review articles...
This week’s edition
Posted on September 01, 2009From the introduction to this week’s email edition: The Tenth Circuit’s opinion in Michael Lee Wilson v. Workman, en banc, leads off this week. The Wilson Court examines whether or not an “adjudication on the merits” was had in State court for purposes of the AEDPA...
A post worth repeating
Posted on September 01, 2009A Criminal Enterprise offers this post on the federal death penalty in NOLA & surrounding counties: When cases are prosecuted in federal court ? here, the Eastern District of Louisiana (which encompasses Orleans Parish) ? the jury is culled from the district as a whole, not just the county or parish where the crime occurred...
Running late
Posted on August 30, 2009Running late this week on the weekly, too much reading. Three fascinating cases are the prime reason: Michael Lee Wilson v. Workman & Donald Wackerly v. Workman, Nos. No. 06-5179, 07-7034 & 07-7056 (10th Cir 8/28/2009) (en banc) (dissent) The Circuit en banc holds in relation to whether or not an “adjudication on the merits” [...
LWOP around the country
Posted on August 28, 2009DPIC offers this interesting look at LWOP jury instructions state by state: In all states that use the death penalty, there are provisions for sentencing inmates to the alternative sentence of life without parole (LWOP). Prior to the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Simmons v...
Texas killed an innocent man?
Posted on August 26, 2009Cameron Todd Willingham was executed a ways back in Texas. The evidence strongly suggest it was an oopsie of an execution. The Chicago Tribune notes: In a withering critique, a nationally known fire scientist has told a state commission on forensics that Texas fire investigators had no basis to rule a deadly house fire was an [...
The lasting shadows
Posted on August 26, 2009And may it be said of us, both in dark passages and in bright days, in the words of Tennyson that my brothers quoted and loved, and that have special meaning for me now: I am a part of all that I have met Tho much is taken, much abides That which we are, we are ? One equal [...
Catching up
Posted on August 25, 2009I don’t recall when we last dd a roundup, so here’s nothing. Judge assigned to hear Troy Davis evidence; SSRN-Statewide Capital Punishment: The Case for Eliminating Counties’ Role in the Death Penalty by Adam Gershowitz; In Pennsylvania, Death sentence vacated for South Side killer; Rick Casey looks at refom at the Texas CCA in a snarkily entitled post My [...
weekly available
Posted on August 24, 2009This week’s edition is now available here. From the intro: By now everyone has an opinion of the Court’s order in In re Troy Davis, and the two opinions respecting that order (Justices Stevens & Scalia). Specifically, the Court ordered the petition “transferred” to the Southern District of Georgia to “receive testimony and make findings of [...
Texas: something’s missing
Posted on August 24, 2009The last execution in Texas was in early June. The next is scheduled for mid-September. Back of the cocktail napkin calculations suggest this is the longest period between executions, save for that related to the Baze lethal injection challenge, since the mid-nineties in Texas...
The price of justice?
Posted on August 24, 2009Maybe I’m old fashion, I believe in fair fights. No place requires a fair fight more than a trial, especially when a man’s life is on the line. DPIC lays out well the story of Khan Dinh Phan whose story appeared in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution over the weekend...
An update on the trial of Judge Keller
Posted on August 19, 2009Judge Sharon Keller faces judicial misconduct charges after she refused to keep the Clerk’s office open to accept a last-minute appeal in a capital case, that of Michael Wayne Richard, where counsel sought to file after hours due to both computer problems and the grant of certiorari in another capital case the same day [...
Judge Keller’s trial
Posted on August 18, 2009Chuck Lindell is covering the Judge Sharon Keller trial over at his blog for the Austin-American Statesmen. We’ll check in Tuesday on the case.
Ohio Kills
Posted on August 18, 2009Ohio on Tuesday killed Jason Getsy. On Monday evening, the US Supreme Court rejected Getsy’s final appeal 5-4, with newly-confirmed Justice Sonia Sotomayor in the minority as she cast her first vote on the court in favor of delaying the execution...
The weekly is available.
Posted on August 17, 2009The weekly is available. From the intro: As the summer winds down, as often happens, the number of opinions in capital cases declines. Of note this week is the affirmance of a divided Fifth Circuit, sitting en banc in John Thompson v Connick. A jury below awarded $14 million to Mr...
Hearing ordered for Troy Davis
Posted on August 17, 2009via SCOTUSBLOG: he Supreme Court, over two Justices? dissents, on Monday ordered a federal judge in Georgia to consider and rule on the claim of innocence in the murder case against Troy Anthony Davis (In re Davis, 08-1443) The Court told the District Court to ?receive testimony and make findings of fact as to whether evidence [...
In re Troy Anthony Davis
Posted on August 17, 2009With keen initial reactions to the Court’s surprise 6-2 order for an evidentiary hearing on Troy Davis’s petition for an original writ of habeas corpus by Adam Liptak (here), Lyle Denniston, (here), and Orin Kerr (here), much of the essential reaction to the order has already been had...
off-topic: paying the price for Freedom
Posted on August 17, 2009A former local reporter was killed in Afghanistan late last week in the Marines. His story follows The story of USMC Sgt. William Cahir continues to reach larger audiences as the story of the late Marine was featured tonight on the MSNBC cable television network program “Hardball with Chris Matthews...
Another 5th Circuit odd-ball
Posted on August 12, 2009Danielle Simpson v. Quarterman, No. 07-70011 (unpublished), is the latest chapter in an ongoing saga about a death row inmate who is just average functioning enough not to be categorically barred from execution. The Fifth Circuit originally remanded Mr...
Action in the Fifth Circuit
Posted on August 11, 2009Three germane Fifth Circuit opinions already this week. In Cory Eugene Windland v. Quarterman, No. 06-10750, the panel concludes the district court erred in its calculation of whether the petition was filed within the one year requirement of of 28 U...
weekly’s up
Posted on August 10, 2009The weekly edition will is out and available here. From the intro Leading off this week’s is the revised opinion in Keith Thurmond v. Quarterman. Initially the Thurmond panel denied relief on a statutory bar as counsel purportedly attempted to timely file the federal habeas application but due to problems with court equipment filed one day [...
NC RJA to become law Tuesday
Posted on August 10, 2009via PFADP: NC Gov. Bev Perdue is looking forward to signing the NC Racial Justice Act into law and you are invited to witness this historic triumph. The signing was arranged late this afternoon and is scheduled for 11 a.m. Tuesday, August 11 at the NC State Capitol (1 E...
John Allen Muhammad denied by the Fourth Circuit
Posted on August 07, 2009The Fourth Circuit has denied habeas relief to John Allen Muhammad. Quite disturbing is the 30,000 pages of evidence the Commonwealth suppressed. In rather blunt language the panel writes: Let it be clear that we by no means condone the actions of the Commonwealth in this case...
RJA passes in NC
Posted on August 05, 2009via AP: North Carolina’s General Assembly has made the state the second in the country to allow attorneys to use statistical data to try and show racial bias was behind the decision of prosecutors to seek or jurors to impose the death penalty. The Senate voted 25-18 on Tuesday for a measure the NAACP and other advocates [...
HAT’s persuasion institute still has seats available
Posted on August 05, 2009HAT’s incredible “Persuasion Institute” purportedly still has seats available. via Hat: [more after the jump] Persuasion Institute: Advanced Training Workshop in Narrative Construction For Postconviction Litigators **Participation is limited to 35 attendees maximum...
experiments in abolition: NJ
Posted on August 05, 2009New Jersey has seen a remarkable drop in murders since repeal of the death penalty. Over the 18 months since repeal murder is down almost 10%, this despite a deep economic recession, with every month this year seeing a lower number of murders than the preceding year...
weekly available
Posted on August 03, 2009from this week’s edition: Leading off this week is the South Dakota Supreme Court’s opinion in Briley Piper v. Weber. Mr. Piper was tried to the bench in the penalty phase. Prior to the bench trial the trial court misinformed Mr. Piper about South Dakota’s unanimity requirement...
international: a dying punishment
Posted on August 03, 2009Two stories indicate why, despite a slight rise in executions domestically, the death penalty is slowing dying. In Kenya this new AP article, headlined “Kenyan leader reduces all death sentences to life,” details the commutation of all death sentences in that country...
errata
Posted on August 03, 2009The correct links for the California Supreme Court’s decisions in this week’s edition are: P. v. Burney 7/30/09 SC S042323 [PDF] [DOC] P. v. Carrington 7/27/09 SC S043628 [PDF] [DOC]
Another Texas stay
Posted on July 22, 2009Dominating the news of the last few weeks has been a number of stays. Roderick Newton’s scheduled execution for Thursday has now also been stayed. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has granted a stay of execution to Roderick Newton.The stay is based on the withheld evidence and the possibility Newton could be mentally retarded, said [...
Relief in the First Sra
Posted on July 21, 2009The Delaware Supreme Court on Tuesday granted relief in James Cooke v. State, No. 289 & 324, 2007. The Court granted relief on the breakdown of the attorney-client relationship, counsel’s decisi0n to use a GBMI defense rather than a more traditional denial of guilt defense sought by the Accused, and the trial court’s failure to [...
Ohio kills
Posted on July 21, 2009via AP Ohio has executed a man convicted in a 1992 Christmas holiday killing spree that left six people dead and two wounded.Marvallous Keene died by lethal injection at 10:36 a.m. Tuesday at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, one week after the state’s last execution...
This week?s email edition is out.
Posted on July 20, 2009This week?s email edition is out. From the intro. Leading off this edition is the stay issued by the United States Supreme Court in Paul Powell v. Kelly. The case involves application of the Double Jeopardy Clause to findings of aggravating circumstances in a capital case...
California Supreme Court rules in Friend
Posted on July 20, 2009File under, “And I was making the same point last week at work….” via Shaun Martin: Sometimes it’s totally easy to see why a defendant has been sentenced to death, and it’s obvious how the murder there is different from other crimes in which the defendant is sentenced to life...
Still sorting wheat and chaff
Posted on July 19, 2009This week’s email edition will go out late Monday as Lexis & Westlaw are both missing major cases and hand-checking the various major states is an arduous process. Here’s what we’ve found so far. Note the CAAFLog is reporting Pvt...
fl remand
Posted on July 17, 2009The Florida Supreme Court has remanded in Leonardo Franqui v. State, SCSC05-830, on an Atkins claim: Having reviewed the record in this case, including prior proceedings, we reverse the summary denial of Franqui?s claim for mental retardation and temporarily relinquish jurisdiction to the circuit court for ninety days for an evidentiary hearing to be held on [...
NC RJA advances
Posted on July 15, 2009via Death Watch: The Racial Justice Act passed its final reading in the North Carolina House of Representatives by a vote of 61 to 53. Due to differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill, it will now go back to the Senate, which can either agree to the House version or convene a [...
Ohio kills
Posted on July 14, 2009via AP: Forty-five-year-old John Fautenberry of Oregon was pronounced dead at 10:37 a.m. at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility here. Fautenberry was sentenced to death for the slaying of Joseph Daron Jr., who picked him up while he was hitchhiking on Feb...
weekly edition
Posted on July 13, 2009now available: Leading off this edition is Herman Lindsey v. State. In Lindsey the Florida Supreme Court ruled 7-0 insufficient evidence existed to find Herman Lindsey killed the victim. The State’s case was based completely on circumstantial evidence...
oopsie part deux
Posted on July 13, 2009via Radley: Thanks to the work of Northwestern University Law School?s death penalty clinic, another man wrongly convicted of murder walked free this week. Ronald Kitchen spent 13 of his 21 years behind bars on death row. He?s also another case of someone who falsely confessed to a murder after intense questioning from police interrogators...
rumour of a temporary stay
Posted on July 13, 2009There is a purported stay of the execution for Kenneth Mosley (Texas). The x-date will be reset for no earlier than mid-August.
VA stay
Posted on July 13, 2009A stay is reported in Virginia. via WaPo: The U.S. Supreme Court today stayed the execution of Paul Warner Powell, a Virginia man who killed a 16-year-old Manassas girl 10 years ago and was scheduled to die tomorrow night.. . . The Virginia Supreme Court overturned Powell’s first capital conviction, but Powell then wrote a boastful letter [...
acquittal in Florida
Posted on July 12, 2009The Florida Supreme Court in Herman Lindsey v. State, SC07-1167, on Thursday entered a judgment of acquittal as the State failed to prove this circumstantial case beyond a reasonable doubt. In light of a large number of cases this week to still sift through, the weekly email edition will run Monday night, however, the working copy [...
PA legislative development
Posted on July 09, 2009AP notes that , the Pennsylvania General Assembly has finally passed a responste to Atkins: The Senate voted 45-2 to approve a bill that would establish a pretrial process to determine whether a defendant potentially facing the death penalty is mentally retarded...
geography and death
Posted on July 09, 2009The director of the ACLU Capital Punishment Project writes, “Sentenced To Death Because Of Where You Live: The Death Penalty?s Geographic Bias,” at the ACLU Blog of Rights. Americans have become increasingly troubled by the profound flaws in our capital punishment system, including its astonishing error rate and its racial and socioeconomic biases...
Okla kills
Posted on July 09, 2009via wires: A man convicted of the 1995 shooting deaths of two campers has been put to death in Oklahoma.Thirty-two-year-old Michael P. DeLozier was pronounced dead at 6:10 p.m. Thursday. DeLozier was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder in the slayings of 60-year-old Orville Lewis Bullard and 54-year-old Paul Steven Morgan...
scheduling issues
Posted on July 05, 2009I’m in trial this week with a locally high profile sentencning to boot. Some hope the email edition will be out midweek.
DNA testing sought in Ohio
Posted on June 30, 2009The Ohio Innocence Project is seeking to have the Ohio Supreme Court consider a DNA challenge asserting that Kevin Keith did not kill three people, including a 7-year-old girl, in 1994 that laded him on death row. More here.
Oklahoma clemency denied
Posted on June 30, 2009The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board voted unanimously Monday to deny clemency to Michael DeLozier for killing two campers in southern Oklahoma nearly 14 years ago. More here.
notable SCOTUS inaction
Posted on June 29, 2009The US Supreme Court has adjourned for the summer. The Court will take NO action in In Re Troy Anthony Davis, Mr. Davis’ petition for habeas corpus, until the Supreme Court reconvenes in September. Additionally, the Court has still not acted on the warden’s cert...
email edition
Posted on June 22, 2009from this week’s edition: Leading off this edition is the Supreme Court’s decision in District Attorney’s Office for Third Judicial Dist. v. Osborne. The Court 5-4, the Court holds that Alaska has an adequate process for granting DNA testing and hence relief can not be had in a free-standing § 1983 action to compel DNA testing...
2nd Cir denies rehearing en banc in Fell v. United States
Posted on June 18, 2009via How Appealing: Second Circuit denies rehearing en banc of ruling that affirmed a federal death sentence imposed by a jury in Vermont, a State that lacks a death penalty: Today’s order denying rehearing en banc was accompanied by a concurring opinion and three separate dissenting opinions...
interesting little second petition discussion
Posted on June 17, 2009The Fifth Circuit in Humberto Leal Garcia v Quartermanoffers up an odd little decision on second habeas petitions vs. successors. Leal is a foreign national on death row in Texas. Post-Avena but pre-Medellin Leal exhausted a Vienna Convention right claim and filed a habeas petition in federal court...
missed another one
Posted on June 16, 2009Thanks to the helpful reader who tipped us off to the Arizona Supreme Court’s holding in Ryan John Chronis v. Steinle, No. CV-08-0394-SA Arizona Rule of Criminal Procedure 13.5(c) allows a defendant in a capital case to request a probable cause determination for alleged aggravating circumstances...
of course….
Posted on June 14, 2009Shortly after sending out a note that this week’s email edition wouldn’t run due to a lack of published cases I noted this at Prof. Doug’s blog. Howard Bashman, always more reliable than the database services, noted thatFriday the Eleventh Circuit did in fact publish a death penalty opinion the database services just haven’t found [...
not running
Posted on June 14, 2009A “full edition” of the weekly isn’t running for a fairly unusual reason, Lexis & FindLaw are showing no reported capital cases from any of federal circuits or state appellate courts. The lack of published opinions means we aren’t running The only notable unpublished cases comes from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on [...
commenting on California’s proposed lethal injection protocol
Posted on June 10, 2009The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has proffered written new lethal injection regs and is seeking comment. Access the proposed regulations here. California law requires all germane comments to be reviewed and kept on file. Comments should reference ?Proposed Amendments to Title 15, Article 7...
CCA grants sentencing relief
Posted on June 10, 2009The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Wednesday granted penalty phase relief in Ex parte Timothy Cockrell: The convicting court held a live evidentiary hearing and entered findings of fact and conclusions of law. Initially, the court found that applicant failed to establish by a preponderance of the evidence that he has significantly subaverage general [...
Sister Helen hits the small screen
Posted on June 10, 2009From friends at CatholicTV: On Friday , June 12th , Sr. Helen Prejean , CSJ will appear on the CatholicTV talk show ?This is the Day? as an in-studio guest. Sr. Helen is the author of the book ?Dead Man Walking? , which inspired the film of the same name starring Sean Penn and Susan [...
in other news….
Posted on June 09, 2009News we mssed from around the media: Adam Liptak examines the background behind how Holly Wood ended up on Alabama’s death row and why the Supreme Court now wants to review that too. IDB examines Sotomayor Vs. The Death Penalty The New Hampshire Senate has approved studying the state’s death penalty law...
Updated CLE’s
Posted on June 07, 2009We’ve updated the CLE section in the column to the right. Obviously many, many germane CLEs are missing. Please email us to let us know.
New spam filter
Posted on June 07, 2009A new spam filter has been added. Your first post has to be moderated, after that your good to go.
email editions are back
Posted on June 07, 2009The email edition is now available. From the intro: Two SCOTUS cases kick off this edition, as well as follow-up on Daryl Atkins of Atkins v. Virginia fame. The first of the two SCOTUS case is Montejo v. Louisiana. Faegre & Benson’s Supreme Court Update interprets Montejo thusly: in Michigan v...
Conn. repeal dead for now
Posted on June 06, 2009As expected, Conn.’s governor has vetoed that state’s death penalty repeal bill.
Reginald Clemons stayed
Posted on June 06, 2009In an unsigned order the Eighth Circuit has stayed the execution of Reginald Clemons which Missouri had scheduled for later this month. The reason(s) for the stay aren’t known as of this posting.
A death in the rust belt
Posted on June 04, 2009via NYT: A man who burned a woman alive was executed in Ohio?s first death by lethal injection since the state revised its protocol on the procedure. The man, Daniel Wilson, 39, was sentenced to death for the 1991 slaying of Carol Lutz, 24. He locked Ms...
200 & counting
Posted on June 04, 2009Scott Cobb has an exceptional wrap-up of the 200th execution under Gov. Rick Perry.
Bobby v. Bies
Posted on June 04, 2009via SCOTUSBlog: On Monday, the Court released its opinion in Bobby v. Bies, unanimously reversing the Sixth Circuit?s decision in favor of the criminal defendant. At issue in the case was whether double jeopardy barred Ohio from holding a hearing to determine the mental competency of an inmate sentenced to death before Atkins v...
Catching up
Posted on June 04, 2009Over the course of the next few days I’ll be catching up. As those who know me (if even only through social networking sites) know, I closed on a house last week and have been busy moving in, etc. Now that everything is settling down again I’m hoping to catch up with a few pro [...
on holiday
Posted on May 29, 2009We’re gone until Tuesday, if not longer. The weekly won’t run this week.
weekly email edition
Posted on May 26, 2009The weekly email edition is now available. From the intro: Two trial court wins “kick off “this edition. The first win is noted by DPIC. “Daniel Wade Moore was acquitted of all charges by a jury in Alabama on May 14. Moore was originally found guilty of the murder and sexual assault of Karen Tipton in 2002...
inching towards New England abolition
Posted on May 22, 2009Conn.’s Senate has voted to abolish the death penalty prospectively at 4:00 am Friday morning by a vote of 19 to 17.
Florida stay
Posted on May 22, 2009via local media The Florida Supreme Court today stayed the execution of convicted murderer David Eugene Johnston, who was scheduled to die by lethal injection on Wednesday. Gov. Charlie Crist signed the death warrant on April 20, but Johnston appealed a judge’s denial of his motion to have DNA testing on his tennis [...
executions
Posted on May 20, 2009from the wires: Two death row inmates spent some of their last moments apologizing for their crimes before they were put to death six hours apart in Texas and Missouri, which executed its first convict in four years. In a lengthy, written final statement, Dennis Skillicorn expressed sorrow for the 1994 murder of a Richard Drummond, who [...
weekly update
Posted on May 19, 2009The weekly email edition is now available. From the intro: The Fourth Circuit in Justin Wolfe v. Johnson has remanded noting that the Commonwealth’s only witness linking the condemned to murder recanted. At trial the actual trigger man, Owen Barber, told jurors that Wolfe paid him to kill the decedent, a drug dealer...
Cert grants
Posted on May 18, 2009The Court today granted cert in Jeffrey Beard v. Kindler & Holly Wood v. Allen. The SCOTUSBlog on the Kindler grant notes: Docket: 08-992 Title: Beard v. Kindler Issue: Is a state procedural rule automatically ?inadequate? under the adequate-state-grounds doctrine - and therefore unenforceable on federal habeas corpus review - because the state rule is discretionary rather than [...
Robert Tennard — update?
Posted on May 17, 2009Unconfirmed reports over the weekend that Robert Tennard has entered a plea agreement sentencing him to life following remand (and related litigation) in Tennard v. Dretke.
Clemency denied, Oklahoma prepares to kill
Posted on May 14, 2009Oklahoma’s Governor has rejected the recommendation of the state’s Pardon and Parole Board that Donald Lee Gilson should be spared. Mr. Gilson is now slated to be executed Thursday. Donald Lee Gilson is scheduled to receive a lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester...
RJA moves closer to passage in North Carolina
Posted on May 13, 2009The Judiciary Committees of both the NC House and NC Senate Tuesday passed the NC Racial Justice Act. The bill goes for a vote in the morning in the full Senate and afternoon in the full House. In the words of Stephen Dear “This is a unique and powerful bill to make the death penalty [...
one step closer to a death penalty free New England
Posted on May 13, 2009Media accounts note that the Connecticut House of Representatives: voted Wednesday night, the fourth anniversary of the execution of serial killer Michael Ross, to abolish the death penalty in Connecticut and instead impose life in prison without the possibility of release...
All charges dropped against Paul House
Posted on May 12, 2009Tennessean.com reports prosecutors have dropped charges against Paul House this morning. DPIC should have more shortly.
Anniversary of a notable execution
Posted on May 12, 2009via Executed Today: On this date in 1993, Leonel Herrera was executed by lethal injection in Huntsville, Texas, for shooting two policemen. Herrera?s last statement averred, Herrera?s sister Norma self-published this book about the case ? keeping a promise to her executed brother...
The Palmetto State kills
Posted on May 09, 2009via the wires: An Alabama man convicted of killing a police officer has been executed in South Carolina. Thomas Treshawn Ivey was put to death by lethal injection and pronounced dead at 6:15 p.m. Friday in the state’s death chamber in Columbia. The 34-year-old made no final statement...
Colorado - repeal goes down to the wire
Posted on May 06, 2009From the wires: he fight over a proposal to abolish the death penalty in Colorado is going down to the wire. State lawmakers plan to meet Wednesday morning, the final day of the legislative session, to decide whether to revive a bill that originally would have ended the death penalty and used the savings to fund a [...
one vote shy
Posted on May 06, 2009In Colorado repeal efforts came within vote of making that state the third to abolish in recent years. Folks on the ground in Colorado appear to have done one heck of a job even if their efforts came up a little short. This vote wasn’t supposed to be anywhere near this close...
weekly email
Posted on May 04, 2009The draft of the weekly email is here. It should be going out in the morning.
kewl new research from DPIC
Posted on May 04, 2009DPIC has released some great new research on per capita death sentences & executions. Texas isn’t necessarily in first. DPIC has two new resources for comparing the use of the death penalty in the various states. The first is a chart listing the states in order of their total death sentences as a fraction [...
Colorado: not quite yet
Posted on May 04, 2009The Colorado Senate tonight has decided to put off, for now, a decision on abolition.
Court watch: Justice Souter to step down
Posted on May 01, 2009The NYT reports Justice David Souter is likely to resign in the coming months.
Texas kills
Posted on April 30, 2009Derrick Lamone Johnson was killed by Texas Thursday night. The AP notes: A Texas man was executed Thursday for the rape and slaying of a woman abducted while she was trying to make a call at a pay phone 10 years ago. Derrick Lamone Johnson, 28, was the 14th Texas prisoner executed this year in the nation’s [...
Georgia kills
Posted on April 30, 2009Georgia has killed William Mark Mize. Local media notes: William Mark Mize said he was ready to die Wednesday evening, moments before the state executed the 52-year-old white supremacist for a 1994 murder in Oconee County. His last appeals denied Wednesday by state and federal courts, Mize was put to death by lethal injection at the [...
Georgia stay (at least for now)
Posted on April 29, 2009The scheduled execution of William Mark Mize has been stayed in Georgia, at least for now. A technical legal matter pushed back Tuesday’s planned execution of Georgia death row inmate William Mark Mize for at least one day, officials said. The Georgia Supreme Court granted a stay of execution to give Oconee County Superior Court Judge Lawton [...
Cone v. Bell
Posted on April 28, 2009The Court has released the opinion in Cone v. Bell(07-1114). The decision is 7-2 (Stevens, J., writing Kennedy, Souter, Ginsburg, & Breyer, J.J.) in, and the Chief Justice and Justice Alito concurring in separate opinions). In the 27 years since Gary Cone was convicted of murder and sentenced to death, no Tennessee court has reached [...
Grant of habeas relief by the Fifth Circuit
Posted on April 23, 2009The Fifth Circuit in John Adams v. Quarterman, No 06-70044, has affirmed the partial grant of habeas relief by the district court. Specifically, the panel granted relief as to Mr Adam’s death sentence as trial counsel failed to adequately investigate & present mitigating evidence...
interesting use of YouTube
Posted on April 22, 2009StandDown & DPIC have been doing an incredible job bringing the day to day headlines relating to the death penalty. Find below, however, a recent video post from the Kentucky Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty that seems to have slipped under their radar.
weekly likely not to run
Posted on April 20, 2009There are no new meaningful wins in the new edition. I’m going to rerun the search results in the morning and if that result doesn’t change we’ll do a double edition next week. If the results do change, we’ll publish Monday night...
Troy Davis loses in the 11th Circuit
Posted on April 17, 2009Troy Davis has lost in the Eleventh Circuit, 2-1.
Fourth Circuit remand
Posted on April 16, 2009via Death Watch: The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals has ordered an evidentiary hearing for Johnny Street Parker. Parker was sent to death row in 1997 for the murder of James William Buchanan, the murder of Jerry Lee Dowdy, and the castration of Mr. Dowdy...
‘bama kills
Posted on April 16, 2009Alabama tonight killed Jimmy Lee Dill: Jimmy Lee Dill has been executed for the 1988 murder of Leon Shaw during a cocaine robbery. Dill died from lethal injection at 6:16 p.m. Thursday at Holman Prison. Just before the execution started, the Associated Press reports Dill said “I just hope that God’s will be done and everybody find [...
Texas kills
Posted on April 15, 2009Following a short lull in executions in recent weeks, Texas Wednesday resumed its breakneck execution pace: Texas parole violator was executed Wednesday for beating and using kitchen tools to kill a 67-year-old woman in her Lubbock apartment. “I love you all...
Failed public policy
Posted on April 14, 2009Judge Boyce Martin, the former Chief Judge of the Sixth Circuit, notes in concurrence today in Wiles v. Bagley, No. 05-371, his continued concern about capital punishment as a public policy issue, especially in lean economic times: Now in my thirtieth year as a judge on this Court, I have had an inside view of our [...
errata
Posted on April 14, 2009In this week’s edition we mentioned “A Saint on Death Row: The Story of Dominique Green” by Thomas Cahill. Incorrectly we attributed that work to Jane Lampman who wrote the linked review for the Christian Science Monitor.
again
Posted on April 09, 2009via DPIC: A former *Illinois* death row inmate, *Nathson Fields*, was acquitted on April 8 of a double homicide for which he spent eleven and a half years on death row. ?I feel like my prayers have been answered,? said Fields after the judge issued the not guilty verdict in the retrial...
Texas CCA grants relief on Penry grounds
Posted on April 08, 2009The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Wednesday in Ex parte Gene Wilford Hathorn, Jr., No. AP?75,917, granted relief. The Court held that on the facts presented that Mr. Hathorn is entitled relief under Penry as the jury was not provided a vehicle to give effect to Appellant’s proffered mitigation evidence...
lawyerless defendants file suit in Georgia
Posted on April 08, 2009via StandDown: “Lawyerless defendants file lawsuit,” is Bill Rankin’s report in today’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution. A lawsuit filed Tuesday calls for prosecutions to be halted against a number of northeast Georgia defendants until they are provided lawyers to represent them...
DR USA census count
Posted on April 07, 2009via DPIC & LDF: According to the latest edition of Death Row U.S.A. published by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF), the size of death row decreased slightly as of July 1, 2008 compared to Jan. 1. After increasing steadily for about 25 years, the death row population started decreasing in 2000...
weekly email edition
Posted on April 06, 2009from this week’s edition: Leading off this edition is the Supreme Court’s holding in Harbison v. Bell. The nutshell holding of the case is that federally funded counsel can do state clemency proceedings. As DPIC notes the “Court determined that the reference to ?proceedings for executive and other clemency? in the federal statute reveals that the [...
Connecticut repeal efforts move forward
Posted on April 02, 2009Last night Connecticut joined New Hampshire in moving forward to make New England the first capital punishment free region in the country. Both efforts have a long way to go, as to Connecticut, the Hartford Courant notes: A bill to abolish the death penalty won approval from the legislature’s judiciary committee Tuesday night ? with proponents [...
A stay in Ohio
Posted on April 01, 2009The Sixth Circuit today stayed the execution of Brett Hartman. Mr. Hartman was scheduled to be killed April 7, 2009. The stay will purportedly not be appealed.
Harbison v. Bell
Posted on April 01, 2009The Court today released Harbison v. Bell. The nutshell holding of the case is that federally funded counsel can do state clemency proceedings. The 7-2 opinion reads provides a lot of great verbage. The real joy of the opinion, however, is Justice Scalia’s dissent in which he lays into Congress for reasons that most of [...
weekly edition rough
Posted on March 30, 2009The weekly edition’s rough draft is here. There were three notable cases out of Oklahoma that arrived very late that I’m still working through. My apologies. The two of the notable cases are: Yancy Lyndell Douglas v. Workman / Paris LaPriest Powell v...
Quick wrap up
Posted on March 30, 2009From elsewhere: Montana keeps the death penalty, for now. New DNA testing from rape kits implicates three separate men in the ?Yogurt Shop Killings,? an infamous 1991 case in Austin in which four girls working at an I Can?t Believe It?s Not Yogurt were raped and murdered...
The weekly edition’s is here. Leading
Posted on March 30, 2009The weekly edition’s is here. Leading of this edition is the Tenth Circuit’s decision in Yancy Lyndell Douglas & Paris LaPriest Powell v. Workman. The panel in Douglas/Powell examines a fairly audacious Brady/Napu/Giglio violation. As one observer noted “[t]o make a long story short, it eventually came out that [witness] Smith had told [prosecutor] Miller early [...
Maryland: limiting the reach of death
Posted on March 28, 2009DPIC notes that Maryland’s capital prosecutions are about to dramatically decrease, if not go the way of the Dodo. On March 26, the Maryland House of Delegates approved a bill requiring specific evidence of guilt if the death penalty is sought...
CJA panel rates increase
Posted on March 28, 2009via Law.com: Attorneys who accept assignments under the federal Criminal Justice Act (CJA) will see their fees bumped up from $100 per hour to $110 per hour because of recently appropriated funds by Congress. The CJA was enacted in 1964 to establish a comprehensive system for appointing and compensating lawyers to represent defendants financially unable to retain [...
Maryland moves closer to substantially limiting its capital punishment scheme
Posted on March 25, 2009In Maryland a major curtailment of that state’s death penalty moved closer to passage: New limits on the death penalty in Maryland took a major step Wednesday toward becoming law, even as some senators acknowledged refinements are needed to a proposal that appears headed to the desk of the state’s anti-capital punishment governor, who has said [...
NH House passes death penalty repeal
Posted on March 25, 2009Wednesday the New Hampshire House voted to repeal the death penalty.
Two notable pieces in the media
Posted on March 24, 2009Two notable editorial / analysis pieces in the press in recent days. In the first, Dick Dieter appears in the Guardian: Last week New Mexico became the 15th state to abandon capital punishment and the third to do so in the last two years. Upon signing the death-penalty repeal bill, New Mexico’s governor, Bill Richardson, stated: [...
NC grant of relief
Posted on March 23, 2009I usually avoid covering trial level grants of penalty phase relief in either state or federal courts as they are so often reversed on appeal, however, Death Watch’s coverage leads me to suspect the grant of relief in Jimmy McNeill?s case won’t be appealed successfully by the State...
cranky lawyer syndrome
Posted on March 23, 2009Maybe its me by the wire reports seem to have really botched the latest developments in the Jeffrey Woods case. Compare the press accounts to the Fifth Circuit’s opinion.
that time of the week again
Posted on March 22, 2009from the intro of the weekly email edition Leading off the week is the repeal of New Mexico’s death penalty. Effective for crimes committed after July 1, 2009 New Mexico will no longer have a death penalty. As for those crimes committed before July 1st, there remains two men on death row New Mexico and at [...
Missing the literal deadline in Texas
Posted on March 22, 2009The 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, [...
Phillip Halford’s execution in Alabama was stayed
Posted on March 20, 2009Just a brief note to note that Phillip Halford’s execution in Alabama was stayed & the SCOTUS has refused to lift that stay, although that story appeared not to circulate. Wires note: An Alabama death row inmate who had been scheduled for lethal injection next week at Holman Prison won a U...
Nebraska legislative committee doesn’t advance lethal-injection bill
Posted on March 19, 2009via the wires: Disagreements between key lawmakers are blocking a bill to change Nebraska’s method of execution to lethal injection. The bill (LB36) from Speaker Mike Flood of Norfolk failed to advance in the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee on Wednesday...
no federal prosecution for Brian Nichols
Posted on March 19, 2009The feds have decided not to seek death for Brian Nichols or to otherwise try him.
An effective legislative round-up
Posted on March 17, 2009DPIC has an insightfull new run-down on new legislative developments: Many states are considering bills to abolish, reform, or expand the death penalty during current legislative sessions. Some recent developments include: New Mexico?s bill to abolish the death penalty passed the House and Senate and is awaiting Gov...
Sixth Circuit grant on use of experts in the guilt phase
Posted on March 16, 2009A panel of the Sixth Circuit in Abdul Awkal v. Mitchell, No. 01-4278, Monday granted relief. From that opinion: At trial, Awkal?s sole defense to the murder charges that he faced was that he was not guilty by reason of insanity. During the guilt phase of trial, Awkal?s counsel attempted to present the testimony of three [...
weekly email edition
Posted on March 15, 2009This this week’s email edition is now available. From the intro: A large number of favorable opinions are being reported this edition, including two missed last week and multiple Supreme Court justices commenting on the denial of cert in a Florida capital case...
NM Senate votes to repeal the death penalty
Posted on March 13, 2009via email: Just a few minutes ago, the New Mexico Senate passed the death penalty repeal measure, by a vote of 24 to 18. Upon being signed into law, capital offenders will be punished with life without parole. Congratulations to everyone in New Mexico and supporters everywhere who worked tirelessly to get the bill passed...
Fifth Circuit grants relief
Posted on March 12, 2009The Fifth Circuit has granted relief in Anthony Cardell Haynes v. Quarterman, No. 07-70004, on a Batson/Miller-El claim. In getting to the grant of relief the Haynes panel looks at appellate fact finding and deference under AEDPA (this is a must read for federal habeas types)...
All eyes on New Mexico?
Posted on March 12, 2009New Mexico’s Senate Friday takes up repeal of the death penalty, HB 825. Our good friends over at NCADP’s Blog are likely to have live posts or, for those who twitter, you can follow Abe’s tweets (and yes they are on fb).
In Utah a major legislative non-defeat
Posted on March 12, 2009I would be feckless to call the action today by the Utah legislature a win, as clearly it is not it is a non-loss. The House killed a constitutional amendment Thursday that would have said the Legislature gets to decide post-conviction appeals, especially in death penalty cases...
Cal Brown wins a stay
Posted on March 12, 2009Cal Brown will not be killed tonight as the Washington Supreme Court has unanimously stayed his death: The Washington Supreme Court has stayed the execution of condemned killer Cal Coburn Brown, issuing its decision less than eight hours before Brown was due to die...
forensic oversight failures
Posted on March 11, 2009Our good friends at the Innocence Project note here the failure of oversight at forensic labs: An 84-page report released today by the Innocence Project finds that the U.S. Department of Justice is failing to ensure that forensic negligence and misconduct are properly investigated...
Texas kills (again)
Posted on March 11, 2009via wire stories: Luis Salazar, 38, thanked friends and relatives for praying for him and asked to be forgiven for the “sins that I can remember” as the lethal drugs began taking effect. He was pronounced dead at 6:20 p.m., nine minutes after the injection...
7th Circuit grant of relief
Posted on March 11, 2009The Seventh Circuit on Wednesday granted relief on whether or not the petitioner is mentally retarded. Howard A. Allen v. Buss, No. 07-2486O. A straightforward application of Atkins to the facts of this case entitles Allen to a hearing regarding whether he is mentally retarded and therefore categorically excluded from the death penalty...
Georgia kills
Posted on March 10, 2009via wire stories: Robert Newland, 65, was put to death by lethal injection at the state prison at Jackson and was pronounced dead at 7:35 p.m. by authorities. He was the first person executed in Georgia this year. Newland was convicted in 1987 and sentenced to death for the slaying of Carol Sanders Beatty, a 27-year-old former [...
Texas kills
Posted on March 10, 2009from the wires: “James, don’t leave me, you can’t die. Don’t leave me,” cried Marta Martinez after her son, James Edward Martinez, was injected with the lethal drugs. Officers brought a wheelchair into the room and removed her and her daughter before Martinez was pronounced dead at 6:17 p...
weekly email edition
Posted on March 09, 2009The weekly email edition is now available. From the intro: Leading off this edition is the Eleventh Circuit’s grant of relief in Earl J. McGahee v. Alabama Dept. of Corrections. The panel in McGahee holds “the total exclusion of African-Americans in this county in which they comprised fifty-five percent [...
Justices square on whether the length of incarceration on death row can be unduly “cruel”
Posted on March 09, 2009Justices Stevens, Thomas, and Breyer squared off Monday on the issue of whether 32 years on death row is unduly and unconstitutionally cruel in orders respecting the denial of cert in William Lee Thompson v. McNeil. Justice Thomas offers a pithy, superficially appealing argument, that because Thompson “could have accepted,” that is could drop appeals [...
Georgia Supreme Court on indigent defense
Posted on March 09, 2009Monday the Georgia Supreme Court handed down Georgia Public Defender Standard Council v. The State et al. No S09A0379. The Court addresses the obligation of the state’s indigent defender system to pay appointed counsel From the case summary: The Supreme Court of Georgia has unanimously upheld a Burke County judge?s order holding the Georgia Public Defender [...
NM: another hurdle cleared towards repeal
Posted on March 09, 2009via the wires: Legislation abolishing New Mexico’s death penalty has cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee ? its highest hurdle yet ? and is headed to the full Senate for a vote. It already has passed the House, so if it were approved by the Senate without change, it would go to the governor for his signature...
Another Texas court filing fiasco, this time federal
Posted on March 09, 2009File this one under “only in Texas.” On Monday the Fifth Circuit denied relief in Thurmond v. Quarterman. Relief was denied as counselled filed a habeas petition in his client’s case late, one day late in a death penalty case. The reason for the delay? Counsel apparently attempted to file an electronic version of Mr...
email edition
Posted on March 08, 2009The final rough of this week‘s email edition is now available which will be emailed out in the morning.
Publicizing bad eyewitness id
Posted on March 08, 2009via Standdown: Tonight on CBS News’ 60 Minutes There are two segments on tonight’s program dealing with eyewitness identification problems and reforms. It’s the leading cause of wrongful convictions caught through DNA exonerations. How Accurate Is Visual Memory? and Catching The Right Criminal are the two reports by Leslie Stahl...
The human costs of NM’s death row
Posted on March 06, 2009New Mexico’s sole death row survivor today published perhaps one of the strongest argument to date on why that state should repeal: AS THE ONLY living survivor of New Mexico’s death row, I would like to offer a few words in support of the bill to repeal the death penalty...
Tennessee Commission to issue a report
Posted on February 24, 2009“On February 19, the Tennessee Committee to Study the Administration of the Death Penalty met for the final time. Along with the legislative recommendations on which it had already decided, the Committee voted 12-2 to issue a report highlighting the issues it covered and summaries of the testimony received...
Colorado: key hurdle to repeal overcome
Posted on February 24, 2009“The House Judiciary Committee voted Monday to approve a bill that seeks to abolish the death penalty in Colorado. Money currently used for death penalty cases would instead fund the cold case unit of the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. Supporters of the legislation claim the move would save taxpayers money while also bringing justice to [...
email edition
Posted on February 22, 2009from the weekly email edition: Another week, and another week of no reported appellate wins from Lexis and a sole district court “win.” A federal district court in McNeill v. Branker, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11568 (E.D.N.C. Feb. 14, 2009), holds “Petitioner has shown that the MAR court acted unreasonably and that he is entitled to [...
South Carolina kills
Posted on February 21, 2009via the AP A Georgia man convicted of killing his wife and son to collect life insurance money has been executed in South Carolina. Luke Williams was put to death by lethal injection Friday. The 56-year-old made no final statement and kept his eyes closed as the drugs were administered...
Virignia kills
Posted on February 21, 2009from WaPo: Edward N. Bell was strapped to a gurney, administered a sequence of three drugs and pronounced dead at the Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt at 9:11 p.m., said Larry Traylor, a spokesman for the Virginia Department of Corrections. Bell, 44, was convicted in the 1999 killing of Sgt...
Judge Keller meet karma, karma, Judge Keller
Posted on February 19, 2009The Texas State Commission on Judicial Conduct issued a Notice of Formal Proceedings to Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Presiding Judge Sharon Keller Thursday. AP notes: A Texas judicial commission has filed proceedings that could remove from office a state judge accused of cutting off appeals for a condemned inmate the night of his execution...
BS & forensics
Posted on February 19, 2009One of the great tragedies of the American legal system is the the science of forensics doesn’t receive enough time, money and research. Ditto forensic labs. As Gideon notes: The NAS just called ?bullshit? on many of the forensic techniques used in labs across the country, ranging from fingerprint, blood splatter, hair, arson and fiber analysis [...
email edition
Posted on February 16, 2009The Email edition is available: Lexis reveals no new favorable published opinions from the various appellate courts around the country. In the news, Governor Ted Strickland of Ohio granted clemency to Jeffrey Hill following the unanimous rationale and recommendation of the Ohio Parole Board which had cited five basic reasons for its recommendation: “the views of the [...
MT Senate passes repeal
Posted on February 16, 2009MT Senate has passed repeal of the death penalty.
sneak peek
Posted on February 05, 2009Okay, a triple edition will be going out this weekend. My apologies I’ve been attempting to kick ass in court and take names, however, I think I may have misjudged the ass being kicked. Here is the of the triple edition sneak preview.
Opt-in update
Posted on February 04, 2009The Department of Justice promulgated a new sixty-day comment period for the opt-in (fast track) regulations for chapter 154. The DOJ concedes, albeit implicitly, thatits prior Final Rule is now invalid.The DOJ ?has decided to solicit further comment on all aspects of the final rule...
Texas Court of Criminal Appeals tackles actual innocence
Posted on February 04, 2009On the heels of the Houston Chronicle piece on innocence, the Texas CCA today granted a writ today using “actual innocence as a procedural gateway through which to [address] his otherwise barred constitutional claim of ineffective assistance of trial counsel...
Texas kills
Posted on February 04, 2009Texas tonight participated in a suicide by court. “Thirty-six-year-old David Martinez was pronounced dead at 6:18 p.m. Wednesday. He had won permission from the courts to stop appeals attempting to spare his life.”
Tenn kills
Posted on February 04, 2009Tennessee this morning killed Steve Henley. From the AP While he was strapped onto a prison gurney awaiting execution, inmate Steve Henley said he hoped for peace for the family of the couple he was convicted of killing. And Henley proclaimed, as he had since 1985, that he wasn’t guilty of murdering Fred and Edna Stafford and [...
weekly email edition update
Posted on February 01, 2009My apologies as I have opening arguments in a murder trial in the morning. As I have noted for years, work comes first. If we get the weather forecasted a catch-up edition will go out early to midweek, otherwise it will be the first triple edition in years...
DP repeal news
Posted on January 29, 2009Because nothing beats getting life by removing death from the arsenal of the State: A bill is being introduced in Colorado to end the state?s death penalty and to use the resultant savings to investigate the state’s more than 1,300 unsolved crimes...
Texas kills
Posted on January 29, 2009Texas kills. Via the AP: Ricardo Ortiz was pronounced dead at 6:18 p.m. Thursday. The 46-year-old was the fifth Texas inmate to die this year and the second of two executions in consecutive nights this week in the nation’s most active death penalty state...
Getting ugly in PA
Posted on January 27, 2009The PA Supreme Court released a fairly disturbing opininon in Commonwealth v. Vandivner on mental retardation & mental illness today. Unfortunately I’m in trial hell (third felony trial since 1/1/09, this time a murder). Doug @ SL&P has coveage of the opinion.
Texas stay
Posted on January 26, 2009Tuesday’s execution of Mr. Larry Swearingen was stayed today by the Fifth Circuit. Standdown.org has more. [via iPhone]
Blog & weekly — work conflicts
Posted on January 25, 2009For the next few days postings here will be virtually nonexistent (save for any developments from the SCOTUS or stays). Likewise the weekly email edition will not run. I start a fairly heavy trial on Monday, or at least heavy for where I practice. My apologies for any inconvenience...
Texas kills
Posted on January 22, 2009From local media: Frank Moore insisted until the very end that he fatally shot two men 15 years ago in self-defense. “Self-defense is not capital murder,” the 47-year-old said from the death chamber gurney, the Associated Press reported. At 6:21 p...
Oklahoma & Texas kill
Posted on January 22, 2009In Texas: Reginald Perkins, a convicted rapist and suspected serial killer, was executed in Texas for strangling and robbing his stepmother in Fort Worth more than eight years ago. About an hour before he was executed, Perkins summoned a prison official to his cell and gave him a statement professing his innocence...
update on opt-in
Posted on January 20, 2009The Bush Administration?s proposed regulations governing opt-in have been enjoined, at least for now. The TRO was issued on an application by the Habeas Corpus Resource Center. Habeas Corpus Resource Center v. U.S. Department of Justice, No. C 08-2649 CW (N...
Fifth Circuit MLK day grant of relief
Posted on January 20, 2009On Monday, the Fifth Circuit in Gaylon Walbey Jr v Quarterman granted penalty phase relief on counsel’s performance. From that opinion: On the performance prong of Strickland, there is little room for debate that the district courtwas correct to agree with the magistrate judge?s conclusion that Ezell?s investigation of a potential mitigation defense was deficient...
ICJ on post-Avena execution of Mexican nationals
Posted on January 20, 2009The International Court of Justice has condemned the execution of Mr. José Ernesto Medellín Rojas. AP notes: The International Court of Justice ruled Monday that the United States defied its order last year when authorities in Texas executed a Mexican convicted of rape and murder...
system burp
Posted on January 20, 2009There appears to be a glitch in our database that knocked out most of January posts. My apologies. We should have most of the posts back later tonight. Long story short, rather than backuping up the site I installed a backup.
Opt-in regs dead for now
Posted on January 20, 2009The first press release issued by the new administration indicated federal agencies were directed to halt all pending regulations “until a legal and policy review can be conducted by the Obama administration.” The win on the opt-in regs will be the top “win” of 2009 unless Maryland abolishes the death penalty as it appears [...
wire: clemency & commutation list now available
Posted on January 19, 2009The final clemency and commutation list appears to have been published.
So much for opt-in?
Posted on January 18, 2009The Bush Administrations proposed regulations governing opt-in have been enjoined, at least for now: For the reasons stated in open court, Defendants are temporarily restrained and enjoined from making effective the rule entitled ?Certification Process for State Capital Counsel Systems,? published at 73 Fed...
Thanks
Posted on January 18, 2009Thanks to e-justice for naming us just one of the top 50 human rights blog globally.
weekly email edition
Posted on January 18, 2009The weekly email edition will go out MLK day. Sorry for any confusion caused by the delay.
New CLE data
Posted on January 18, 2009My apologies for the delay in posting new CLE information. For the first few months of 2009: Training for the Long Run January 22-25, 2009 // Harrisburg, PA PACDL & NCADP hosts a ?nuts & bolts? of capital trials with special emphasis on tactics for winning life sentences at trial (what works & what doesn?t)...
Germane cert grant
Posted on January 17, 2009The SCOTUS on Friday granted cert in Bobby v. Bies , a capital case. Specifically (via SCOTUSBlog): Whether a state is constitutionally barred from challenging the claim of mental retardation of an individual it seeks to execute for crime, if a state court had once found the person to be retarded even while upholding a death [...
Recovering deleted posts
Posted on January 16, 2009As noted in a post above, an accident caused many of the posts from earlier this month to be deleted. Not all of the posts have been recovered, however, here are some of those posts: So much for opt-in? [updated]The Bush Administrations proposed regulations governing opt-in have been enjoined, at least for now...
Alabama kills
Posted on January 15, 2009from the wires: Callahan was the first of five inmates set for execution in the first five months of this year. Alabama had no executions in 2008. James Harvey Callahan has been executed for the 1982 kidnapping, rape and murder of an Alabama woman. The 62-year-old Callahan died at 6:24 p...
Two to read
Posted on January 13, 2009I’m hoping to catch up on the news Weds. nite, for now, however, two cases of note. The SCOTUS in Jiminez v. Quarterman, Justice Thomas writing for the Court, holds that where a state court grants a criminal defendant the right to filean out-of-time direct appeal during state collateral review, but beforethe defendant has first sought [...
Trainings
Posted on January 11, 2009My apologies for the delay in posting new CLE information (esp. considering the first event listed is winding down as I type). Fifth National Seminar on Forensic Evidence and The Criminal Law January 8-11, 2009 // Philadelphia, PA Program will bring together the nation’s foremost scientific and legal experts to focus on those developments in fields such [...
Say hello to..
Posted on January 11, 2009Say hello to: Capital Habeas Blog - NDOH This blog is prepared and maintained by the Capital Habeas Unit of the Federal Public Defender for the Northern District of Ohio. It is to be used as a resource for attorneys litigating habeas cases. Posts are the opinions of the authors, not necessarily of the Federal [...
whereabouts
Posted on January 11, 2009I start picking a jury on my second trial of the year on Monday. On the 26th I start picking on my third, a felony-murder trial. Long stroy short, the next few weeks expect light postings. The weekly case law round-up won’t run this week but should run next week.
SCOTUS does crimlaw
Posted on January 11, 2009SCOTUSBlog notes its criminal law week at the Court. Cases of interest include: Harbison v. Bell (07-8521), involving the right of prisoners to have federally funded counsel during state clemency proceedings. Montejo v. Louisiana (07-1529), involving interrogation and the appointment of counsel for indigent defendants...
jurors, the Bible & death
Posted on January 07, 2009Doug Berman beat me to the punch on a hot new cert petition many will be watching: I have previously noted in prior posts how lower courts have split over the consequences of juror consideration of biblical passages during the penalty phase of a capital trial...
$6.5 million for being wrongfully sent to death row
Posted on January 06, 2009from Chicago media: Lawyers for Madison Hobley say the former Illinois death row inmate is moving ahead to collect $6.5 million in a legal settlement with the city of Chicago.Hobley served 13 years in prison for a 1987 arson fire that killed seven people, including his wife and infant son...
California’s death chamber will remain closed for now
Posted on January 06, 2009The Governator decided not to appeal the decsion to shutter — at least for now — California’s death chamber. California officials have abandoned a legal fight over their bid to secretly overhaul the state’s execution method, a move that sends the issue back to square one and leaves San Quentin’s newly-constructed execution chamber idled for the [...
“ferociously committed” ” model of indefatigable advocacy”
Posted on January 06, 2009One of my role models, Bette Niemi, — described in the press as “ferociously committed” ” model of indefatigable advocacy” — has retired. This press piece tells you a little bit about why she was so widely amdired: She was hardly a great orator...
Cases to watch?
Posted on January 05, 2009What cases should we be watching this year, suggestions? Comments are open, feel free to post anonymously.
weekly email edition
Posted on January 05, 2009From this week’s email edition: Willie H. Nowell v. State from the Florida Supreme Court leads off this edition. The Nowell Court grants a new trial as the trial court erred in allowing the State?s peremptory strike against a member of a minority group; the prosecutor’s claim that he struck a juror out of a general [...
execution data
Posted on January 05, 2009Execution data for the rest of the winter is listed to the right.
Broken system: Georgia indigent defense
Posted on January 02, 2009NYT has this on a suit filed by lawyers from the Southern Center for Human Rights on behalf of a man who has been without counsel for eight months pretrial. [h/t Howard]
Illinois Senate designee “Sought Death Penalty for Innocent Man”
Posted on January 01, 2009The headline says it all: Former Illinois attorney general Roland Burris, embattled Gov. Rod Blagojevich?s pick to replace Barack Obama in the Senate, is no stranger to controversy. Public fury over the governor?s alleged misconduct has masked the once lively debate over Burris’ decision to continue to prosecute ? despite the objections of one of his top [...
Murder rate in NJ following abolition
Posted on December 31, 2008The Star Ledger provides the preliminary numbers of murders for the first calendar year following abolition in New Jersey. While the the numbers in all towns and counties aren’t available, the murder rate appears to have dropped, approximately 5-10%...
this week’s edition
Posted on December 29, 2008Seasons greetings, Merry (belated) Christmas & Happy New Year. From this week’s edition. Leading off this week is John Thompson v. Harry F. Connick, et al, a civil case. Prosecutos in Thompson knowingly failed to turn over key exculpatory information...
For anyone who has ever quit a job because their morals required it….
Posted on December 24, 2008Doctors may not ethically participate in executions. In Washington, the top medical officer at DoC resigned rather than participate in supervising those who will implement the execution warrant. From the Olympian The state Department of Corrections’ top medical officer has resigned, saying that the use of agency staff members to prepare for an execution is unethical...
JEHT to close its door a victim of the Madoff
Posted on December 21, 2008I’ve been perhaps slow posting the earthquake of a story that JEHT will be closing its doors. Scott @ Grit notes: News came on Monday that the JEHT Foundation, a philanthropic charity out of New York that has funded a great deal of criminal justice reform work in Texas and around the country, will cease giving [...
NC: Just one
Posted on December 17, 2008North Carolina in 2008 sentenced just one person to death. James Ray Little was the only person sentenced to death in North Carolina this year. 2008 saw the lowest number of new death sentences in North Carolina since the death penalty was reinstated in 1977...
Texas CCA: pigs fly
Posted on December 17, 2008The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in Ex Parte Michael Toney, NO. AP-76,056, ordered a new trial based on the failure of the State to divulge exculpatory information / “Brady error.” Media accounts note: The decision was not a surprise to defense attorneys or the Tarrant County District Attorney?s office, who, in an unusual move, agreed [...
Harris County sends no one to death row in 2008
Posted on December 17, 2008Harris County Texas - arguably the capital of the American death penalty - sent no one to death row in 2008. TMN has more.
New Hampshire: Addison jury still out
Posted on December 17, 2008Michael Addison killed Manchester, N.H police Officer Michael Briggs. Monday lawyers finished summing up their penalty phase arguments to the jury on whether or not to condemn Mr. Addison to death. After 13 hours of deliberation jurors have yet to deliver a verdict...
New Jersey one year later: the sky still hasn’t fallen
Posted on December 17, 2008This week marks the one year anniversary of abolition of the New Jersey death penalty. The Star-Ledger, that state’s largest paper, reflects: A year later, prosecutors and defense lawyers agree the demise of the death penalty has had no discernible impact on the way would-be capital cases are prosecuted in New Jersey...
Abandonning unanimity in Georgia?!?!?
Posted on December 17, 2008via the NY Times: Representative David Ralston, a Blue Ridge Republican who is chairman of the House Non-Civil Judiciary Committee, said, ?The Nichols case, because it?s so recent and so high profile and the guilt of the defendant is so clear, has provided a great deal of momentum to the supporters of a change...
Urban legends already surrounding the Nichols case?
Posted on December 16, 2008Urban legends surrounding high profile criminal cases are nothing new. So when I received the email below on the Brian Nichols case, I at first shrugged it off. I decided, however, others might want to know what some are thinking out there: The Nichols case had nothing to do with “skilled attorneys”...
Colorado: update
Posted on December 16, 2008Colorado’s death row recently doubled. via email: Colorado?s death row population doubled last week when Sir Mario Owens was officially sentenced to death on Monday, December 8. He joins Nathan Jerard Dunlap, who methodically murdered four people in an Aurora Chuck E...
Life: what a beautiful choice (Brian Nichols edition)
Posted on December 12, 2008DPIC a few days ago released its year in review. From this lawywer’s perspective, it missed THE lead story of the year, no case is unwinnable, no client beyond mercy. Following the stunning life verdict earlier this year in the State of Texas v...
Florida grants of relief
Posted on December 11, 2008The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday granted relief in Mark Anthony Poole v. State, SC05-1770, and Gabby Tennis v. State, SC06-730. Taking the cases in reverse order, a new trial (both guilty and penalty) is ordered in light of the denial to self-representation...
AEDPA regs are out
Posted on December 10, 2008The AEDPA egulations are out. The regs appear to be effective as of January 10, 2008. The regs, to be blunt, border on silly, including a proviso that once a state is “certified” a state could not have its certification removed unless a state asks to be removed (even if purposefully abandons compliance with the [...
Ohio Supreme Court reverses a death sentence
Posted on December 10, 2008In State v. Diar the Ohio Supreme Court vacated a death setnence in light of the State’s concession of error: Brooks counseled courts to advise jurors in capital cases that ?a solitary juror may prevent a death penalty recommendation by finding that the aggravating circumstances in the case do not outweigh the mitigating factors...
More Recommendations from the Tennessee Committee to Study the Administration of the Death Penalty
Posted on December 09, 2008via TCASK: During a three hour meeting yesterday, the Tennessee Committee to Study the Administration of the Death Penalty worked through more issues and produced more recommendations. The most dramatic of the recommendations made yesterday was the approval of legislation to recommend that the Tennessee General Assembly create an independent commission to oversee capital defense services [...
Nichols now in the jury’s hands
Posted on December 09, 2008In one of the most notorious trials — both for the crimes committed by the Defendant & the process by which he was brought to trial — in recent years, the jury has begun its deliberations: Jurors began deliberations Tuesday morning to decide whether to execute Brian Nichols...
email edition posted
Posted on December 08, 2008From this week’s edition Leading off this edition is last week’s decision from the Ninth Circuit in Ricky David Sechrest v. Ignacio. Sechrest, in some ways, reads like a bar exam if capital habeas corpus was on the exam. The State in Sechrest argued, erroneously, repeatedly, and impermissibly, in the closing of the penalty phase that [...
South Carolina kills
Posted on December 05, 2008via local media: The man convicted of kidnapping, raping, torturing and killing Melissa McLauchlin in Dorchester County in 1992 has died by lethal injection. Joseph Gardner was pronounced dead at 6:15 pm Friday in the state’s death chamber in Columbia...
stay holds in Pvt Gray’s case
Posted on December 05, 2008The stay on behalf of Pvt. Gray by Senior Judge Rogers is still holding. The district court has denied the United States’ motion to reconsider, leaving his stay and order appointing counsel in place. United States v. Gray, No. 08-3289-RDR (D. Kan...
Per curiam: Hedgpeth v. Pulido
Posted on December 02, 2008“The United States Supreme Court issued one decision today. In Hedgpeth v. Pulido, the Court issued a per curiam decision, with 3 justices dissenting as to the remand, in which it held that a conviction based on jury instructions containing more than one theory of guilt, where one theory is invalid, is to be judged [...
email edition
Posted on December 01, 2008This week’s email edition is now done. From the intro: The news of the edition is stays, including those of Messrs. Cannady (Tex), Cathey (Tex), Eaton (Wyo), Gray (US Mil) & Stenson (Wash), as well as Ms. Franks (La). Not that long ago many commentators were realistically expecting 200+ executions a year by now, especially following [...
9th grants nocapital habeas relief
Posted on December 01, 2008via CrimProf Blog: A federal court of appeals on Thursday overturned the conviction of a West Valley man found guilty of killing nine people at a Buddhist temple west of Phoenix in 1991. Jonathan Doody was one of two youths convicted of the infamous temple murders, and he has been serving nine life sentences in state prison [...
summing it up nicely
Posted on December 01, 2008I loved this quote from Randall Hodgkinson @ the Kansas Defenders: As a matter of constitutional law and legal ethics, quality representation for the poor is not negotiable. If the state doesn’t want to pay for indigent defense, it needs to prosecute fewer people (or at least fewer poor people)...
Giving thanks
Posted on November 27, 2008Not that long ago many commentators were realistically expecting 200+ executions a year by now, especially following the election of a President many had called the Texecutioner. This year’s total executions will be no more than 37 (and possibly just 36), the smallest number since 1994...
stays galore from Washington, US Military and Louisiana
Posted on November 26, 2008Three stays of note, those of Messrs. Gray (US Mil) & Stenson (Wash), as well as Ms. Franks (La). As to Mr. Stenson’s stay the notes: Federal and state judges have indefinitely delayed the scheduled Dec. 3 execution of Darold Stenson for the 1993 shooting deaths of his wife and a business partner in Clallam County...
Rest in Peace Michael
Posted on November 25, 2008Michael Mello has died. I could try to capture in words what he has meant to a generation of young formerly young lawyers, but Vermont Public Radio captures it better than I could: Mello spent his early career in the 1980s as a public defender in Florida’s capital appeals division...
Life in NC
Posted on November 25, 2008“Clinton Smith, who was sentenced to die ten years ago for the poisoning death of his daughter, was resentenced to life in prison. Smith is the 14th person removed from North Carolina?s death row due to mental retardation, and several other cases are still pending...
Defense rests in capital court-martial
Posted on November 24, 2008CAAFlog is noting, “as reported by the Fayetteville Observer here, the defense rested today in the capital court-martial of United States v. Martinez. Staff Sergeant Martinex didn’t take the stand.”
Last night in prison for a crime he didn’t commit?
Posted on November 24, 2008via the Innocence Project: Innocence Project client Steven Barnes is expected to be released from prison November 25 after serving nearly two decades for a rape and murder that he has always maintained he didn?t commit. The Innocence Project and the Oneida County District Attorney?s Office issued this joint statement on November 24: ?Later today, we will [...
Between a rock and a hard place
Posted on November 20, 2008via AP & Skelly John Delaney faced the toughest moment of his legal career - his condemned client wanted to drop his appeals and die by injection, an act Delaney opposed and had been trained to try to prevent. “What do you say?” asked Delaney, a public defender in northern Kentucky who represented Marco Allen Chapman...
US Military sets an execution date
Posted on November 20, 2008The United States Army has scheduled the execution of Pvt. Ronald Gray at Terre Haute for December 12, 2008. Odds appear to favor a stay as federal habeas litigation, from my understanding, has yet to be exhausted. From the Army’s press release: The Army has scheduled the execution of Pvt...
Texas kills
Posted on November 20, 2008Texas tonight killed Robert Hudson. Mr. Hudson death brings the scheduled executions in Texas to a close at 18 with a total of 423 executions since 1982. Six executions are scheduled in January. From media sources Hudson repeatedly expressed love to his wife and a friend who watched through a window and ignored four [...
Still working through yesterday’s
Posted on November 20, 2008Still working through yesterday’s Tex CCA orders and a very troubling order in Hood. My apologies.
NC Lethal injection update
Posted on November 19, 2008“Should doctors monitor execution? High court wants clarification on law,” is the title of Dan Kane’s report in the News & Observer. The N.C. Supreme Court dove into the two-year stalemate on executions Tuesday by asking attorneys to define what legislators meant by requiring a doctor to be present when convicted murderers are put to death...
new scholarship
Posted on November 19, 2008As often happens, someone beat me to this new SSRN article. Pofessor Susan Bandes has this new piece up at SSRN, titled “Repellent Crimes and Rational Deliberation: Emotion and the Death Penalty.” It is in my to read box for court in teh morning: It is often assumed that the anger, outrage and other strong emotions [...
Ohio kills
Posted on November 19, 2008This morning Ohio kiled Gregory Bryant-Bey. For Thursday Texas scheduled the death of Robert Hudson. On Friday Kentucky plans to kill Marco Chapman. From the wires: Gregory Bryant-Bey, 53, died at 10:41 a.m. at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville...
Dick Cheney indicted (not an April Fools Joke)
Posted on November 18, 2008A Texas grand jury has indicted the Vice President for malfeasance. Via the Houston Chronicle: A South Texas grand jury has indicted Vice President Dick Cheney and former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on state charges related to the alleged abuse of prisoners in Willacy County’s federal detention centers...
Texas Stay for Eric Cathey
Posted on November 18, 2008The execution of Eric Cathey was stayed by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. The Chronicle notes: The court remanded Cathey’s appeal to a lower court for a hearing on his claim that he is mentally retarded. Cathey, 37, would have been the 18th killer executed in Texas this year...
William Dillon to be released after 27 years for crime he didn’t commit
Posted on November 18, 2008William Dillon will be released today following 27 years for a murder DNA says he didn’t commit in Breward County, Florida. Shortly after Mr Dillon’s release, in an unrelated case marred by prosecutorial misconduct, the state of Florida will execute Wayne Tompkins...
Lowest in 14 years
Posted on November 18, 2008Pending execution data on the right side of the screen has been updated. In addition to the 33 people already executed this year another 5 execution dates are considered serious. As a result of the updated execution dates and the number of people executed so far this year, barring surprises, there will be no more [...
Rogelio Cannady stayed in Texas
Posted on November 18, 2008TMN notes: AP is reporting that Texas death row inmate Rogelio Cannady will avoid execution Wednesday over a 1993 prison killing. Cannady’s execution date was withdrawn today by Judge Ronald Yeager. Cannady’s recently appointed appeals lawyer asked for more time to review the case...
NYT gets it right: Pardon the Norfolk Four
Posted on November 17, 2008The New York Times today got it right today in asking Gov. Tim Kaine of Virginia to pardon the Norfolk Four. [H/T TalkLeft]
Boston Legal
Posted on November 17, 2008Another great rant in closing against the death penalty. YouTube link to follow when its avaialable. Great show.
safe surrender
Posted on November 16, 2008An interesting story out of Philadelphia and its sister city across the river, Camden, NJ, on getting felons on the loose out of the shadows to resolve their outstanding warrants. New Jersey fugitives can take advantage of Fugitive Safe Surrender next week, as Camden becomes the 12th city nationwide to host the peaceful surrender program since [...
email edition
Posted on November 16, 2008This week’s email edition it out. From the intro: Leading off this edition is Thursday’s decision from the Florida Supreme Court in State v. Faunce Levon Pearce. The trial court in Pearce granted both guilt phase and penalty phase relief based on trial counsel’s performance...
Recommendation made to abolish the death penalty in Maryland
Posted on November 12, 2008The Maryland Commission on Capital Punishment voted 13-7 to make the recommendation in its report to lawmakers and the governor next month. The vote came after the failure of a proposed amendment to keep the death penalty for people who kill correctional officers or police officers...
notable post from elsewhere
Posted on November 12, 2008Doug Berman has this notable piece on AEDPA & capital habeas jurisprudence. From that piece Two events this morning have me thinking about federal habeas review in state capital cases and about the (limited?) potential for a new administration to impact these issue: 1...
Texas kills
Posted on November 12, 2008Texas tonight killed a repentant George Whitaker III: A Houston-area man condemned for fatally shooting his ex-girlfriend’s sister during an attack that also seriously wounded the former girlfriend’s mother and another sister was executed Wednesday...
Rebalancing in the federal courts of appeal
Posted on November 10, 2008The National Law Journal has this must read article (via Steve Hall) on the power of the new adminstration to shape the lower federal judiciary. Long story short, four of the six most active courts handling capital cases will move from majority Republican appointee to majority Democratic appointee...
notable cert denial
Posted on November 10, 2008The Supreme Court this morning denied cert in Kelly v. California with three justices dissenting and two releasing opinions (Justices Stevens and Breyer). The issue is whether the video used in support of victim impact went too far. The SCOTUSblog notes: In the new ?victim impact? cases, Justice John Paul Stevens noted that the Court has [...
email edition
Posted on November 10, 2008This week’s email edition is available here. From the introduction: This edition marks a slight change in format that will hopefully bring to readers’ attention “new” cases more quickly than has been happening. Please note that at the end of this edition is an analysis of the new Administration’s likely criminal justice actions...
what’s new? weekly’s running a little late
Posted on November 09, 2008The weekly email edition’s skeletal form (everything save the intro) is available here, including a final version of what to expect on criminal justice issues from the new Administration. I’m hoping to have final email edition out by close of buisiness Monday rather than pulling an all nighter.
a vote for life
Posted on November 09, 2008A federal judge in the Eastern District of New York on Friday sentenced sentenced Humberto Pepin Taveras to life in prison following a jury deadlock as to punishment.From the Daily News: One of the jurors in the case of Humberto Pepin Taveras said as many as five of the 12 panel members favored a life [...
DNA testing ordered in Tennessee
Posted on November 09, 2008A Tennessee trial court has ordered DNA testing for William Glenn Rogers. More information is here & we’ll update once we hear more.
The meaning of counsel
Posted on November 08, 2008Indigent defense is in crisis. As budgets dwindle for defending “them” from what many view as “justice” fewer and fewer skilled defenders, are facing a mounting case load. In the capital arena the Utah Supreme Court in Archuleta v...
Nichols guilty all counts
Posted on November 07, 2008The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that Nichols has been found guilty. I’ll have comment after the penalty phase verdict.
new legal research tools
Posted on November 07, 2008via Stand Down: That’s the title of Robert Ambrogi’s must read article at Law.com’s Legal Technology Review. LINK Here are some snippets: LexisNexis has launched a beta version of its Web search tool, called Lexis Web. Unlike general search sites such as Google, Lexis Web searches a more limited sphere of legal-oriented Web sites...
a dissent in Texas on future dangerousness
Posted on November 06, 2008Texas has fairly unique sentencing scheme with future dangerousness being one of the most controversial aspects of the its death penalty scheme. On several occasions factually innocent men have been found by experts and juries, beyond a reasonable doubt, to pose a future danger...
Texas kills
Posted on November 06, 2008The State of Texas tonight killed Elkie Lee Taylor despite strong evidence of his mental retardation. From media accounts: “You ain’t got to worry about nothing,” Elkie Lee Taylor told an aunt and a couple of friends from the death chamber gurney...
New Hampshire: Life over death
Posted on November 06, 2008Good news from a case we’ve been watching, this time out of northern New England Convicted murderer John ‘Jay’ Brooks has been sentenced to life in prison on two counts of capital murder, sparing him the death penalty. A Rockingham County Superior Court jury found enough aggravating factors to sentence convicted murderer John ‘Jay’ Brooks [...
a to do list for the new administration.
Posted on November 06, 2008A very thoughtful and provocative to do list for the next administration has been released by the Constitution Project and its collaborators. After the 2008 elections, America?s policymakers will take a fresh look at the criminal justice system, which so desperately needs their attention...
Florida grant of penalty phase relief
Posted on November 06, 2008The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday affirmed the grant of penalty phase relief in Rodney Tyrone Lowe v. State, No. SC05-633, on the basis of trial counsel’s failure to discover and present evidence that another person, and not the Condemned, had confessed to civilian witnesses that he, and not Mr...
CCA remands
Posted on November 05, 2008The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals remanded in Ex parte William Speers, No. WR-59,101-02, on the claim the State withheld evidence of a cooperation agreement was not disclosed. Applicant asserts that prison investigators used another inmate as an informant to testify against him...
more on what to expect in the new administration
Posted on November 05, 2008Talkleft, PFAW, & NACDL all have thoughts on yesterday’s fedeal elelction and crimlaw. Mark Bennett & StandDown looks at the elections in Texas and crimlaw.
Jan 21, 2009: crimlaw issues
Posted on November 04, 2008I’m sure I’m not the only crimlaw type wondering what to expect from the next administration following what is expected today’s Democratic electoral victory. Speaking strictly for me, here is what I think we’ll see. As to the narrow issue of this blog, following the elections the death penalty will likely continue to wither on the [...
Obama and the death penalty
Posted on November 04, 2008A quick primer on Obama in the death penalty that appeared some time ago in the Washington Post. “In a nutshell: He’s pro-death penalty but he is also pro-let’s not execute the wrong guy” Five years later, Obama waded into a complex capital-punishment debate after a number of exonerations persuaded then-Gov...
cert grant
Posted on November 03, 2008A germane cert grant is noted by the SCOTUS Blog: The Supreme Court agreed on Monday to decide whether a state prison inmate may seek access to DNA evidence for use in pursuing a claim of innocence, by filing a civil rights claim after his trial is over...
Texas kills
Posted on October 30, 2008Texas tonight killed Gregory Wright. DNA seemingly indicates that Mr. Wright’s co-defendant, and not he, was responsible for the murder at bar. Proclaiming his innocence, condemned prisoner Gregory Wright was executed Thursday evening for the fatal stabbing and robbery of a Dallas-area woman who tried to help him when he was homeless...
Life in Indiana
Posted on October 28, 2008Somehow we missed a decision for life for Zolo Agona Azania in Indiana in one of that state’s highest profile capital cases. From the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette: After years of wrangling over whether he would be executed for the 1981 murder of a Gary police officer and days before a jury would again consider his [...
Texas kills
Posted on October 28, 2008from media accounts: Asked by the warden if he had a final statement, Eric Nenno replied, ?No, warden.? Eight minutes after the lethal drugs began to flow, he was pronounced dead at 6:20 p.m. CDT. The girl?s father and grandfather were among the witnesses, but Nenno did not acknowledge them...
Withering on the vine?
Posted on October 26, 2008Two divergent sources, same analysis, capital punishment is dying. Campus Progress notes: Last year, New Jersey became the first state to outright abolish its death penalty since 1965. And despite upholding the constitutionality of Kentucky?s lethal injection procedure in April of this year, in June the Supreme Court concluded the execution of child rapists is illegal...
New x-dates
Posted on October 25, 2008A number of new execution dates have been added in recent days including this curious one out of Kentucky, which hasn’t executed anyone in almost a decade. From press accounts: BODY,.aolmailheader {font-size:10pt; color:black; font-family:Arial;} a...
Davis stayed
Posted on October 24, 2008The issue on which on Davis was stayed? the parties are directed to address whether Davis may be executed if he can establish actual innocence under 28 U.S.C. § 2244(b)(2)(B)(ii), but cannot satisfy his burden under § 2244(b)(2)(B)(i). Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant...
I should have known
Posted on October 24, 2008This video is funny, really funny. Thanks to whomever sent it:
New scholarship: a dirty little secret and confessions
Posted on October 22, 2008Ok, the header is slightly misleading. A few weeks ago Brandon Garrett placed online at SSRN an article entitled The Substance of Falsw Confessions. Prof. Garrett asked that it not be circulated or cited without approval. I’ve held off mentioning the article out of deference for his wishes...
Walker v. Georgia
Posted on October 20, 2008The Court on Monday denied cert in Georgia v. Walker. DPIC’s summary is better than any I could have written Justice Stevens wrote:I find this case, which involves a black defendant and a white victim, particularly troubling. . . Rather than perform a thorough proportionality review to mitigate the heightened risks of arbitrariness and discrimination [...
email edition not running
Posted on October 19, 2008The headline says it all. The email edition won’t be running this week in light of a very, very light week in reported cases. - karl
New Hampshire’s first death eligible homicide conviction in almost 50 years
Posted on October 18, 2008John Brooks was found guilty Thursday of capital murder in New Hampshire. This is the first death eligible homicide conviction since 1959 in New Hampshire and the first state capital murder conviction in any state in the First Circuit in decades. The penalty phase begins Wednesday.
Texas kills
Posted on October 16, 2008Texas on Thursday executed Kevin Watts. From media sources: Texas carried out the second execution of the week Thursday evening in Huntsville as a 27-year-old street gangster convicted of gunning down three people during a robbery in 2002 in San Antonio was put to death...
Capital court martials
Posted on October 16, 2008The good folks at CAAFlog note: According to this article from the lower Hudson Valley’s Journal News, the ongoing capital court-martial of Army Staff Sergeant Alberto Martinez is mired in the member selection stage. While the trial on the merits was expected to start at Fort Bragg this week, opening statements have now “been postponed until [...
Geography of Death
Posted on October 13, 2008One might suspect it is an election year. The Atlanta Journal Constitution Sunday examined the recent uptick in Dekalb & Fulton County (for “geographically challenged” like me those appear to be the Atlanta area) in capital prosecutions...
SD stay
Posted on October 13, 2008via email & the AP: One of South Dakota?s death row inmates was originally scheduled for execution next week, but it?s on hold because of his appeal to the state Supreme Court. Briley Piper of Anchorage, Alaska, hopes to get his death sentence overturned...
If we had time
Posted on October 12, 2008Stories we haven’t had time to cover, or at least cover yet: The first execution this year outside theDeath Belt is scheduled for this week in Ohio, that of Richard Cooey. (DPIC notes executions this year include: 9 in Texas, 4 in Virginia, and 3 in Georgia with at least 12 cases have been granted stays [...
Giving respect where respect is due: voted Houston’s best criminal defense attorney
Posted on October 12, 2008via Mark Bennett: When the free weekly Houston Press tabloid newsletter published its annual ?Best Of? issue this month, and named the best criminal defense attorney in Houston, it wasn?t one of my high-dollar brethren or sistren. It was Danalyn Recer of the Gulf Regional Advocacy Center (GRACe)...
Texas to kill12 in six weeks
Posted on October 12, 2008The Texas execution machine is about to go in to overdrive with 12 people scheduled to be killed in the next six weeks. From the Associated Press: The crowd on A-Wing A-Section at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Polunsky Unit is about to get thinned...
email edition up
Posted on October 12, 2008This week’s email edition is now available: Leading off this edition is the Sixth Circuit’s grant of penalty phase relief in Maurice Mason v. Mitchel. The grant of relief here is unexceptional. Counsel’s investigation consisted of “no more than reviewing documents provided by the state, arranging for a psychiatric evaluation limited to predicting Mason?s future dangerousness, [...
the costs of federal captial trials
Posted on October 11, 2008The Office of Defender Services of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts has released an updated report on the cost, quality and availability of defense representation in federal death penalty cases. Unsuprisingly death costs much, much, more...
certs denied NC
Posted on October 07, 2008Our good friend at Death Watch NC notes: The U.S. Supreme Court today denied cert for North Carolina death row inmates Eric Call and Jimmie Lawrence. This was the final appeal for both Call and Lawrence. NC?s own Jack Payden-Travers has this op-ed in a California newspaper about the tremendous financial cost of the death penalty.
Finality over fairness
Posted on October 05, 2008Over at the ACS Blog former FBI Director and federal judge William Sessions, a member of the Constitution Project’s Death Penalty Initiative notes: The release of 130 individuals from death row has made clear that the administration of the death penalty is not infallible...
favorable cases from this next edition
Posted on October 05, 2008From this week?s edition: Maurice Mason v. Mitchell, 2008 U.S. App. LEXIS 20840 (6th Cir. 10/3/2008) “Mason?s counsel failed to investigate Mason?s background and essentially conducted no interviews of any of Mason?s family members prior to settling upon a plan for the sentencing phase that was limited to appeals for mercy and claims of residual [...
email edition
Posted on September 28, 2008The email edition is now available. Note, we played around with this week’s formatting, please let us know if there is a problem. I’m off holiday and in court all day Monday. I’ll be iphone posting (i.e. no links), the results of the long conference as they are known...
refocusing on the basics
Posted on September 28, 2008The site has been stripped down. If there is a link you were looking for we likely will have it moved to my old practice website, karlkeys.com, in the coming days. Instead of a large number of links we’ve added a “cases being watched” section which will include notable capital trials, cases, and [...
Troy Davis
Posted on September 27, 2008On Monday, September 29th, the Supreme Court will decide whether or not to accept Troy Davis’ cert petition. The decision whether or not to grant cert may be announced on that day, or the order may not come down until the following Monday, October 6...
Justice Alito opts out
Posted on September 26, 2008Great news via Doug Berman on diminishing the power of law clerks, Justice Alito has opted out of the so-called cert pool.
Alabama Supreme Court refuses to set date for Arthur
Posted on September 26, 2008via wire stories: The Alabama Supreme Court has denied a request from Attorney General Troy King to set another execution date for convicted killer Thomas D. Arthur. In a 6-2 decision Tuesday, the court ruled the state must wait for a lower court to determine whether Arthur will get access to DNA evidence...
Oklahoma kills
Posted on September 25, 2008Oklahoma tonight killed Jessie James Cummings Jr Convicted killer Jessie James Cummings Jr. has been executed for the 1991 stabbing death of his 11-year-old niece. Department of Corrections spokesman Jerry Massie says Cummings was pronounced dead at 6:11 p...
Davis stayed
Posted on September 23, 2008The Supreme Court on Tuesday stayed until at least next Monday the execution of Troy Davis. The stay appears related to his actual innocence claim - the scotusblog.com has the details. The Court appears to be concerned with the question left open in Herrera - whether factual innocence alone is enough [...
Florida kills
Posted on September 23, 2008Tuesday night, while most of those who follow such things had their eyes on Georgia, Florida killed Richard Henyard for his role in a string of crimes — including the murders of Jasmine & Jamily Lewis — in the 90’s.
Two favorable opinions from the week
Posted on September 21, 2008At first read, two favorable opinions from the week: Herbert Williams, Jr, v. Allen, 2008 U.S. App. LEXIS 19625 (11th Cir 9/17/2008) In this 9-3 jury override to death penaltyphase relief granted as “trial counsel?s investigation of mitigating evidence in Williams? background fell short of prevailing professional norms, and that the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals [...
weekly email edition available
Posted on September 21, 2008This week’s email edition is here. From the intro: The South Carolina Supreme Court’s decision in Donney S. Council v. State, affirming the grant of penalty phase relief, leads off this edition. The justices ruled, 4-1, that trial counsel should have done more than simply have Council’s mother testify during the sentencing phase of his trial...
I’m on the road, on holiday,
Posted on September 21, 2008I’m on the road, on holiday, and will be most likely merely i-phone posting all week.
McCain v. Obama & the Court
Posted on September 20, 2008The NYT looks at the difference this election will make on the SCOTUS.
Farewell PDI Net
Posted on September 19, 2008I’ve been meaning to write for the last few weeks an obit to Greg Worthen’s PDI.Net. Long story short, it was teh sigularly best starting point for may of the routine investigation chores that every attorney & investigator gets hit with on occassion (such as “I need x, y, & z’s phone number before I [...
cert watch: SCOTUS Conference of September 29, 2008
Posted on September 19, 2008The SCOTUSBlog has launched the first of its docket reviews for the Court which has its first Conference of the new term on September 29, 2008. In addition to the motion in Kennedy and the Troy Davis petition there are roughly 55-60 capital cases scheduled for the conference...
Dallas DA reexamining capital prosecutions
Posted on September 19, 2008Following a flurry of exonerations, Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins announced earlier this week that nearly 40 death penalty convictions will be re-examined provides additional assurances that executions will proceed only in cases that are air tight...
The more DNA that gets tested, the more Paul House apppears to be innocent
Posted on September 19, 2008Latest DNA findings from the Paul House case.
Why I Watch People Die
Posted on September 19, 2008Heavy stuff over at the Urban Monk — watching people get killed.
Stay: Washington
Posted on September 18, 2008The Washington State Supreme Court on Thursday stayed the execution of Robert Yates.
Texas exonerates
Posted on September 18, 2008via DPIC: A Collin County court in Texas has dismissed capital murder charges against Michael Blair who had been on death row for the 1993 murder of Ashley Estell. After more than a decade of legal appeals and requests for DNA testing, the hair evidence that had been used to convict Blair was [...
execution data updated
Posted on September 18, 2008The execution data to the right has been updated, including the moving of a Texas execution date originally scheduled for Thursday night to mid-October.
Texas kills
Posted on September 17, 2008Wednesday night Texas killed William Murray. From press accounts: William Murray was executed Wednesday night. He was the ninth Texas prisoner put to death this year. The total is the highest in the nation. Murray said drug problems led him to commit at least a dozen burglaries, including the one in February 1998 where Rena Ratcliff was awakened [...
Georgia kills Jack Alderman
Posted on September 16, 2008Georgia tonight killed Jack Alderman. Alderman, 57, had been on death row in Georgia 34 years, longer than any other prisoner. He was pronounced dead at 7:25 p.m. Tuesday. Alderman, who was convicted for the 1974 murder of his wife, Barbara Alderman, for $10,000 in insurance money, recorded a statement Tuesday ?thanking everyone who made his life [...
Mr. Alderman’s execution back on
Posted on September 16, 2008The Alderman execution is back on, as the stay has been lifted, according to sources. Those same sources report the fight for a stay continues. Reprieve.org has more, as does Standdown.org.
Troy Davis and the unanswered question in Herrera v. Collins
Posted on September 16, 2008via the SCOTUS Blog: A Georgia death-row inmate ? whose claims of innocence, based on a series of changed stories by witnesses against him, have given his case high visibility ? asked the Supreme Court on Tuesday to delay his execution, now set for Sept...
Alderman stay Georgia
Posted on September 15, 2008Jack Alderman, who has been on Georgia?s death row for over 33 years, has received a stay of execution. From Clive & co. @ Reprieve: Jack Alderman, who has been on Georgia?s death row for over 33 years, has received a stay of execution. Today a Judge ordered that Jack?s execution ? scheduled for tomorrow ? should not [...
email edition
Posted on September 14, 2008This week’s email edition is now available. From the intro: Leading of this week is the Third Circuit’s holding in Joseph Kindler v. Horn The Kindler panel first grants penalty phase relief under Mills v. Maryland holding the jury charge, verdict form, and the trial judge’s answers to jury questions created a “reasonable likelihood that the [...
Well said
Posted on September 13, 2008One of our commenters, VEW, hits the nail on the head. As a capital defense attorney I laud the judges decision to give life. As a Black Capital Defense attorney, i am reminded once again, it is the race of the victim that determines who gets death. A conflict within me: black lives are held less [...
Troy Davis: clemency denied
Posted on September 12, 2008Georgia’s Board of Pardons and Paroles denied clemency tonight.
Looking ahead
Posted on September 12, 2008via the Innocence Project The Innocence Project and the Mississippi Innocence Project are reviewing hundreds of cases for potential forensic fraud and wrongful conviction, and the Jackson Clarion-Ledger profiled two death row cases in Forrest County involving testimony by discredited medical examiner Steven Hayne and forensic dentist Michael West...
New Scholarship
Posted on September 11, 2008I’ve known for some time Kyle Graham, a Deputy District Attorney, in Mono County, California was writing Tactical Ineffective Assistance in Capital Trials, 57 American University Law Review 1645 (2008). The article is a must read for litigators, activists, and public policy types...
Japan kills
Posted on September 11, 2008Japan executed three people on Thursday. The death row inmates, all in their 60s, included Yoshiyuki Mantani, 68, Mineteru Yamamoto, 68, and Isamu Hirano, 61. The executions, by hanging, bring the year’s total to 13, with another 100 believed to be on death row.
Tennessee hearing update
Posted on September 11, 2008Stacy Rector of TCASK looks at the most recent hearing Study Committee hearing in Tennessee: Tuesday proved to be a very full day for the members of the Tennessee Death Penalty Study Committee. The meeting began at 10:00 a.m. with comments from Tennessee Supreme Court Justice Gary Wade and new Chief Justice Janice Holder...
WM 3 denied
Posted on September 11, 2008The headline sorta says it all: A judge on Wednesday rejected claims that DNA evidence clears three men convicted of killing three 8-year-old boys in 1993 and denied their requests for a new trial. Lawyers for Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley ? known to supporters as the “West Memphis Three” ? had argued that new [...
The other pending Georgia execution
Posted on September 10, 2008Troy Davis and Jack Alderman are both scheduled to be executed in the coming days. Both cases are seriously flawed, however, only one has garnered serious scrutiny. From Reprieve. Jack Alderman is the longest serving prisoner on death row in the USA ...
Life: what a beautiful choice
Posted on September 10, 2008A federal judge Tuesday sentenced two Kansas City men to life in prison for the racially motivated murder of a pedestrian in March 2005. A jury convicted Gary Eye and Steven Sandstrom in May of killing William McCay as he walked in the Northeast area on his way to work...
Fifth Circuit grants a COA
Posted on September 10, 2008The Fifth Circuit has granted a COA in Gary Johnson v. Quarterman, No. 07-70043 on issues relating to whether: [ ] The State?s suppression of evidence that two of the State?s witnesses at trial had been hypnotized violated Johnson?s due process rights under Brady v...
The Soap Opera Surrounding Charles Hood’s case to resolve Tuesday
Posted on September 09, 2008The press is asking: “could an alleged romantic relationship between a Judge and a Prosecutor have set the stage for Charles Hood’s date with death-scheduled for Wednesday Night?” The “travesty” that is the Hood case is scheduled to resolve Wednesday either with a stay or with an execution by 7 CST pm Wednesday...
SCOTUS this fall
Posted on September 09, 2008Via Harmful Error, SCOTUS preview October appears to the Search and Seizure and Federal Habeas Corpus Month at the Supreme Court. Criminal cases to be heard during October include the following: Tuesday, October 7 - Herring v. United States and Arizona v...
Tennessee death penalty study commission latest hearing
Posted on September 09, 2008via TCASK, the latest developments on teh Tennessee Death Penalty Study Commission: Today the Fairness subcommittee of the Tennessee Death Penalty Study Committee met to continue its discussion about how to improve representation for indigent defendants charged with capital crimes in Tennessee...
email edition is available
Posted on September 08, 2008From this week’s email edition: In this double edition several favorable dispositions are noted. In perhaps the “most run of the mill” type of claims covered here, failure of counsel to adequately investigate, prepare and present mitigation evidence, grants of relief are noted in Jesse Bond v...
Win in South Carolina
Posted on September 08, 2008The South Carolina Supreme Court in Donney S. Council v. State granted penalty phase relief: Given there is evidence to support the PCR judge?s holding that Respondent?s trial counsel was ineffective in failing to investigate and present mitigating evidence at the penalty [...
An order in Kennedy v. Louisiana
Posted on September 08, 2008The Supreme Court Monday issued an order in Kennedy v. Louisiana asking for briefing on the State’s motion for rehearing: 07-343 KENNEDY, PATRICK V. LOUISIANA Petitioner Patrick Kennedy is invited to file a supplemental brief, not to exceed 4,500 words, addressing not only whether rehearing should be granted but also the merits of the issue raised [...
Grant of relief under Ford in Pennsylvania
Posted on September 08, 2008Long ago having gone crazy, a court today rules he is too crazed to be executed. George Banks, 66, is psychotic and unable to comprehend his sentence or participate in his defense, making him incompetent to be put to death, Judge Michael Conahan said...
New Execution dates & stays
Posted on September 07, 2008Several stays, new execution dates and teh like. In Washington, Robert Lee Yates Jr. has been given a September 19th date — a stay is believed probable. The The South Carolina Corrections Department said in news release Friday that Freddie E...
Georgia clemency hearing update
Posted on September 07, 2008The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles said Friday it will not hold a clemency hearing for Jack Alderman but will hold a hearing for Troy Davis. Both men are scheduled to be executed in the coming weeks. Pardon Power has more. Both men have previously asserted claims of factual innocence...
new tool
Posted on September 07, 2008WebSupp.com now has, for free, a searchable web engine for many federal district court opinions.
Missouri stay
Posted on September 04, 2008Late yesterday afternoon the Missouri Supreme Court issued an order, staying the execution of John Middleton. The filings and related orders are at https://www.law.berkeley.edu/clinics/dpclinic/LethalInjection/Litigators/missouri.html.
Hood update
Posted on September 04, 2008via TalkLeft: Sometimes reports of romantic affairs by public officials, if true, matter. For Charles Dean Hood, set to be executed next week, it could mean the difference between life and death. A judge has set a hearing on whether the judge and prosecutor in his capital case were having a secret affair during Hood’s trial: The [...
new warrants out of Georgia
Posted on September 03, 2008Judge Michael Karpf of the Eastern Judicial Circuit allows Jack Alderman to be put to death by lethal injection between noon on Sept. 16 and noon Sept. 23, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. AJC also reports “[a]n execution warrant was signed Wednesday for Troy Anthony Davis, convicted in the 1989 murder of Savannah police officer [...
Kindler v. Horn
Posted on September 03, 2008The Third Circuit today granted penalty phase relief in Joseph Kindler v. Horn: To summarize: we conclude that the jury instructions and verdict sheet that were used during the penalty phase of Kindler?s trial denied him due process of law pursuant to the holding in Mills v...
A high profile plea
Posted on September 03, 2008AP reports: A plea agreement has been reached in a death-penalty case that may have led to the ouster of the former U.S. Attorney in Arizona. Jose Rios Rico pleaded guilty Tuesday to murder, drug and weapons charges in the February 2003 slaying of Angela Pinkerton...
was Baze a waste of time?
Posted on September 02, 2008via SL&P The DPIC has this recent item discussing the details of the 20 executions in months since the Supreme Court “resolved” the constitutionality of lethal injection protocols through its decision in Baze v. Rees. When I look at the data, I find it remarkable not only that we have returned to four or five executions [...
email edition
Posted on September 01, 2008Long weekend, tech issues. After the jump this week’s case list. An email edition will go out next week. - thanks Week of August 18, 2008 ? In Favor of the Defendant or the Condemned Jesse Bond v. Beard, 2008 U.S. App. LEXIS 17726 (3rd Cir 8/20/2008) Trial counsel failed to adequately investigate the Condemned?s social history...
Remand in Mississippi
Posted on August 28, 2008The Mississippi Supreme Court in Marlon Latodd Howell v. State determined Thursday that a remand is appropriate for a variety of factual issues that need to be further developed. Specifically Howell “is entitled to an evidentiary hearing on the claims of Rice?s recanted testimony, the issues related to his representation or lack thereof at the [...
California death sentence vacated
Posted on August 28, 2008On Wednesday, prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed in Sonoma County Superior Court that Calvin Coleman Jr is mentally retarded and therefore exempt from capital punishment. We’ve just uncorked a Clos du Bois cab sav from Sonoma County in celebration of the good sense of District Attorney Stephan R...
Case development out of Missouri
Posted on August 27, 2008In Michael Taylor v. State the Missouri Supreme Court reverses The circuit court denied postconviction relief. In a decision written by Chief Justice Laura Denvir Stith, the Supreme Court of Missouri concludes that the prosecution failed to obey rules and a court order requiring it to provide the impeaching information and that defense counsel were ineffective [...
noncapital exoneration
Posted on August 26, 2008“After serving 17 years in Ohio prison for a rape he didn’t commit, Robert McClendon was released August 11 due to DNA evidence of his innocence. This morning, he appeared again in a Columbus courtroom, as a judge dismissed charges pending against him...
with sadness…
Posted on August 25, 2008Rachel King has passed. Our thoughts and prayers remain with her family. Services will be later this week in Wayne, Maine at Wayne Methodist Church. Rachel worked tirelessly with the ACLU’s Capital Punishment Project prior for leaving for academia...
email edition
Posted on August 24, 2008The email edition’s rough draft is here, the final will go out on Monday. I’m in court all week (continuing a trial from last week) and posting will continue to be light.
Sr. Helen takes on the DNCC
Posted on August 24, 2008via the Rocky Mountain News: Ultimately [ ] Prejean received a standing ovation for her fiery denouncement of war and her tying it to desensitization caused by the allowance of capital punishment in American prisons. “Practice of the death penalty on our own soil,” Prejeans said, “has made it easier for us to kill those we designate [...
adding an ask to the weekly email
Posted on August 24, 2008Going forward at the end of all the weekly email editions will be an “ask” for various nonprofits working on issues surrounding capital punishment and/or criminal justice reform. For the next quarter it will look something like this: As a reminder, if you find this email useful, feel free to forward it or excerpt it...
some good news on the PD student loan front
Posted on August 22, 2008Of late I work in a small public defender trial office (3 staff trial attorneys & 1 per diem). Good water cooler gossip virtually never exists. That is where Skelly’s Arbitrary and Capricious comes in. Skelly offers good news, good gossip & sometimes funny war stories about fellow PDs, usually best read over a cup [...
Jeffrey Woods execution has been
Posted on August 21, 2008Jeffrey Woods execution has been stayed for tonight. All executions for the remainder of the month are off. From that opinion. With all due respect, a system that requires an insane person to first make “a substantial showing” of his own lack of mental capacity without the assistance of counsel or a mental health expert, [...
Third Circuit grant of PP relief
Posted on August 20, 2008The Third Circuit has granted penalty phase relief in Bond v. Beard , No. 06-9002, 06-9003. The reason for relief is a stunningly common rationale: trial counsel failed to adequately investigate the Condemned’s social history. Counsel for Bond failed to meet this constitutional minimum...
Missouri stay
Posted on August 20, 2008The Missouri Supreme Court has postponed next week’s scheduled execution of Dennis Skillicorn, The state supreme court delayed his Aug. 27 execution date by at least 30 days.
COA granted in Rosales v. Quarterman on Atkins claim
Posted on August 20, 2008The Fifth Circuti in Michael Rosales v. Quarterman, No. 07-70019, has granted a Certificate of Appealability on the issue of whether the condemned is mentally retarded within the meaning of Atkins v. Virginia.
Headlines elsewhere
Posted on August 19, 2008I remain in trial for a few more days in what seems to be a summer of endless court deadlines and appearances in addition to trials. Posting will continue to be light through at least the end of the week. Elsewhere headlines read: From DPIC - Live Radio Show Covers Issues in Texas Executions From AI’s DP [...
term wrap up
Posted on August 18, 2008The Criminal Justice Section of the American Bar Association has made available its 2008 Annual Review of the Supreme Court’s Term, Criminal Cases. [via SCOTUSBlog & Harmful Error]
Cameron Todd Willingham to be reinvestigated
Posted on August 18, 2008via the Innocence Project The Texas State Forensic Science Commission agreed Friday to investigate possible negligence or misconduct in the Cameron Todd Willingham case. Willingham was executed in 2004 for allegedly murdering his three young children by setting his Corsicana home on fire in 1991...
Sixth Circuit penalty phase grant of relief
Posted on August 18, 2008The Sixth Circuit today granted penalty phase relief in Jells v Mitchell on a common refrain, failure to adequately investigate for the penalty phase. Jells has demonstrated that his counsel provided ineffective assistance when they: (1) failed to timely prepare for the mitigation phase of Jells?s trial; and (2) failed to use a mitigation [...
new scholarship
Posted on August 16, 2008via SLP A new article now up here at SSRN, which looks closely at one state’s death penalty, looks like useful weekend reading. The article is titled “The Death Penalty in Delaware: An Empirical Study,” and here is the abstract: This article reports the findings of the first phase of a three phase empirical study of the [...
Texas stay
Posted on August 16, 2008Dennrd Mann was scheduled to be executed in the coming week. His execution date has been reset for November.
Clearing the row in Trinidad & Tobago
Posted on August 16, 2008In Trinidad and Tobago the 52 people earlier this weekend saw their death sentences commuted to life.
Texas Kills
Posted on August 14, 2008via the Dallas Morning News Michael Anthony Rodriguez wanted to die, and shortly after 6:30 this evening he got his wish. The 45-year-old is the first member of the Texas Seven to be executed. The infamous band of convicts killed an Irving police officer in December 2000, about a week after their escape from prison...
improving the administration of justice in cali
Posted on August 13, 2008Getting the right guy, step one. California lawmakers have voted to ban use of uncorroborated testimony from jailhouse informants that is used to convict criminal defendants. The state Assembly on Tuesday approved a bill by Sen. Gloria Romero, a Los Angeles Democrat, that would prohibit use of the unsupported testimony...
Matthew 25 too costly these days?
Posted on August 13, 2008via Skelly: A Kodiak shelter that has served those in hard times for nearly a decade is closing… The closing is troubling to Allan Thielen, a supervising attorney with the Alaska Public Defenders Agency in Kodiak. He says the amount of crime the facility has prevented in the past nine years by taking substance abusers off [...
Details Magazine meets Glen Edward Chapman
Posted on August 13, 2008The sergeant says, ?Pack up.? Glen Edward Chapman has no idea what?s going on. It?s a sunny afternoon in April, and he has just come in from playing basketball with some of the other inmates at the maximum-security state penitentiary in Raleigh, North Carolina...
New resource: Access to Post-Conviction DNA Testing
Posted on August 13, 2008The Justice Project has developed a series of policy reviews on the leading causes of wrongful convictions that explain the problems and recommend common sense solutions Improving Access to Post-Conviction DNA Testing: A Policy ReviewThis policy review provides an overview of problems with current post-conviction DNA testing laws, offers solutions to these problems, profiles cases [...
A remand on a successive petition in the Fifth Circuit
Posted on August 13, 2008The Fifth Circuit in Rickey Lynn Lewis v. Quarterman remands on an Atkins claim raised on a successive petition. The issue before the panel in Lewis is whether an affidavit submitted for the first time in federal habeas review — and hence unavailable to the state court in making its factual determinations — could be [...
Remembering Leon Dorsey on his execution day
Posted on August 12, 2008more Jason Sickles has an incredibly candid blog post on tonight’s execution in Texas: Someone asked me the other day if I thought convicted killer Leon David Dorsey deserved to die. I didn’t respond. Why? Because that’s a call for a higher power greater than me to decide...
worth a second look: Understanding Defense-Initiated Victim Outreach And Why It Is Essential In Defending A Capital Client by Mickell Branham & Richard Burr
Posted on August 12, 2008I went back and read Understanding Defense-Initiated Victim Outreach And Why It Is Essential In Defending A Capital Client by Mickell Branham & Richard Burr after merely skimming it. WOWSER. From that article A murder evokes empathy. Upon first hearing of a murder in our communities, we immediately feel sadness and loss and an outpouring of feeling [...
Texas kills
Posted on August 12, 2008Reuters: Texas executed a man by lethal injection on Tuesday for a 1994 double slaying during an armed robbery, the seventh convict put to death this year by America’s most active death penalty state. Leon Dorsey, 32, was condemned for the 1994 murders in Dallas of two video store employees [James Armstrong, 26, and Brad Lindsey, 20], [...
email edition available
Posted on August 11, 2008This week’s email edition is now available: Opinions from Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court dominate this double edition. In Comm v. David Allen Sattazahn relief is granted on the failure of trial counsel to adequately investigate potential penalty phase defenses...
new scholarship
Posted on August 11, 2008via Legal Theory Blog /Lawrence Solum, Craig Haney (University of California Santa Cruz) has posted Evolving Standards of Decency: Advancing the Nature and Logic of Capital Mitigation (Hofstra Law Review, Vol. 36, No. 3, 2008) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This article appears in the Hofstra Law Review symposium issue on the [...
This week’s warrants
Posted on August 10, 2008Texas is scheduled to kill two people this week: Leon Dorsey, on Tuesday, and Michael Rodriguez, a volunteer.
Texas kills
Posted on August 07, 2008Tongiht Texas killed Heliberto Chi. The Star-Telegram notes: Heliberto Chi, the native Honduran who shot an Arlington store manager in the back during an after-hours robbery in 2001, was executed Thursday evening after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a last-ditch appeal to spare his life...
Another showdown on the right to consul
Posted on August 07, 2008Tonight Texas is scheduled to kill Heliberto Chi. From the Chronicle: Attorneys for an illegal immigrant from Honduras say his inability to get legal help from his government following his arrest for killing a Dallas-area store manager during a robbery should keep him from a scheduled trip to the Texas death chamber...
Site comments
Posted on August 07, 2008We appear to have fixed the comment spam issue and are reopening comments to the use of hyperlinks and more uses colourful language. My apologies for any inconvenience. We also have attempted to speed up the loading of the site by removing all ads from the site...
live bloggin the Maryland hearings
Posted on August 07, 2008The Maryland hearings on the death penalty are recapped here.
NC high profile acquittal
Posted on August 07, 2008Our friends in NC note: After spending nearly seven years behind bars, Cumberland County?s Joshua Ballard has been found not guilty of a 2001 double homicide. At his first trial in 2004, Ballard was found guilty and faced the death penalty. His conviction was overturned when the Court of Appeals ruled that Ballard was denied a [...
Life: a beautiful option Arkansas
Posted on August 07, 2008In Arkansas: In a 4-3 vote, the Arkansas Parole Board recommended that Frank Williams’ death sentence be commuted to life without parole. The Board had received petitions for clemency from 13 state, national, and international organizations and developmental disabilities experts raising the prospect that Williams suffers from mental retardation as indicated by a series of [...
Medellin on hold from the SCOTUS
Posted on August 05, 2008The SCOTUS is holding the execution with a stay appearing more and more likely as each moment passes. The death warrant expires at 12 pm local time, or 1 am EST: he U.S. Supreme Court tonight considered the appeal of Mexican-born condemned prisoner Jose Medellin as he faced execution in Huntsville...
Medellin update
Posted on August 05, 2008via the SCOTUSBlog In what may be the last round of legal arguments on Texas? scheduled execution at 7 p.m. Tuesday of Jose Ernest Medellin, attorneys for the Mexican National told the Supreme Court that if he is put to death, ?the world will have every reason to question? the U...
you can’t make this stuff up
Posted on August 05, 2008File under “cuz they just can’t kill’em fast enough in Texas” MISCELLANEOUS RULE 08-101 Procedures in Death Penalty Cases Involving Requests for Stay of Execution and Related Filings in Texas State Trial Courts and the Court of Criminal Appeals 1...
Texas kills
Posted on August 05, 2008Texas Tuesday night, after a delay in his execution, killed Jose Medellin. Texas has executed Mexican-born condemned prisoner Jose Medellin for the rape and murder of two teenage girls 15 years ago. The state carried out the execution late Tuesday night after the U...
Stay lifted - Medellin
Posted on August 05, 2008As expected, the Court lifted the stay in Medellin 5-4.
Banning stoning
Posted on August 05, 2008Iran has temporarily suspended execution by stoning. BODY,.aolmailheader {font-size:10pt; color:black; font-family:Arial;} a.aolmailheader:link {color:blue; text-decoration:underline; font-weight:normal;} a.aolmailheader:visited {color:magenta; text-decoration:underline; font-weight:normal;} a...
Medellin update
Posted on August 04, 2008The latest on Medellin from the AP and other sources Mexico braces for protests. United States braces for backlash. Court litigation is ongoing. Hope for new legislation highly unlikely to pass in time.
Sixth Circuit relief grant
Posted on August 04, 2008SL&P notes: In Van Hook v. Anderson, available here, the Sixth Circuit reversed a decision by the district court and granted the habeas petition of Robert Van Hook, who was sentenced to death for a 1985 murder. The Circuit reversed the death sentence, finding ineffective assistance of counsel during the mitigation phase of Van Hook?s trial...
Criminal background checks, quickly
Posted on August 03, 2008A new research tool is available online to do background checks. It isn’t 100%, however, it will let you quickly run a person should the need arise. Aim browser at criminalsearches.com
What’s new? Weekly edition running late
Posted on August 03, 2008The weekly email edition will be out (hopefully) Monday night. My apologies for any inconvenience.
Equal respect & equal justice for the military
Posted on July 31, 2008from CAAFLog A well placed source informs me that S.2052, the Equal Justice for United States Military Personnel Act of 2007, was held over today in the Senate Judiciary Committee. The bill, as discussed previously on CAAFlog here and here, co-sponsored by Senators Arlen Specter and Russ Feingold, will give the Supreme Court certiorari jurisdiction over [...
Texas kills
Posted on July 31, 2008“Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. It is finished.” - the final words of Larry Davis Reuters notes Larry Davis, 40, was condemned to die for the murder of Michael Barrow in the Texas panhandle town of Amarillo. Barrow’s parents found his body in his home after he had been beaten and stabbed [...
More on Thomas Arthur’s stay
Posted on July 31, 2008More on Tommy Arthur’s stay from the AP The Alabama Supreme Court postponed executing a man after an inmate claimed in an sworn statement to defense attorneys that he committed the murder that sent the condemned man to death row. Thomas Arthur received a third stay of execution in Alabama on Wednesday...
Alabama stay
Posted on July 30, 2008The Alabama Supreme Court has stayed the execution of Thomas Arthur. more to follow.
Medellin legislative update
Posted on July 30, 2008I’d like to join Stand Down -Texas and “urge readers to sign an online petition at this LINK to urge action by the House of Representatives. Jose Medellin is scheduled to be executed by Texas on August 5, in spite of calls from the United States Attorney General and Secretary of State, prominent Texans, and [...
costs overrun in California
Posted on July 30, 2008The San Francisco Chronicle reports: The cost of new housing for San Quentin State Prison’s growing number of Death Row inmates will exceed estimates by nearly $40 million, and the compound could run out of space soon after it is completed, according to a state auditor’s report released Tuesday...
“DNA debacle in murder case”
Posted on July 30, 2008from the AP: DNA from multiple people has been found on evidence in a 1990 double slaying, but it has not been tested against a man on Kentucky?s death row for the killings. A hat used as evidence in the case of Thomas Clyde Bowling had DNA from three people and a jacket had DNA from two, [...
California penalty phase relief grant
Posted on July 29, 2008In People v. Lester Harland Wison, No. S089623 (Cal July 28, 2008), the California Supreme Court granted relief based on the removal of a juror during the penalty phase deliberations. The California Supreme Court overturned the death sentence in a Riverside County case Monday, saying a judge improperly dismissed a juror as the panel was considering [...
Military death penalty: execution approved, appeals apparently still left
Posted on July 28, 2008President Bush today greenlighted the military to execute Army Pvt. Ronald A. Gray. For the first time in nearly half a century, a president has approved the execution of a member of the armed services. President Bush this morning approved the death penalty for a soldier from Fayetteville who was stationed at Fort Bragg...
email edition available
Posted on July 28, 2008The email edition is now available. No favorable decisions are noted for the period this edition covers (from July 14 to July 21, 2008). One favorable development, however, is noted. Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry commuted Kevin Young’s sentence to life Thursday...
Another exoneration brewing in NJ?
Posted on July 28, 2008This new post at the the Innocence Project’s blop looks at a brewing murder exoneration in New Jersey. After two mistrials and a third trial that ended with a hung jury, Darrell Edwards was convicted of a 1995 Newark murder in his fourth trial...
stopping an execution for the good of the country?
Posted on July 28, 2008Politics, and especially international politics, makes strange bedfellows. From the Dallas Morning News: [D]efense attorneys, and an unusual coalition of federal officials, including no less than the attorney general and secretary of state, say if his Aug...
scratching my head over this one
Posted on July 28, 2008I’m so baffled by this story over at Stand Down, I’m going to reiterate Steve’s first paragraph or so verbatim. I must be missing something here. “Search adds twist to Frisco murder-for-hire case,” is the headline in the Dallas Morning News...
Iran kills
Posted on July 27, 2008Iran hanged twenty-nine people Sunday for crimes ranging from murder to being a public nuisance while drunk, were hanged in Iran to sex outside of marriage.
A sensible proposal
Posted on July 27, 2008DNA, in some ways, is a truth serum for the legal community. While not fool-proof, it offers one of the singular best weapons in the arsenal for avoiding wrongful conviction & wrongful execution. A major step towards reducing the chances of wrongful execution has been taken: U...
Clemency in the death belt
Posted on July 24, 2008BODY,.aolmailheader {font-size:10pt; color:black; font-family:Arial;} a.aolmailheader:link {color:blue; text-decoration:underline; font-weight:normal;} a.aolmailheader:visited {color:magenta; text-decoration:underline; font-weight:normal;} a.aolmailheader:active {color:blue; text-decoration:underline; font-weight:normal;} a...
Virginia kills
Posted on July 24, 2008Tonight Virginia killed Christopher Emmett. The AP notes that Mr. Emmett’s final words included some light hearted laughs: Tell my family and friends I love the, tell the governor he just lost my vote. Y’all hurry this along, I’m dying to get out of here.
Getting the needle & the short straw
Posted on July 24, 2008The fact that in addition to “getting the needle” Lonnie Johnson “got the shaft” is no small secret. On the anniversary of his execution Steve Hall looks at efforts to bring the “death by shafting” to light, here & here: Six weeks prior to his death, his defense team found police reports hidden in Mr...
Latest round of Soros fellows
Posted on July 24, 2008Just spreading the love. The application round for the next selection of Soros Fellows is now available. .
Dyslexic doc moves west
Posted on July 24, 2008via Doug Berman: As first discussed here two years ago, a federal judge ordered Missouri’s machinery of death to come to a halt in 2006 based in part on evidence that the doctor involved in lethal injections readily admitted that he is dyslexic and had thus could have problems carrying out the execution protocol...
Executions on the Gulf Coast
Posted on July 23, 2008Mississippi & Texas tonight conducted executions: Leo Bishop was pronounced dead at 6:14 p.m. CT at the Mississippi State Penitentiary. He was convicted of participating in the hammer slaying of Marcus James Gentry in 1998. His attorneys had asked the U...
Comment problem fixed (?)
Posted on July 23, 2008The problem with the comments appears to have been fixed. Sorry for any incovenience.
Three executions in two days
Posted on July 22, 2008Three executions are scheduled over the course of two days this week including: Wednesday - Derrick Sonnier in Texas & Dale Lee Bishop in Mississippi Thursday - Christopher Emmett in Virginia Dale Lee Bishop lost Monday in the Fifth Circuit (split panel) on a lethal injection challenge...
Problems with DNA?
Posted on July 22, 2008The Los Angeles Times notes DNA database “hits” are coming under fire. While DNA can exclude a person from being a source, it appears possible that the probability odds for “inclusion” are widely overrated. State crime lab analyst Kathryn Troyer was running tests on Arizona’s DNA database when she stumbled across two felons with remarkably similar [...
Clemency urged in Mississippi
Posted on July 22, 2008The Clarion Ledger calls for clemency for Dale Leo Bishop. This newspaper has been a longtime supporter of the enforcement of the death penalty in Mississippi. The death penalty exists in this state as the ultimate penalty for the ultimate crimes. But in the case of Death Row inmate Dale Leo Bishop, Mississippi is preparing to extract [...
Relief grant in the Fifth Circuit
Posted on July 22, 2008The Fifth Circuti granted relief to Robert Fratta Tuesday on the right to challenge certain statements made by co-defendants in this matter. “The state’s burden was to produce affirmative proof that a murder-for-hire had occurred, and on this point, the admissible evidence was far from conclusive...
Follow-up on police snooping in Maryland
Posted on July 22, 2008Maryland legislatures will take up police snooping on anti-death penalty groups in the coming days. More here.
Say hello to… Gerry Spence’s blog
Posted on July 22, 2008I’ve been wondering all week how do you welcome the blog of a guy whose books and lectures taught you not only how to be a better lawyer but, more importantly, how to live a better, more meaningful life and be better person. I couldn’t think of one, accept to say Gerry’s blog is here...
The first steps on the road to justice
Posted on July 21, 2008Tonight the world’s most wanted man, Radovan Karadzic, is in custody. He was currently undergoing a formal identification rocess, inccluding DNA testing, and would be meeting with investigators overnight.Karadzic was located and arrested,” the President’s statement said...
email edition now available
Posted on July 21, 2008This week’s email edition is now available. From that edition: The Florida Supreme Court’s decision in Eddie Junior Bigham v. State leads this week. The Bigham Court reduces the condemned’s conviction to second degree murder. “ecause we conclude the evidence is insufficient to prove premeditation...
new scholarship
Posted on July 20, 2008New scholarship is noted. DePaul Law Review spends an entire looking at Atkins & its aftermath. Three articles from law review are the “to read” stack already. Andrea D. Lyon, But He Doesn’t Look Retarded: Capital Jury Selection for the Mentally Retarded Client Not Excluded after Atkins v...
grrrrrr!
Posted on July 20, 2008Our blogging software, Wordpress, ?upgraded.? As a I Heart Yahoo notes: Wordpress managed to release version 2.6 a month before the expected launch date, which is great right? I?m not so sure, reading up on things it?s evident that version 2.6 is bug filled and causing problems for bloggers! People are already expecting wordpress 2...
email edition to go out shortly
Posted on July 20, 2008Just simply double checking for typos & readability. The email edition should go out shortly.
Cheesed off in Maryland
Posted on July 17, 2008As most probably know, cops in Maryland have been targeting people opposed to the ultimate use of state power. I’m too cheesed off to even pretend I can talk rationally about this as everyone I know who supports ending the dp in Maryland is, well, ridiculously normal/mainstream...
ICJ orders stays
Posted on July 16, 2008via SCOTUSBlog: Acting on a claim by Mexico?s government that the U.S. government has not done enough to assure the treaty rights of Mexican nationals facing execution for murders in the U.S., the World Court on Wednesday ordered the U.S. ? by a 7-5 vote ? to stop five imminent executions in Texas...
Murphy meet editing
Posted on July 16, 2008Murphy’s law on writing & proofreading: Muphry?s Law dictates that (a) if you write anything criticizing editing or proofreading, there will be a fault of some kind in what you have written; (b) if an author thanks you in a book for your editing or proofreading, there will be mistakes in the book; (c) the stronger [...
Balkinization on capital rape
Posted on July 16, 2008Dodging the Death Penalty Bullet On Child Rape. John J. Donohue III. Daniel Schuker. Balkanization: “Having avoided the legal mayhem of adding a new realm of death penalty prosecutions, the country can now focus its efforts on solving, instead of creating, vexing social problems...
Reprieve in Oklahoma
Posted on July 16, 2008“On July 15th, Governor Brad Henry of Oklahoma granted a 30-day stay of execution to Kevin Young, who was originally scheduled to be executed on July 22nd. His new execution date is August 21st. Governor Henry announced the stay in order to have more time to review Kevin Young’s case...
admin: links in comments & some great comments
Posted on July 16, 2008We’ve seen a huge uptick in comment spam (and great comments too). In order to prevent comment spam from ruining your experience, any comment with a hyperlink in it will be held for moderation. My apologies in adavance (and thanks for those fighting it out in the comments of late, I’ve loved them - even [...
email edition (finally) available
Posted on July 15, 2008My apologies for running a little late. This week?s much delayed email edition iis here. From the introduction to that edition This week’s edition brings a little bit for every need. For the federal habeas litigator there is the Fifth Circuit’s Michael Wayne Hall v...
Gauging wrongful convictions
Posted on July 15, 2008DPIC has a thought provoking post entitled “STUDIES: Estimates of Wrongful Convictions by Those Involved in the System.”
Rock versus hard-place: the client who wants to die
Posted on July 15, 2008Michele Anderson appears, by public accounts, to be intent on dying. Her attorneys oppose that desire and earlier this week were let out of representing her. A woman who says she wants to be executed in the slayings of six members of her family in rural Carnation will get new lawyers, and she can keep her [...
John Middleton’s execution stayed
Posted on July 15, 2008The Missouri Supreme Court has stayed John Middleton’s execution date. The Court stayed Middleton’s execution date in light of ongoing lethal injection litigation.
Life: a beautiful choice
Posted on July 15, 2008In Los Angeles a jury recommended life for Juan Alvarez. Alvarez is the train wrecker whose attempted suicide claimed the lives of eleven people in Glendale more than three years ago.
Gitmo, tears, kids. nuf’ said
Posted on July 15, 2008From The Dream Antilles Omar Khadr (born 9/19/86) is a Canadian who has been imprisoned in Guantanamo in connection with the alleged killing of a US soldier during a battle in Afghanistan in 2002. At the time of his capture by US forces, Khadr had been shot three times and was near death...
weekly edition (draft copy) now available
Posted on July 14, 2008I’m going to finish up this week’s much delayed email edition in the morning. The draft form for those who must read it now is here.
Running a tad late
Posted on July 13, 2008While have this week’s CDW / email edition out Monday. My apologies.
House update
Posted on July 10, 2008“Yesterday in a surprise move, District Attorney Paul Phillips stated that if Paul House’s DNA is not found on a hair discovered in Carolyn Muncey’s hand following her murder, he will consider dropping the charges against House. If the DNA from the hair or other evidence belongs to a third party, Phillips says he will [...
Virginia kills
Posted on July 10, 2008Virginia executed Kent Jermaine Jackson Thursday night for the death of Beulah Mae Kaiser. Jackson became the 101st person killed in the “modern” era in Virginia.
Texas kills
Posted on July 10, 2008In a case marred by ugly racial overtones, Texas Thursday night executed Carlton Turner for killing his adoptive parents in their suburban Dallas home 10 years ago. “I was immature and arrogant,” Turner told the AP in a death-row interview in May...
Fourth Circuit rejects a challenge to lethal injection in Virginia
Posted on July 10, 2008The Fourth Circuit on Thursday rejected a challenge to the Virginia lethal injection scheme (Emmett v. Johnson, No. 07-18 (4th Cir. July 10, 2008)). The panel split. Virginia’s protocol for lethal injection is substantially similar to that approved by the Supreme Court in Kentucky...
Death Row USA available: numbers down again
Posted on July 10, 2008DPIC notes that the he latest version of Death Row U.S.A. (reflecting death row numbers as of January 1, 2008) has been released by the Capital Punishment Project of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. The report also contains information on each person executed since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, and information [...
Recovering from an ugly mistrial
Posted on July 09, 2008I’ll be posting again starting Thursday, the trial I had mistried.
Oklahoma: A recommendation for clemency
Posted on July 08, 2008The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board voted 4-1 Tuesday to recommend clemency for convicted killer Kevin Young. The board’s recommendation now goes to Gov. Brad Henry, who ultimately will decide whether to grant clemency. Young is scheduled to be executed on July 22...
email edition
Posted on July 07, 2008This week’s email edition is now available. This edition leads off with Eric Lynn Moore v Quarterman from the Fifth Circuit sitting en banc. Turning it over to the experts at the Habeas Assistance and Training Counsel project, the Moore Court held that: Moore?s Atkins claim could be considered by the federal court and without application of [...
must read mitigation materials
Posted on July 07, 2008Hofstra Law Review has an instant classic edition just out. The entire edition is online. This edition has the ABA’s Supplementary Guidelines for the Mitigation Function of Defense Teams in Death Penalty Cases (PDF) Other articles include : Competent Capital Representation: The Necessity Of Knowing And Heeding What Jurors Tell Us About Mitigation (PDF) (John H...
slowing down the pipeline
Posted on July 07, 2008“This effective local article from Missouri, headlined “Prosecutors use discretion differently in death sentencing,” tells a story that is familiar to anyone who follows closely the modern administration of capital punishment. ” [via Doug Berman]
A stay in Texas
Posted on July 05, 2008from local media: The execution of Lester Bower has been stayed. Judge Jim Fallon has withdrawn the death warrant, while lawyers argue whether DNA testing of the evidence is just. District Attorney Joe Brown says this does not mean Bower will not be executed...
New scholarship
Posted on July 05, 2008The good folks at U-T’s Tarlton Law Library note new germane published scholarship. more after the jump Robert Hardaway, (34 New England Journal on Criminal and Civil Confinement 223 (2008)) Paul Marcus, Capital Punishment in the United States and Beyond (31 Melbourne University Law Review 837 (2007)) James R...
tech problems
Posted on July 04, 2008A spammer unsuccessfully attempted to hijack the site on the Fourth of July. The site is mostly back-up. My apologies for any problems in advance.
An exception or the rule? — Dallas exonerates another one
Posted on July 03, 2008Dallas County has another exoneration A Texas man who spent more than 15 years in prison after being wrongly convicted of kidnapping and robbery raised both arms skyward and collapsed in his mother’s embrace Thursday after being told he was a free man...
when Westlaw & Lexis fail
Posted on July 02, 2008It appears there were seven, not six , jurisdictions that permit death for capital rape. Not one of the parties in Kennedy v. Louisiana , nor any of the Justices, discovered that the military apparently permits death for capital rape. NYT here & the military law blog, CAAFLOG, that outted the error.
Georgia Supremes grant relief
Posted on July 02, 2008The Georgia Supreme Court has granted relief in Hall v. Mark McPherson as counsel performed an inadequate penalty phase investigation and, as a result, failed to present favorable evidence to the jury. [Note thee Court relied upon both the American Bar Association Guidelines for the Appointment and Performance of Counsel in Death Penalty Cases [...
House free
Posted on July 02, 2008Paul House has been freed on bail in Tennessee. From our friends in Tennessee: At approximately 10:00 a.m. this morning, Paul House was released from Lois M. Deberry Special Needs Facility. An anonymous donor provided Joyce House, Paul’s mother, with the bail money in order for Paul to be released into the custody of his mother...
Guy LeGrande: Incompetent to be executed
Posted on July 01, 2008via Death Watch NC: North Carolina death row inmate Guy Tobias LeGrande has been found incompetent to be executed under both state law and the 8th Amendment of the United States Constitution, as interpreted by Ford v. Wainwright and Panetti v. Quarterman...
Florida kills
Posted on July 01, 2008The State of FLorida killed Mark Dean Schwab Tuesday night at Florida State Prison for his role in the murder of 11-year-old Junny Rios-Martinez.
correction to this week’s edition
Posted on July 01, 2008Dale Leo Bishop in this week’s edition was listed as having an execution date in July. Press accounts note the date, however an execution date has not yet, to our knowledge, been set. My sincerest apologies for any confusion, and my apologies esp...
The Fifth Circuit rips the CCA
Posted on July 01, 2008The Fifth Circuit in Michael Wayne Hall v. Quarterman, No. 06-70041, rips in to the CCA on the failure to hold a live evidentiary hearing on Hall’s Atkins claim. The state courts held a paper hearing on thdeclaims. As the press accounts note: A federal appeals court is ordering a hearing for a man condemned for [...
open research data
Posted on July 01, 2008For sometime I have been meaning to post the search terms used to develop the weekly. My hope is to get input on how to develop better terms and, hopefully, inspire a new blogger/e-zine writer to write in the area to better cover capital litigation. Those terms are “DEATH PENALTY” OR “CAPITAL MURDER” OR “SENTENCED TO [...
Dysfunctional & close to collapse
Posted on June 30, 2008The California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice today issued its long awaited report on the state of California’s deth penalty. It found California’s administration of the death penalty is “dysfunctional” and “close to collapse...
email edition (finally) available
Posted on June 30, 2008My apologies for the delay, this week’s email edition is now available here: Leading off this edition is the Supreme Court?s landmark decision in Kennedy v. Louisiana. The narrowest reading of the holding is that the capital punishment may not be used for the crime of child rape that does nor result in the death of [...
US seeks death for waterboarded Saudi
Posted on June 30, 2008via TalkLeft: The U.S. announced today it will seek to file charges that carry the death penalty against Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a Saudi of Yemeni descent captured in 2002 and tranferred to Guantanamo in 2006, who has claimed he confessed because he was tortured during interrogation...
An email edition full of “interesting” news
Posted on June 29, 2008This week’s email edition will have at least ten “favorable” cases cited from June 16 to June 30, 2008, including, of course, a more in-depth analysis of the Court’s landmark decision in Kennedy.
Running a day late on the weekly
Posted on June 29, 2008A large number of favorable decisions means the weekly will run at least one day late. My apologies. The comedic relief from that edition is this: Comm. v. Larry Rush, No. 264 CAP, (PA 6/26/2008) “?Motion to Quash Frivolous Appeal Filed by No-Good-For-Nothing Court Appointed Lawyer ...
New rules in Texas
Posted on June 29, 2008The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has announced new rules of criminal procedure governing stays of execution. From those rules: 1. Time Requirements for Habeas Petitions or Other Motions. Inmates sentenced to death who seek a stay of execution or who wish to file a subsequent writ application or other motion seeking any affirmative relief from, [...
Favorable en banc decision from the Fifth Circuit
Posted on June 26, 2008A true rarity the Fifth Circuit, en banc, on a successor orders further review in Eric Lynn Moore v Quarterman on whether Mr. Moore is mentally retarded within the meaning of Atkins.
Virginia kills
Posted on June 26, 2008Thursday night Virginia’s conducted its 100th execution in modern times when it killed Robert Stacy Yarbrough died by injection for the capital murder of Cyril H. Hamby.
TCCA grants a new trial in Ex parte Michael Blair
Posted on June 25, 2008The Texas Court Criminal Appeals granted a new trial in Ex parte Michael Blair. DNA strongly suggests Blair did not commit the murder for which he know sits on death row. Blair is also doing a life sentence for an unrelated crime so there is no chance he will be released.
Court decides Kennedy
Posted on June 25, 2008The opinion in Kennedy v. Louisiana (07-343), the child rape case, is available here. The case can be boiled down to this, “[a]s it relates to crimes against individuals, though, the death penalty should not be expanded to instances where the victim?s life was not taken...
The SCOTUS’s other major crimlaw decision
Posted on June 25, 2008For the average “vanilla” defendant in the criminal process Giles v. California is THE opinion of 6/25/2008. From TChris: The other Supreme Court decision of interest today to criminal law junkies is Giles v. California (pdf). The issue is whether a defendant forfeits his right under the Confrontation Clause “to confront a witness against him when [...
Thursday teaching capital habeas in NYC
Posted on June 25, 2008On Thurdsay I’m teaching the “baby habeas” / “intro to habeas” at this year’s ABCNY death penalty training. My handout for resources is here. The links are to resources for litigators from those who have never handled a habeas case to resource materials for those who have handled dozens of them.
On this day…
Posted on June 24, 2008New York four years ago today invalidated much, if not all, of its death penalty law. From finding Dulcinea: On June 24, 2004, the New York Court of Appeals nullified the 1995 law that brought back the death penalty to New York state, criticizing a ?deadlock provision? in the law that violated the state?s constitution...
Pigs fly in the Fourth Circuit
Posted on June 24, 2008The Fourth Circuit today granted penalty phase releif in William Robert Gray, Jr. v. Branker. “[C]ounsel ignored [ ] red flags and failed to investigate for mental health evidence or consider introducing evidence on that issue,” whether the Commonwealth of Virginia should take his life...
Ninth Circuit rules in Duncan: Relief granted
Posted on June 24, 2008As one could predict with an opinin that begins “[o]nce again, we consider whether a capital defendant?s appointed lawyer?s performance was so deficient and prejudicial that it violated his Sixth Amendment right to counsel” the Ninth Circuit in Duncan v...
The Onion & Baze
Posted on June 24, 2008Under the category NSFW, off color, in bad taste, and definitely not for the easily offended, the Onion takes on Baze & lethal injection: Supreme Court Rules Death Penalty Is ‘Totally Badass’
email edition
Posted on June 23, 2008The email edition is available here Leading off this edition is what some have called the “stay wars.” The United States Supreme Court this past Thursday in Indiana v. Ahmad Edwards, held that where the mentally ill (but competent) seek to represent themselves at trial a State may require that they instead are represented by counsel...
SCOTUS takes capital cases
Posted on June 23, 2008The Supreme Court has granted cert in two cases of interest. From the SCOTUSBlog: Docket: 07-1114 Case name: Cone v. Bell Issue: Whether a federal habeas claim is ?procedurally defaulted? because it has been presented twice to the state courts, and whether a federal habeas court is powerless to recognize that a state court erred in holding that [...
Supreme Court wire
Posted on June 23, 2008I’m in court all week on hearings. The Supreme Court Wire is now up and to the right to cover all the latest decisions as they happen.
The impact of LWOP
Posted on June 23, 2008More evidence that LWOP dramatically curtails new death sentences. and even new prosecutions, comes from Ohio in this AP story & this Cleveland Plain Dealer chart.
Passing the hat for a good cause
Posted on June 23, 2008A few weeks ago Juan Quintero won a life verdict in Houston. Quintero, an illegal immigrant with a record who snuck back in to the country after being deported, killed Rodney Johnson , a cop, a well loved, well respected, a cop’s cop. The woman behind that verdict was Danalynn Recer of the Gulf [...
When executions go bad: the Delaware edition
Posted on June 23, 2008An interesting story out of Delaware on that state’s lethal injection litigation. Attorneys challenging that state’s protocol are claiming that Delaware’s last execution was, in fact, botched. Federal public defender Michael Wiseman argued that examining past practices can help determine whether Delaware is violating the constitutional rights of condemned inmates, even if the protocol itself is [...
South Carolina kills
Posted on June 21, 2008The Fourth Circuit lifted a stay that had earlier Friday night blocked the execution of James Earl Reed. South Carolina killed Reed shortly before the expiration of the execution warrant. Reed was convicted of murdering Joseph and Barbara Ann Lafayette in their Adams Run, South Carolina home in 1994...
South Carolina stay
Posted on June 20, 2008A stay was issued moments ago in tonight’s scheduled execution of James Earl Reed Prison officials say a federal court has halted the planned execution of a man scheduled to die in South Carolina’s electric chair. James Earl Reed was scheduled to be the first person electrocuted in South Carolina in more than four years...
Indiana v. Edwards & James Earl Reed
Posted on June 19, 2008The Supreme Court today decided Indiana v. Edwards on the right of self-representation for those who are competent enough to proceed to trial, wish to proceed pro se, but are so mentally encumbered as to make a trial, at best a meaningless affair, at worst a travesty...
Going bicoastal with losses
Posted on June 19, 2008Losses are noted Thursday in California and Florida in Jose Antonio Jimenez v. State, Perry Alexander Taylor v. State, and People v. Lanell Craig Harris. In People v. Lanell Craig Harris relief is denied, most notably, on certain “the omissions from the appellate record, the faulty instruction on the felony murder special circumstance, and [...
Execution dates update
Posted on June 19, 2008The execution dates to the left have been updated. My apologies for missing, until now, the “short date” in South Carolina for James Earl Reed for Friday night.
DNA ordered in Texas case of Darlie Routie
Posted on June 18, 2008Steve Hall proves why he is the go to guy for Texas DP issues in the blawgosphere yet again. leaving us, and all other sources, in his vapor trail: The Court of Criminal Appeals, in an opinion written by Judge Tom Price, has ordered DNA testing in a controversial Dallas County case, that of Darlie Routie...
Getting the basics right
Posted on June 18, 2008The Crim Prof blog looks at one of the most basic parts of the criminal justice system, evidence. In this case preserving evidence so that guilty can be punished and the innocent exonerated. Unfortunately, in this post, examples as why that basic function of the criminal justice system sometimes doesn’t happen...
Legal post-mortem
Posted on June 18, 2008The odd, truly odd, events relating to Charles Hood’s on - again -off-again- on - again execution date Tuesday night is among the oddest events in capital litigation in recent memory. Two must read pieces come from ethics blogs, the Legal Ethics Forum & the Legal Profession Blog (as someone who is petrified of effing [...
Removing an execution date from the list
Posted on June 18, 2008We’ve removed Darrell Robinson from the list of scheduled executions the listing appears to have been erroneous. Press reports of an execution date that CDW, Amnesty, & Dr. Rick Halperin were simply wrong. Kudos to DPIC for its conservation approach to such matter and not listing the date...
offtopic: street cred in the courtroom
Posted on June 18, 2008Ken Lammers asks a pretty pedestrian question that seems to baffle lawyers on my side of the aisle, why won’t the State dismiss/see it my way. The answer, of course, is credibility. A trialasaurus rex, a local bar legend, or a lawyer who just kicked a– in trial against the State has it, new [...
Hood execution date withdrawn
Posted on June 17, 2008A state judge in Texas has effectively withdrawn Charles Hood’s execution date. From Steve Hall: State District Judge Curt Henderson has just withdrawn Charles Hood’s execution date and has recused himself from any further proceedings in the case...
Oklahoma kills
Posted on June 17, 2008Oklahoma tonight killed Terry Lyn Short for f killing 22-year-old Ken Yamamoto in 1995. [more here & additional stories in the right column]
CCA clears way for Charles Hood’s execution
Posted on June 17, 2008Despite bombshell revelations about a tryst between the prosecutor and judge during the trial of Charles Hood, the Texas CCA on Monday denied relief. The Fifth Circuit has likewise denied a stay.
State appeals withdrawn execution date
Posted on June 17, 2008[update] The CCA just denied the appeal. [here] Press reports out of Austin note that the State has appealed the withdraw of Charles Hood’s execution date. Mr. Hood is to remain at the Walls Unit pending the outcome of the State’s appeal...
DPIC’s new news service
Posted on June 15, 2008In celebration of the Death Penalty Information Center’s new weekly email service (click here and put subscribe in the subject box), their look at this week’s scheduled executions: DPIC notes this on the upcoming Terry Lyn Short execution: Terry Lyn Short is scheduled to be executed on June 17 in Oklahoma...
weekly email edition, skipping a week
Posted on June 15, 2008As happens from time to time, this week’s email edition won’t run, it being my first Father’s Day and all.
My good friend [name withheld]
Posted on June 15, 2008My good friend [name withheld] over at A Public Defender asks simply why we do what we do. My Answer is here.
Grant of penalty phase relief
Posted on June 13, 2008Fernando Belmontes was granted penalty phase relief today by the Ninth Circuit. From that opinion: We affirm the district court?s ruling that Belmontes received deficient representation at the penalty phase of his trial, but set aside its ruling that he suffered no prejudice as a result...
shredding liberty’s safety net
Posted on June 13, 2008ABC News looks at the wholesale slashing of Public Defender budgets in a must read piece available online: Statewide public defenders in Kentucky and Minnesota< and local offices in cities such as Atlanta and Miami say budget cuts are forcing them to fire or furlough trial lawyers, leaving the offices unable to handle misdemeanor and, in [...
Charles Dean Hood
Posted on June 13, 2008Few reporters do a better job than Steve Hall @ Stand Down. Steve brings us this concerning the latest development in the pending Charles Dean Hood execution scheduled for next week. For years there have been lingering questions about an improper relationship in the Charles Dean Hood trial...
Munaf v. Geren
Posted on June 12, 2008In today’s other habeas case, Munaf v. Geren, the SCOUTS holds: The habeas statute extends to American citizens held overseas by American forces operating subject to an American chain of command. The Government?s argument that the federal courts lack jurisdiction over the detainees? habeas petitions in such circumstancesbecause the American forces holding Omar and Munaf operate [...
Virtual handout
Posted on June 12, 2008I’m teaching the “baby habeas” / “intro to habeas” at this year’s ABCNY death penalty training. My handout for resources is here. The links are to resources for litigators from those who have never handled a habeas case to resource materials for those who have handled dozens of them.
deterrence?
Posted on June 12, 2008From DPIC, a dead-on (forgive the bad pun) analysis of the latest UCR data: The country’s murder rate declined 2.7% in 2007. The rate dropped the most in the Northeast, and declined in the Midwest and the West, but increased in the South. According to the preliminary Uniform Crime Report published by the FBI, [...
Boumediene
Posted on June 12, 2008A Public Defender sums up Boumediene better than I ever could: Plenty of other commentators have far more intelligent comments and insights on Boumediene [pdf] than I have to offer, so I will direct you to them (see this SCOTUSblog post for a collection of links as well)...
Texas kills
Posted on June 11, 2008Texas resumed its execution chamber Wednesday with the death of Karl Chamberlain. From the Dallas Morning News: A remorseful convicted killer was executed Wednesday night for the rape-slaying of a woman in Dallas 17 years ago, the first Texas prisoner in nearly nine months to be put to death in the nation?s most active death [...
Ohio Lethal Injection ruling
Posted on June 10, 2008Press accounts are noting that: The Ohio judge in State of Ohio v. Ruben Rivera has ordered the state to eliminate two of the three drugs used in the lethal injection protocol and instead use a single anesthetic in future executions by lethal injection...
email edition
Posted on June 09, 2008The most recent email edition is now available. From that edition: A mysterious order from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals leads off the edition. Texas planned to execute Derrick Sonnier on June 3, 2008. Shortly before the execution hour the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ordered a stay...
Virginia commutation
Posted on June 09, 2008Governor Timothy M. Kaine today commuted the death sentence of Percy Levar Walton. Walton was scheduled to be executed tomorrow night. Kaine has allowed five executions to proceed. This is the first he has commuted. Press accounts note “Walton differs in fundamental ways from other death row offenders,” Kaine said in the statement...
Texas green lights lethal injection?
Posted on June 09, 2008The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Monday appears to have cleared the way for executions to resume starting Wednesday. In a ruling late Monday, the state’s highest criminal court refused to stop the scheduled execution of Karl Eugene Chamberlain...
SC kills
Posted on June 06, 2008David Mark Hill has been put to death in South Carolinaa by lethal injection for the murders of Jimmy Riddle, Josie Curry and Michael Gregory. Like more than 10% of those who preceded him to the execution chamber in recent years, Hill consented to his execution.
Sixth Circuit “win”
Posted on June 05, 2008A Thursday “win” is noted: Today, D?Ambrosio v. Bagley, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit split over an interesting question in a capital habeas case: Where a habeas petitioner makes a Brady claim that the government suppressed or withheld mitigating evidence, when does the government ?expressly waive? its defense [...
Georgia botch?
Posted on June 05, 2008Georgia took 35 minutes last night to hook up, before killing, Curtis Osborne. The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports, “Executioners had trouble putting murderer to death.” Executioners struggled for 35 minutes to find a vein before Curtis Osborne died by lethal injection Wednesday for a 1990 Spalding County double murder...
Curtis Osborne
Posted on June 04, 2008AP is reporting the State of Georgia has killed Curtis Osborne: A Georgia man who claimed his attorney was a racist who put up a flimsy defense has been executed for killing two people. Curtis Osborne was pronounced dead Wednesday at 9:05 p.m. in the second execution in Georgia in the last month...
Curtis Osborne update
Posted on June 04, 2008The State of Georgia scheduled Wednesday night to kill Curtis Osborne. A few hours after that scheduled x-hour no news. The execution wire to the right will likely update before any blog post. On background the Atlanta Journal Constitution ran this piece by William Sessions: The case of Curtis Osborne was never a simple one...
CCA stay
Posted on June 03, 2008[update]7:53pm The Stay papers in Derrick Sonnier’s case are now available: Motion for stay: http://alt.coxnewsweb.com/statesman/pdf/06/Sonnier_stay_motion.pdf Second petition: http://alt.coxnewsweb.com/statesman/pdf/06/Sonnier_Petition.pdf – The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals stayed tonights execution in Texas of Derrick Sonnier...
Choosing life in Tennessee
Posted on June 03, 2008After 18 years on death row, Richard Taylor today was sentenced to life in prison. Taylor was severely mentally ill. Christopher Hill of the ACLU’s capital punishment project brings us this: NASHVILLE ? A severely mentally ill man who spent 18 years on death row and whose conviction and death sentence were reversed by a [...
An undeserved honor
Posted on June 03, 2008This website was listed as one of the top 100 criminal justice blogs this week. I’m happy to be listed with one of my heroes, who I don’t list here enough, John Wesley Hall, as well as about 98 other bloggers. The list is a huge resource
email edition
Posted on June 02, 2008The email edition is now available. From that edition: No favorable decisions are noted for the period from May 19, 2006 to May 26, 2008. In the news, Prof. John Blume of Cornell University Law School has done the herculean task of compiling a rough number of cases, 83, in which an inmate?s death [...
Choosing life: NY
Posted on June 02, 2008After 7 weeks of jury-selection, 2 months of trial, and 3 days of penalty-phase, the jury in United States v. Khalid Barnes deliberated for a total of 2-1/2 hours over two days. Unanimous for life. Unanimous re every mitigating circumstance. This was a case where the United States Attorney for the SDNY [...
New date.
Posted on June 02, 2008Kent Jackson in Virginia has a July 10 execution date. This date is considered serious.
Feiger walks
Posted on June 02, 2008Gerry Spence announces this is his last trial. Geoffrey Feiger walks. The Underdog Blog notes: I owe a lot to Gerry Spence. On the one hand, my guru of gurus Steve Rench was the paramount motivator for my attending the Trial Lawyers College. On the other hand, Gerry is the yin to Steve’s yang, completing an [...
Capital scholarship roundup
Posted on June 01, 2008As promised a few days ago, after the jump, the latest scholarship from SSRN & the various law review sources. [more] Douglas A. Berman and Stephanos Bibas (Ohio State University - Michael E. Moritz College of Law and University of Pennsylvania Law School) Engaging Capital Emotions: The Supreme Court, in Kennedy v...
The number of Atkins commutations guesstimated
Posted on May 31, 2008DPIC has this swag/guesstimate that provides the first & best calculation of cases impacted by the Atkins decision: Prof. John Blume of Cornell University Law School has compiled the cases in which an inmate’s death sentence was reduced because of a finding of mental retardation...
Balko takes on the Mississippi Supreme Court’s decision in Jeffrey Havard’s case
Posted on May 31, 2008The Mississippi Supreme Court, 7-2, denied relief in State v. Jeffrey Havard despite a real possibility, maybe even probability, that no murdered had occurred. Radley Balko at Reason Magazine notes: Havard is on death row in Mississippi after being convicted of killing and sexually abusing his girlfriend?s infant daughter...
Odd DNA development of the day
Posted on May 29, 2008In Louisville, a Jefferson Circuit Court judge ordered Kentucky State Police Crime Lab to continue DNA testing that could free Brian Keith Moore. Prosecutors with the state attorney general’s office had previously had the lab stop the DNA test arguing that the DNA collection might have been flawed.
Louisiana date stayed
Posted on May 29, 2008The Louisiana Supreme Court has stayed the execution date for Antoinette Frank. The Court appears to have reserved the right to reset the date for the fall.
Some interesting TV
Posted on May 29, 2008Two tv shows of interest tonight on cable: From IFC, “At the Death House Door” From National Geographic, “Prison Nation” “At the Death House Door,” in Tuesday’s New York Times notes the documentary premieres Thursday on cable channel IFC...
New law review articles
Posted on May 28, 2008The last week or so has seen a swell of new law reviews being reported by SSRN & the Tarlton Law Library Capital Punishment Literature project. With a little luck they’ll be up Thursday There are a handfull of articles that jumped out at me immediately as their written by old friends their work [...
Kudos to Steve Stewart
Posted on May 28, 2008Rarely do we give kudos to prosecutors around here, and even less frequently do we cut & paste ANYTHING Kent Scheidegger posts. Kent, at least this one time, is spot on: Steve Stewart, prosecuting attorney of Clark County, Indiana, has updated his extensive collection of links on the death penalty...
email edition wrap-up
Posted on May 27, 2008This week’s “email edition” is now available. From the introduction: The news of the week is best themed “choosing life.” The Georgia Pardons and Parole Board commuted Samuel Crowe?s death sentence to life without parole briefly before his scheduled execution last week...
Kevin Green update
Posted on May 27, 2008Kevin Green’s execution is a few minutes away. Mr Green is scheduled to be put to death at 9 p.m. Earlier tonight, the U.S. Supreme Court turned down his request for a stay of execution and Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) denied a petition for clemency...
Alabama capital rape law dies quietly
Posted on May 27, 2008One of the first people who ever subscribed to the Weekly, Steve Noles, reports a favorable legislative win out of Alabama. From email: The Alabama Legislature finished its annual session at midnight on May 19, 2008. Among the bills dying at that hour was H...
Virginia kills
Posted on May 27, 2008The Commonwealth of Virginia rejoined the execution game tonight with the death of Kevin Green. Mr. Green was executed despite claims he was mentally retarded.
An Australian Ooopsie
Posted on May 27, 2008File this one under “O” for “ooopsie” and “oh shucks:” THE Victorian government will today posthumously pardon a man hanged 86 years ago for the rape and strangulation of a 12-year-old girl. In a move that will create legal history, Victorian governor David de Kretser has signed a pardon for accused killer Colin [...
Great posting at Grits
Posted on May 26, 2008Grits for Breakfast, a/k/a as the Texas ACLU’s own Scott Henson, has a great interview with Danalynn Recer of the he Gulf Regional Advocacy Center on winning a life verdict for Juan Quntero last week.
Three articles of interest
Posted on May 26, 2008I’m running late with the Weekly, but as I’m writing I thought I’d share a few great stories moving on the wires: More fears about executing the innocent, Anesthesiologist joins Missouri’s execution team, violating ethical guidelines, & Will Death Become the Exception, Not the Rule
Texas death row exoneration in the works?
Posted on May 24, 2008“Collin County DA John Roach has, after 18 months in which his office spent 5,000 man-hours and more than $47,000 re-investigating the case, announced that there is no longer a good-faith basis for upholding the conviction of Michael Blair:” [here] “Troubling questions about our criminal justice are raised any time DNA testing shows that someone on [...
Herbie Baker pleads to a term of years
Posted on May 23, 2008Herbie Baker was permitted today to resolve his case with a plea of 35 -70 years in Pennsylvnia . Mr. Baker had spent half of his life on death row. A special thank you / congratulations goes out to the good people at the Philly CHU & the Philadelphia Defenders.
Commutation Georgia
Posted on May 22, 2008Tonight’s execution in Georgia, Samuel Crowe, was commuted to Life without Parole. AJC has more. The 47-year-old man would have been the second inmate to be put to death in Georgia in 16 days and the third in the country since a de facto moratorium on executions was lifted in April, when the U...
Choosing life
Posted on May 22, 2008Two additional life verdicts in high profile cases are noted: United States v. Rudy Sablan (D.Co.) — Life Sentence The jury in Rudy Sablan?s case ? a BOP prison murder charging Rudy and his cousin with killing their cellmate ? returned a life verdict on May 20th...
Thanks to the reader who
Posted on May 21, 2008Thanks to the reader who updated us with the pending Florida execution of Mark Schwab.
Berry executed
Posted on May 21, 2008Convicted killer Earl Wesley Berry was executed at 6 p.m. today in Unit 17 of Parchman. A lethal cocktail of drugs was injected into Berry’s arm while his victim’s daughter and granddaughter, corrections officials and members of the media watched...
x-date wire
Posted on May 21, 2008To the right, and under the upcoming execution dates, I’ve posted a “x-date wire” which provides the latest wire stories on the next few scheduled upcoming executions.
What leads to life?
Posted on May 21, 2008A good, perhaps great, cop dies at the hands of an illegal immigrant with a record who snuck back in to the country after being deported in the county that has executed more people than every state in the union save Texas itself. Here is how Officer Johnson, the victim has been described...
Berry update
Posted on May 20, 2008Mississippi plans on killing Earl Berry on Wednesday around the time most of us are leaving the office, or if we’re lucky, sitting down to dinner with family and/or friends. Lyle Denniston @ the SCOTUS Blog, as always, does a great job laying out what avenues of relief are left for Mr...
Life: A Beautiful Choice
Posted on May 20, 2008Jurors decided Tuesday that Juan Leonardo Quintero, who killed Houston police officer Rodney Johnson, should spend the rest of his life in prison, rather than go to death row, for Johnson’s 2006 murder.
Nebraska update, well sorta
Posted on May 20, 2008The strange twilight state of the Nebraska death penalty appears likely to continue indefinitely. The Fremont Tribune explains why.
Missouri capital rape statute dead
Posted on May 20, 2008The Kansas City Star is announcing the Missouri capital rape statute has failed in the legislature. So much for devolving standards of indecency argument by Louisiana in the Kennedy child rape case.
New scholarship
Posted on May 20, 2008New scholarship on mitigation is noted. H. Mitchell Caldwell and Thomas W. Brewer, DEATH WITHOUT DUE CONSIDERATION? OVERCOMING BARRIERS TO MITIGATION EVIDENCE BY “WARMING” CAPITAL JURORS TO THE ACCUSED. 51 Howard Law Journal 193 (Winter 2008)...
email edition is available
Posted on May 19, 2008The email edition is now available here. he Supreme Court in Bell v. Kelly, No. 07-1223, granted cert on: “Whether 28 U.S.C 2254, the federal habeas provision governing claims adjudicated on the merits in state court, should be applied to claims based on evidence of ineffective assistance of counsel the state court refused to consider...
Beating cancer, throwing a no hitter
Posted on May 19, 2008Truly awe inspiring. AP notes: Jon Lester has survived cancer and pitched a World Series clincher for the Boston Red Sox . Now he can add a no-hitter to his already amazing list of accomplishments. The 24-year-old lefty shut down Kansas City [...
A truly weird development out of Kentucky
Posted on May 19, 2008Brian Keith Moore is on death row in Kentucky for a murder he says he didn’t commit. In 2006, Moore became the first Kentucky death row inmate to win DNA testing when a judge ordered an examination of multiple pieces of clothing that the Commonwealth claims Moore was wearing when the murder was committed...
Life: what a beautiful choice
Posted on May 19, 2008After handing down a life sentence to co-defendant and triggerman, Gary Eye, a federal jury sentenced Steven Sandstrom to life. Click here for article [h/t Kevin McNally]
Sentencing dates post-Baze showing an old geographical disparity.
Posted on May 19, 2008A little less than have of those condemned to death in the United States live outside of the former states of the Death Belt, i.e. the states of the old Confederacy + Oklahoma. Historically, roughly 85% of executions in this country, post-Furman, occurred in these states...
Technical corrections to this weekès email edition
Posted on May 19, 2008The Jackson v. Taylor opinion should have been cited as should have been cited as Jackson v. Danberg, No. 06-300 (D. Del 5/19/2008) and linked as http://capitaldefenseweekly.com/delawarejacksonli.pdf. My apologies for any confusion.
Bytes & pieces part 2
Posted on May 18, 2008The final catching up post. StandDown Texas Project, invariably, has all the news that isn’t here. The email edition update will be out in a few hours. The Supreme Court in Bell v. Kelly, No. 07-1223, has granted cert on: “Whether 28 U...
Bytes & piecespart one
Posted on May 18, 2008his is the first of two “catching up” posts on stuff I would have liked to address but for a lack of time. Minnesota Law Blog: looks at whether a defendant waives his/her right to counsel when they physically assault their appointed counsel in Public defender heroism in St...
New x-dates
Posted on May 16, 2008Holiday was great. Unfortunately, new execution dates are listed in the column to the right.
Notable “Not Guilty”
Posted on May 16, 2008In Pennsylvania, a Northampton County jury this afternoon acquitted Theodore Reddice of all charges in the capital murder prosecution against him. The District Attorney for Northampton County, John Morganelli, whose office rarely loses, is the Democratic nominee for Attorney General in Pennsylvania...
Ex Parte Gene Wilford Hathorn, Jr. from the Texas CCA
Posted on May 16, 2008The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in Ex Parte Gene Wilford Hathorn, Jr., No. AP-75,917, Wednesday ordered, after previously rejecting the issues at bar, further briefing. [more] The Court specifically ordered briefing on: 1. Did applicant object at trial that his jury was not given an adequate [...
Skinner v. Quarterman: Fifth Circuit grants COA
Posted on May 16, 2008In a case that many have watched for some time due to claims of factual innocence, Henry Skinner v. Quarterman, the Fifth Circuit Wednesday granted a Certificate of Appealability on two issues. The first issue addresses trial counsel’s “failure to make use of [a] blood spatter report” which indicated a potentially radically different set of [...
On holiday
Posted on May 08, 2008My apologies, I’m on holiday until the morning of May 16th. My 120+ felony files can wait until I’m back. I’m in the back, backcountry and have been advised no web & no phone, including wireless, save in town.
link dump
Posted on May 07, 2008I’m out the door for a few days. Here are some links I’ve been thinking about: via DPIC Exonerations from Death Row Linked to Inadequate Defense Exonerated Having Trouble Getting Exonerated By Radley Balko on Innocence Cuba ceases fire, for now from AI’s Death Penalty Blog...
Georgia x-date update
Posted on May 06, 2008[rolling update] 8:19 PM Eastern: A reader notes that this is the longest period between executions since 1982. 8:05 PM Eastern William Earl Lynd has been executed for the murder of Ginger Moore. This is the 1100th execution in the modern era and the first following the Supreme Court’s ruling in Baze v...
Georgia set to execute
Posted on May 06, 2008The Georgia Supreme Court & the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles have rebuffed attempts to place on hold Tuesday’s scheduled execution of William Earl Lynd. Efforts are now in other Courts, Press accounts hint Tom Dunn, and his crew, representing Mr...
As Executions Resume, So Do Questions of Fairness
Posted on May 06, 2008As Executions Resume, So Do Questions of Fairness - not me, the nation’s paper of record
Four noncapital of note
Posted on May 06, 2008Four great noncapital cases in recent days that I won’t spoil with long descriptions U.S. v. Chapman:, No. No. 06-10316 (9th Cir) A Ninth Circuit panel upholds dismissal of indictment for gross (and I mean gross) prosecutorial misconduct: The government egregiously failed to meet its constitutional obligations under Brady and Giglio...
email edition
Posted on May 05, 2008The email edition is now available. From the introduction: Another edition, another exoneration. With only minor cases noted during this edition’s coverage period (April 21 -28) the important news is on the exoneration front. DPIC notes The state of North Carolina dropped all charges against Levon Jones, and he was freed today (May 2) after spending [...
Grant of habeas relief in California
Posted on May 05, 2008The California Supreme Court on Monday granted habeas relief to Adam Miranda. In re Adam Miranda, No. S058528 & S060781. More to follow.
Georgia on my mind
Posted on May 05, 2008The Georgia Board of Pardons and Parole “has denied condemned killer William Earl Lynd’s clemency bid, paving the way for him to likely become the nation’s first inmate put to death since the U.S. Supreme Court held that lethal injection is constitutional...
House to be released
Posted on May 05, 2008Paul House will be released. The Sixth Circuit in a brief unpublished memorandum opinion on Monday affirmed the district courtès order of relief; “detailed opinion by this court … would only further delay resolution of this matter.”
x-date set for Jose Medellin
Posted on May 05, 2008Jose Medellin, whose death sentence has caused international outrage and already one SCOTUS decision, has a new x-date, August 5th. State District Judge Caprice Cosper set the Aug. 5 lethal injection for 33-year-old Jose Medellin for his participation in the gang rape and strangulation deaths of 2 teenage girls 15 years ago in Houston [...
New execution date
Posted on May 05, 2008Earl Wesley Berry, who the State of Mississippi sought to have executed on Monday, has a new execution date set for May 21. He is to be put to death for the 1987 murder of Mary Bounds.
Kansas Death Penalty Focus has
Posted on May 05, 2008Kansas Death Penalty Focus has decided to call it a day for now.
Earl Wesley Berry Monday’s x-date?
Posted on May 04, 2008Mississippi’s Attorney General has asked that Earl Wesley Berry be executed May 5, 2008 or THIS Monday. No date had been set by Sunday night and the date seems unlikely, but not completely impossible. More here.
Grant of relief from the Fifth Circuit
Posted on May 04, 2008While prepping this week’s email edition their does, in fact appear to have been one grant of relief noted. Walter Koon v. Cain, 2008 U.S. App. LEXIS 9478 (5th Cir 5/1/2008) (unpublished) . In Koon guilt phase relief is granted as trial counsel failed to adequately investigate various fact witnesses that were key to the [...
A note on execution dates
Posted on May 03, 2008Please note that it appears the number of new execution dates is, due to the fluidity of the post-Baze world, being under reported both here and elsewhere. I asked a few days ago about why so few new execution dates. The answer it appears is due in part to the under reporting [...
Three quick stories
Posted on May 02, 2008Three quick stories: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports, “Federal judge says Ga. lethal injection method OK.” A federal judge in Atlanta on Wednesday rejected arguments that Georgia’s method of execution by lethal injection is unconstitutional...
Levon ?Bo? Jones Released
Posted on May 02, 2008NC exonerates another man. From our friends at Death Watch: For the second time in two months, an innocent man is being released from North Carolina?s death row. Levon ?Bo? Jones spent 13 years on death row after being convicted of the 1987 murder of Leamon Grady...
Parris Island
Posted on May 02, 2008One of my favorite prosecutors asks, correctly, “where do we get such men?” as Marine Sgt. Merlin German. The answer is Parris Island. I personally I don’t think Hollywood Jarheads come this tough. And while me & Tom McKenna who asked this tough question may disagree on the war, we do not disagree on the [...
One drug
Posted on May 02, 2008SCOTUSBlog has an amazing post simply asking. I won’t spoil it. Lethal injection: a one-drug alternative?
Bob Loblaw hangs it up
Posted on April 30, 2008In one of the worst decisions we’ve ever reported, Bob Loblaw @ Decision of Day has posted his/herlast post. Bob’s work has been regularly stolen & pasted here. S/he will be sorely missed.
Two from HuffPo
Posted on April 30, 2008Two great pieces over at HuffPo. John W. Whitehead of the Rutherford Institute looks at the secrecy surrounding the rituals of death. His first and last sentences from that piece are below, what lies between, however, shouldn’t be missed: In our post-9/11 world, government secrecy has become an accepted norm, whether the topic is national security, government [...
A lesson is class….
Posted on April 30, 2008In one of the most amazing acts of humility I’ve seen in the blawger world, Randall Hodgkinson proclaims, with an exclaimation point, I’m ineffective! Kudos to Randall for showing class and grace in the face of when a lesser blawger / lawyer would have trash-talked the court.
Decisions of the week
Posted on April 30, 2008So far this week very few published decisions noted (one each from California, South Carolina, the Sixth Circuit, and a few unpublished opinions from Texas). None of the decisions appear favorable and none appear otherwise notable (that is notable beyond the litigants, their family & friends, as well the victims’ famiiles)...
The Granite State’s death
Posted on April 29, 2008The Granite State’s death penalty is heating up. Perhaps than it is only fitting the March 2008 issue of the Pierce Law Review explores the death penalty: THE PERPETUAL CONTROVERSY Christopher M. Johnson ARTICLES THE DEATH PENALTY AND THE SOCIETY WE WANT Stephen B...
mf’in champ
Posted on April 28, 2008Shaun Martin has this raucous piece on People v. Lewis & the usage of m_____f______. The California Supreme Court in Lewis grants relief on some, but not all, special circumstances counts for lying in wait.
Elsewhere….
Posted on April 28, 2008I’m in court every day this week on fairly lengthy hearings and a fairly substantial amount of briefs also. Not quite as bad as trial, but almost. While I’m trapped with work, some of my favorite stories from elsewhere. SCOTUSBlog notes: “Lawyers for Virginia death-row inmate Christopher Scott Emmett told the Supreme Court on [...
Where are the post-Baze x-dates?
Posted on April 27, 2008Prior to the Court’s ruling in Baze a reasonable person might have forecasted a quick surge in the number of execution dates (or x-dates) would follow if the Court upheld the Kentucky protocol. Despite seven months of no executions a tidal wave of new execution dates has not occurred...
Ever need that 25th hour in the day?
Posted on April 27, 2008Two great posts by Steve Hall on events in my backyard that I meant to write about, but didn’t get to, here & here. Specifically the first post addresses that New Jersey State Senator Raymond Lesniak has written The Road to Abolition: How New Jersey Abolished Its Death Penalty...
email edition available
Posted on April 27, 2008The week’s edition is now available available here. Notable in this relatively light edition is the Supreme Court’s decision in Virginia v. Moore. The holding in Moore is relatively straight forward: where a police officer violates state law in making an [...
Racial Bias Highlights Rampant Problems in Death Penalty System
Posted on April 26, 2008Christopher Hill, with whom I had the good fortune to share dinner a few months ago to celebrate the Tenth Anniversary of PAUADP/PADP, writes, “Racial Bias Highlights Rampant Problems in Death Penalty System,” at Daily Kos. I’d give you a tease of the piece but it is too good to miss.
Lethal injections resuming in Florida
Posted on April 26, 2008Megan McArdle, over at Asymmetrical Information blog at the Atlantic, has a fantastic new piece on Florida’s governor and his quest to restart lethal injection: I heard something that sounded very odd on the radio yesterday: news that Florida’s governor had expressed his “gratitude” that lethal injection was once again legal, and his intention of getting [...
Giles & forfeiture by wrongdoing
Posted on April 24, 2008Prof Richard Friedman reflects on the oral arguments in Giles, the SCOTUS’s latest examination of the Confrontation Clause & related post-Crawford issues like forfeiture by wrongdoing, here, here, here & here. The oral argument transcript is here.
new scholarship
Posted on April 24, 2008The following articles are among those appearing in the Spring 2008 issue of Criminal Justice, the magazine of the ABA Section of Criminal Justice. If you are an ABA member, you may access these by clicking on appropriate entries at http://www.abanet...
LI litigation update
Posted on April 24, 2008Week at a Glance at CapDefNet nails a home run on where lethal injection litigation is headed & where we are today on a challenge by challenge basis.
The power to pardon
Posted on April 24, 2008The act of of the executive pardon is both an act of mercy and a political act. Doug Berman in this post nails the questions of why isn’t the MSM addressing the last administration’s pardon record: Fortunately, some thoughtful bloggers are trying to make sure these pardon issues does not get lost in all the [...
The next in line to be executed in Alabama dies of natural causes
Posted on April 23, 2008Daniel Siebert in Alabama, who came within a day of being executed on Oct. 24 before being granted a stay by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta pending Baze, died of natural causes Tuesday. Alabama convicted Siebert of five murders and he had confessed to more than a dozen homicides in [...
Fifth Circuit grants a COA in Anthony Cardell Haynes v. Quarterman,
Posted on April 23, 2008The Fifth Circuit on Wednesday granted a COA in Anthony Cardell Haynes v. Quarterman, No. 07-70004, in light of Snyder v. Louisiana and prosecutorial strikes based, purportedly, on race.
New execution date
Posted on April 23, 2008Georgia officials have set May 6th as the execution date for William Earl Lynd. If executed Lynd will be the first person executed following the lifting of the execution moratorium post-Baze.
Kerr on Virginia v. Moore
Posted on April 23, 2008Orin Kerr gives his thoughts on Virginia v. Moore.
Boston Legal takes on capital rape
Posted on April 22, 2008From a colleague Tonight is the promised episode of Boston Legal where the lawyers take on the Supreme Court and the Death Penalty . . .Please put out to all your abolition community colleagues. The issue? What prophetic writing . . .a non-murder death penalty case - a rape case from the [...
NYT: we’re #1
Posted on April 22, 2008Fantastic news from the NYT, we’re #1 The United States has less than 5 percent of the world?s population. But it has almost a quarter of the world?s prisoners. Indeed, the United States leads the world in producing prisoners, a reflection of a relatively recent and now entirely distinctive American approach to crime and punishment...
email edition
Posted on April 21, 2008Better a little late than not at all. From this week’s email edition: The news of this edition can be summed up in one word, Baze. With no clear opinion, Baze v. Rees is now decided. Fordham?s Professor Deborah Denno notes: Baze v. Rees is a splintered plurality decision in which the Supreme Court puts [...
Stays lifted
Posted on April 21, 2008[updated] The Supreme Court has lifted a large number of stays & denied cert in light of Baze in a slew of cases this morning. Still working through the orders list. Notable denials include Epps v. Mississippi & Taylor v. Crawford. The list appears to have the most capital case related denials since [...
Mirror of the Ninth Circuit’s Capital Punishment Handbook
Posted on April 21, 2008One of the things I am constantly reminded of is how much the net has changed the practice of law. Like many of us I had a wall of books in my office that are now reduced to a few bookmarks (espcially DPIC and CapDefNet). Add another one to that list, the Ninth Circuit Capital Punishment [...
California Supreme Court rules in People v. Zamudio
Posted on April 21, 2008When I can’t understand a question of California law when the Cal Supremes rule I usually turn to Shaun Martin at the California Appellate Report. Today’s People v. Zamudio is no different with its vacateur of death sentence but not all of his death sentences...
Link dump
Posted on April 21, 2008As always, there was more great stuff to write about than there was time to discuss it. Link dump after the jump: FindLaw, Michael Dorf has this new essay, titled “How the Supreme Court’s Lethal Injection Ruling Elevates Appearances Over Reality...
Hack attack
Posted on April 20, 2008Friends: Sorry to report that both DPIC & CFTJ’s websites have been hacked. CFTJ is now down, DPIC, however, now refers to a porn site. Use your best judgement.
no executions in Kentucky anytime soon
Posted on April 20, 2008Dave Barron, who has to be one of the best litigators in the country under 35 (he recently turned just 30), is quoted today in the Louisville Courier Journal: Even with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling this week that lethal injections can resume in Kentucky, none of the 38 inmates on the state’s death [...
Post-Baze lethal injection litigation
Posted on April 18, 2008The SCOTUSBlog notes that the latest round of lethal injection litigation has begun. The State of Florida has filed a symbolic motion to lift the stay of Mark Schwab’s execution date. Most, if not all, of the Baze related stays and cert petitions will likely be “disposed of” in the coming days, and no [...
Baze errata
Posted on April 18, 2008After searching through a fair amount of postings and news stories on Baze v. Rees, srom from several law profs I greatly admire, here, here, here & here, and some from a few commentators I likewise admire, , here, here, here & here, a few of my reflections on the opinions weren’t covered...
COA granted
Posted on April 18, 2008The Fifth Circuit in David Lee Powell v. Quarterman, 2008 U.S. App. LEXIS 8209 (April 16, 2008) (unpublished), on Wednesday granted a Certificate of Appealability on three issues in this case out of Texas. The COA’s first question seems rather curious: Claim 1...
Again
Posted on April 18, 2008Another noncapital exoneration, this time in San Diego. Cynthia Sommer, 34, said she barely slept herself on her first night of freedom after a San Diego Superior Court judge Thursday dismissed charges that she poisoned her husband in 2002. She was convicted of first-degree murder in January 2007 after initial tests of Sgt...
Return of execution dates
Posted on April 18, 2008Virginia has scheduled the execution of Kevin Green to occur on May 27.
Why the world hates bureaucrats
Posted on April 18, 2008here & here. Now back to the usual postings.
Prof Denno speaks on Baze
Posted on April 17, 2008Few, if any, people speak with more authority, both legal and moral, than Fordham’s Professor Deborah Denno. Stand Down, and kudos to Steve Hall for tracking down a quote, notes: Baze v. Rees is a splintered plurality decision in which the Supreme Court puts forth an Eighth Amendment standard that an execution method must constitute a [...
Baze: reactions elsewhere
Posted on April 17, 2008Adam Liptak’s views on Baze in the NYT, private emails, & CJLF’s initial reactions (who, without reading, I agreed with on what quotes were the heart of the opinion) )indicate a near uniform reaction to Baze — we haven’t seen the last of lethal injection challenges...
Kennedy v. Louisiana
Posted on April 16, 2008In a few short hours the Roberts Court will hear arguments in Kennedy v. Louisiana. In the 31 years since Coker v. Georgia most assumed a state could not impose the death penalty for a non-homicide offense. Louisiana legislators thought otherwise and made capital certain types of rape, specifically child rape...
First death warrant to be signed post-Baze in Florida?
Posted on April 16, 2008Press accounts in Florida are reporting that Gov. Charlie Crist ordered his staff to complie “a short list of among those that are eligible that are among the most heinous of cases for me to consider to sign an additional death warrant,” the governor said...
And beat goes on…
Posted on April 16, 2008Thomas McGowan was freed yesterday. Sent to jail on eyewitness ID, exonerated by DNA: Moments ago, Innocence Project client Thomas McGowan stood on the steps of a Dallas courthouse, free for the first time in 23 years. And while he should be enjoying his first day of freedom, he was already thinking of other [...
Louisiana’s capital rape statute headed for trouble?
Posted on April 16, 2008Lyle Denniston’s superb post at the SCOTUSblog on the oral arguments in Kennedy v. Louisiana can be summed up thusly: Court looks to skip the hardest questions and potentially rule Louisiana’s statute doesn’t sufficiently narrow the class of death eligible rapists.
Baze: first reaction
Posted on April 16, 2008With no clear opinion, Baze v. Rees is now decided. This is a loss for two former clients, but in some ways Baze appears to signal a sharp turn away from the Rehnquist Court’s capital jurisprudence. Lyle Denniston sums up the opinion succinctly: Chief Justice John G...
RIP Pat
Posted on April 16, 2008I got in to criminal defense work and the fight of the little guy vs. the big guy thanks in large part thanks to my Aunt Pat. Today Pat was laid to rest in Norristown, PA. Few beyond family, friends, and those at Johnny’s likely noticed her passing...
DNA does it again
Posted on April 15, 2008Macomb County, Michigan Prosecutor Eric Smith on Monday dismissed charges against Nathaniel Hatchett H, citing DNA test results that cleared him of a 1996 sexual assault. Hatchett was serving a 25- to 40-year prison sentence for raping and kidnapping a woman...
email edition now available
Posted on April 14, 2008This week’s email edition is now available. Leading off this “double edition” is the Third Circuit’s opinion in Mumia Abu-Jamal v. Horn. The panel granted penalty phase relief as the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ?was objectively unreasonable? when analyzing whether the ?jury instructions and the verdict form created a reasonable likelihood that the jury believed? it [...
Cross
Posted on April 14, 2008The Underdog Blog starts a great conversation here about cross and gathers resources. In a trial lawyers’ listserv recently, a member passed on a law student’s request for publications for learning effective cross examination in criminal cases...
Georgia Supremes deny rehearing in Davis
Posted on April 14, 2008The Georgia Supreme Court today denied a motion to reconsider its decision in the State v. Troy Davis. Davis was convicted in the 1989 murder of Savannah Police Officer Mark MacPhail, and sentenced to death. On March 17, the court voted 4 to 3 to deny a new trial based on [...
Yes we’ve changed our look again
Posted on April 14, 2008I’m torn between layouts. I use several computers and browsers during the course of the day. I’m playing around with several different layouts trying to find one that looks right across the late, however none are consistently great, but this one seems to suck the least on all of the browsers...
Quick look at the week in SCOTUS news
Posted on April 13, 2008On Wednesday, the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear argument in Kennedy v. Louisiana (07-343), involving the constitutionality of imposing the death penalty for child rape. Monday will see orders & possibly an opinion. Tuesday & Wednesday may both see opinions from the Court...
The Sixth Circuit upholds the vacateur of Spisak
Posted on April 12, 2008The Sixth Circuit on Friday let stand Spisak v. Mitchell & its prior grant of penalty phase relief following a remand from the United States Supreme Court. On October 20, 2006, this Court issued an opinion partially granting habeas relief to Petitioner, Frank G...
Another legislature rejects capital rape
Posted on April 12, 2008The Colorado legislature, keeping with the overwhelming majority of other state legislatures, will not be bringing back the crime of capital rape, albeit merely for certain child molesters. The details are here. A curious footnote here is whether, and if so how, this will impact on the pending Supreme Court case of Kennedy v...
yeah, yeah, yeah
Posted on April 10, 2008Some time ago I realized that a few days, or sometimes weeks, before trial, I obsess trial. Little things go by the waste side. I get vapor lock. The only thing I seem to be able to think about is the jury saying “guilty” on all counts...
The quality of capital counsel
Posted on April 10, 2008From the hearings earlier this week on the Senate Judiciary Committee; Subcommittee on the Constitution’s hearing entitled ?The Adequacy of Representation in Capital Cases?. via InCase. From Senator Feingold: Obviously, inadequate representation is not unique to capital cases...
Ohio Supreme Court grants relief.
Posted on April 09, 2008The Ohio Supreme Court in State v. White, Slip Opinion No. 2008-Ohio-1623, has granted penalty phase relief on the grounds that Mr. White is mentally retarded. The Clerk’s Office notes: The Supreme Court of Ohio today granted a petition for post-conviction relief and vacated the death sentence of Clifton White III of Akron...
In trial starting Monday, no weekly email edition this week & only one favorable capital decision noted.
Posted on April 07, 2008Prosecutors in State v. Maughan convinced a trial court to go along with their claim Maughan’s counsel was conflicted for zealously protecting their client’s interest (previously discussed here). Maughan’s counsel apparently informed witnesses they didn’t have to talk to cops...
calling it for what it is….
Posted on April 07, 2008John Holdridge is at it again. By “at it” I mean hitting home runs. This time he takes on NADA’sJosh Marquis and his claims that less than 30 innocent people have been convicted and sentenced to die in the modern era: Support for the death penalty in the U...
lethal injection hearings in Ohio
Posted on April 07, 2008The Washington Post has a major piece on the Ohio pretrial lethal injection litigation. This time WaPo focuses on Dr. Mark Heaths testimony: Heath, an assistant professor of anesthesiology at Columbia University, says it’s possible to perform lethal injection of prisoners in a humane manner, but that Ohio’s method falls below the standard for [...
Paul House to be released
Posted on April 07, 2008Excellent news from TCASK: In a ruling issued today, Judge Harry S. Mattice stated that Paul House will be released pending a hearing on May 28, 2008 to consider the terms and conditions of his release. In his ruling, Mattice stated: The public has a compelling interest in the State not continuing to incarcerate individuals who have [...
Life in Cape Gi
Posted on April 05, 2008The New York Times is reporting Timothy Krajcir has taken a plea to life: A serial killer pleaded guilty Friday to killing five women nearly 30 years ago in southeast Missouri, but he avoided the death penalty after making a deal with prosecutors. Timothy Krajcir, 63, received five consecutive life sentences for the murder counts, with additional [...
Testing your ability to object in closings
Posted on April 04, 2008From our friend Anne at Deliberations, a simple test as to what is and is not objectionable in closings, at least in the Fifth Circuit (the answers will surprise you). In the the trial that led to Fifth Circuit’s United States v. Gracia opinion yesterday, defense counsel argued that the federal agents were lying...
Two losses noted
Posted on April 04, 2008Two losses are noted, one from California (People v. Rundle, No. S012943 — relief denied on innumerable issues in this 161 tome) and one from the Tenth Circuit (Gilson v. Sirmons, No. 06-6287 — split panel, relief denied most notably, on failure to give a lesser included offense instruction)...
A little fun with YouTube
Posted on April 04, 2008A little offbeat but funny. Back to the regular postings shortly
Deadline for the 2008 Clarence Darrow Death Penalty Defense College extended
Posted on April 04, 2008The application deadline for the 2008 Clarence Darrow Death Penalty Defense College (May 27-31, 2008 DePaul University College of Law Chicago , Illinois) has been extended to April 15, 2008 This week-long, intensive bring-your-own-case program is for capital defense attorneys who want to hone their skills while working on a real case...
Cost: New Mexico
Posted on April 04, 2008Doug Berman (who I often wonder whether he has found the magical 25th hour in the day to blog so much) notesi: In a potentially far reaching ruling, a trial judge in New Mexico has barred the state from seeking the death penalty because the legislature has failed to provide adequate funding for defense representation...
Lethal injection update: New study
Posted on April 04, 2008Virtually all lethal injection executions in this country have taken place in states that have banned, for use in animal euthanasia, the same drugs that are used in those states during executions, according to a study, released today, that will be published this spring in the Fordham Urban Law Journal...
This week’s email edition
Posted on April 04, 2008I am scheduled to start a felony trial on Monday, followed by several days of conferences and hearings. This week’s email edition will not, likely, happen. My apologies in advance. I’ll post any favorable decisions on Sunday morning under a separate post.
Another one: North Carolina sees the release of another innocent man
Posted on April 03, 2008Glenn Edward Chapman has woken up every morning for fifteen years wondering was going to be killed, another victim in the war on innocence. His reprieve via Death Watch: Chapman was sentenced to death for the 1992 murders of Betty Jean Ramseur and Tenene Yvette Conley in Hickory...
A constitutional right to DNA testing?
Posted on April 03, 2008The Ninth Circuit today in Osborne v. District Attorney?s Office for the Third Judicial District, 06-35875 (9th Cir. 4/2/2008), reiterated a very basic theme in that Circuit’s case law & first principles, innocence matters. via Decision of the Day: sborne wants to challenge the biological evidence by using newer and more accurate methods of forensic testing...
News roundup
Posted on April 03, 2008If this wasn’t a week from hell at work I’d love to address: In Arizona Robert Hooker, Pima County’s public defender, was killed in car crash Tuesday evening after being hit head-on by a pickup truck involved in a race on a West Side road...
A Missouri moratorium coming?
Posted on April 02, 2008Back to the regularly scheduled postings. Missouri considering a moratorium: A State House committee conducted a hearing today on a bill that would place a 2-year moratorium on executions in Missouri. Dennis Fritz of Kansas City was convicted of murder in Oklahoma in the early 1980’s...
Seven out of Texas lose in light of Medellin
Posted on April 01, 2008Following in the wake of Medellin, a slew of cert denials from Texas. AP notes 7 Mexican-born inmates on Texas’ death row lost their bids for appeal Monday before the U.S. Supreme Court, following the court’s ruling last week that another Mexican-born inmate’s case couldn’t be reopened despite an order from President Bush...
An AP April Fool’s joke?
Posted on April 01, 2008The AP is “reporting” news in Baze. The final two paragraphs contain the most pithy parts of the report: WASHINGTON, D.C. — A divided U.S. Supreme Court ruled today that states using the execution method known as “lethal injection”, which involves the intravenous administration of a three-drug cocktail to put death row inmates to [...
CONFIRMED: Statute barring death penalty snuck in to omnibus bill & signed in to law
Posted on April 01, 2008As many of us have known for several weeks, a good friend of the blog snuck in to the budget reconciliation bill last year a law that in exchange for receiving federal highway funds states would not be able to issue any new death sentences after March 31, 2008...
email edition now available
Posted on March 31, 2008The weekly email edition is now available: This issue is dominated by the Supreme Court’s holding in Medellin v. Texas. In an opinion that will have Constitutional scholars buzzing for years to come, the Court in Medellin held that neither the World Court?s judgment in the Avena litigation (holding Vienna Convention claims must be honored by [...
Two notable state supreme court opinions on the right to privacy
Posted on March 31, 2008Two notable opinion from the Supreme Courts in Kansas and Vermont. Friday the Supreme Court of Kansas in State v. Belt quashed slightly less than a dozen “DNA-based rape warrants” on the grounds the warrants lacked sufficient specificity...
VHAC update
Posted on March 28, 2008From my good friend Andy Hoover who is one of the main guys behind the scenes of the Voices of Hope Agents of Change Tour: “We call it capital punishment, rather than what it is. State killing. Legal homicide.” The first leg of the VHAC tour is done...
Presumed Guilty
Posted on March 28, 2008One of my personal heroes, Sean O’Brien, has a fantastic piece up over at SSRN on Innocence and the Death Penalty. Mr. O’Brien’s aticle entitled “Presumed Guilty: Innocence and the Death Penalty” is avaiable at: http://ssrn...
Abu Jamal v. Horn
Posted on March 27, 2008In one of the most hotly debated murder convictions / death sentences in recent memory, the Third Circuit today vacated the death sentence of Mumia Abu-Jamal. Mumia Abu-Jamal v. Horn, Nos. 01-9014 & 02-9001. The panel granted relief as the Pennsylvania Supreme Court “was objectively unreasonable” when analyzing whether the [...
Exceptional (noncapital) federal lawyering
Posted on March 27, 2008Members of my extended family are in the music business, so it was with some interest that I’ve been watching United States v. Clifford “T.I.” Harris. T.I., as most know, is one of pop music’s most successful artists. His sixth album, “T...
Scott Panetti on remand
Posted on March 27, 2008The Supreme Court in June blocked Scott Panetti’s execution and remanded for a determination if he was competent to be executed The federal district court, Hon. Sam Sparks, in Austin, Texas mid-week issued its opinion on Panetti’s competency...
The Eleventh Circuit paints a dim picture of life in the lower federal courts
Posted on March 27, 2008In perhaps the most blistering & troubling opinions I have seen concerning an indigent defender (and certainly the most blistering in recent memories) the Eleventh Circuit earlier this week unloaded on Florida’s Capital Collateral Regional Counsel (CCRC) North...
The hidden costs of the death penalty: California
Posted on March 27, 2008The California death penalty costs well over a $100 million each year. The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California will release in a few hours will release “The Hidden Death Tax” looking at records of actual trial expenses and state budgets to calculate the real world fiscal costs of California’s death chamber...
A death sentence reversed in Oklahoma
Posted on March 26, 2008On Wednesday the Oklahoma Court of Criminal appeals vacated the death sentence of Keary Lamar Littlejohn. The Court held, simply, trial counsel should have known that their client was likely to lose and be convicted of capital murder; counsel needed to start thinking about the penalty phase long before they did...
This man stole my thoughts
Posted on March 26, 2008Chris Bowers has, once again, stolen my thoughts. This time here.
Overhaul complete, or almost complete
Posted on March 26, 2008The site overhaul that started over the weekend is, tentatively, complete. We’ve updated the site’s look and feel, as well as the software that runs the site. We’ve also added widgets (yes, Gideon, we’ve finally reached the 21st century)...
No surprises from the Court: Medellin v. Texas
Posted on March 25, 2008In an opinion authored by Chief Justice Roberts the Supreme Court holds that the State of Texas need not always follow the direction of the President of the United States when it comes to enforcement of international law. Background here. The opinion in Medellin v...
A notable capital affirmance?
Posted on March 25, 2008The Seventh Circuit on Monday affirmed both the conviction and death sentence in United States v. Odell Corley, Nos. 05-1120 & 05-1798. Notable in the panel’s opinion is what is missing. Specifically, the Government below was challenged on its use of peremptories in violation of Batson v...
Legislative update
Posted on March 25, 2008In Nebraska, the death penalty remains, however, the state is left with no means to execute people. AP notes: Nebraska lawmakers rejected an attempt to repeal the death penalty on Tuesday, a month after courts left the state with no way to execute its killers...
Closure: new scholarship
Posted on March 24, 2008Susan Andes has just released fascinating new scholarship on murder and closure over at SSRN. Prof. Andes’ article is aptly entitled Victims, ‘Closure’, and the Sociology of Emotion. A first read suggests that the piece adds substantial strength to the argument that proved so powerful in New Jersey, the death [...
All eyes on Nebraska Tuesday
Posted on March 24, 2008Last month Nebraska’s Supreme Court removed the state’s only mean to conduct executions, holding the electric chair violated basic norms of decency. A de facto moratorium ensued amidst political opposition to reviving executions. Tuesday an effort to break the status quo will occur with an attempt to abolish the death penalty...
Eyewitness ID reform legislative updates
Posted on March 24, 2008In a move that has drawn scant little press, North Carolina earlier this month began requiring “independent administrators” to run lineups there. “The law also requires the lineup to have fillers — people who are not suspects in the crime that look like the suspect...
Touring Pennsylvania
Posted on March 24, 2008Touring Pennsylvania?!?! No, not the recently announced bus tour by the BaRock Star, but the Voices of Hope Agents of Change Tour. traveling through most of Pennsylvania (sorry Coudersport, you’re out of luck again). Andy Hoover is tracking the tour over at ACLU- PA blog From his first blog post concerning the tour: It was [...
Politicians and criminal justice issues
Posted on March 24, 2008The Sentencing Project offers a great new resource on the Presidential candidates & criminal justice resource. Via Brian’s great work over at DP OAR: The Sentencing Project posts “2008 Presidential Candidates? Platforms on Criminal Justice“(March 2008) - “A guide to the 2008 Presidential Candidates’ Platforms on Criminal Justice that provides information on a range of [...
A BIG legislative win in Maryland
Posted on March 24, 2008The Maryland legislature voted overwhelmingly in favor of a death penalty study commission Monday night. The votes were 89-48 in the House and 33-14 in the Senate. The bills need to be reconciled and will go to a conference committee to agree on language and then back through both houses [...
email edition now available
Posted on March 23, 2008This week’s email edition is now available: The Supreme Court’s holding in Snyder v. Louisiana dominates this issue. The core holding of Snyder is a ” straightforward application ” and reaffirmation of Batson and Miller-El with Justices Alito and Roberts joining the Miller-El majority...
Notes from the northeast
Posted on March 23, 2008A couple notes from events in the northeast: On April 14, Seton Hall Law School and several co-sponsors will host a day-long symposium, “Legislation, Litigation, Reflection, and Repeal: The Legislative Repeal of Capital Punishment in New Jersey...
4000
Posted on March 23, 2008On Easter four Americans were killed by an IED. There deaths bring the number of American dead to 4000. Technorati Tags: Iraq
Client secrets & keeping your mouth shut
Posted on March 22, 2008Last week I posted on Monroe H. Freedman?s Getting Honest About Client Perjury. The title of Freedman’s article, however, is more than a little misleading. The article is better described as a primer on the criminal defense lawyer’s duty to her clients...
Helping the exonerated
Posted on March 22, 2008National Law Journal columnist Vivian Berger writes, “Exonerated Prisoners: Improve remedial laws.” The wrongful Convictions Tax Relief Act of 2007, S. 2421, recently introduced by senators Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sam Brownback, R-Kan...
One last, last look at Snyder
Posted on March 22, 2008Death Watch gently chides us for missing what it views as the central holding of Snyder v. Louisiana, that Batson still applies. The Supreme Court ruled in Snyder v. Louisiana (opinion here, SCOTUSWiki background here) on Wednesday. The Court did not address the ?sexiest? issue in the case; that the prosecutor made reference to OJ Simpson [...
“Make Room For The Serious Criminals” Bill to be introduced
Posted on March 22, 2008Rep. Barney Frank (D - Mass) announced Friday night a simple bill to help clear federal prisons & make room for just “serious criminals.” The so-called “Make Room For The Serious Criminals” Bill will be introduced in the coming weeks...
Life: a beautiful choice
Posted on March 22, 2008Two important decisions for life are noted. Earlier this week prosecutors accepted a guilty plea from Thomas Joe Miller-El (yes, that Miller-El) in which he avoids a death sentence in return for what amounts to a life sentence). Albeit a little late, “on March 13, 2008, the jury in US v...
An oldie but goodie on eyewitness testimony
Posted on March 21, 2008This video has been for awhile but remains perhaps my favorite on visual perception & eyewitness perception. [h.t Scott Greenfield]
Monthiversary
Posted on March 21, 2008Just a quick note to say baby Joey has hit the magical six month mark. His picture blog is here (thank god he looks like his mom and not me).
Lingering doubt
Posted on March 20, 2008For the most part reading the California Supreme Court’s capital jurisprudence or almost any courts’ opinion on lingering doubt is much like have sex with a porcupine, not very satisfying. Today, however, the Cali Supreme Court in People v...
Race still matters in jury selection
Posted on March 19, 2008In a decision that comes as a surprise to no one, the Supreme Court on Wednesday morning granted a new trial to Allen Snyder of Kenner, La. The opinion in Snyder v. Louisiana can be downloaded here. The trial court in Snyder struck every African-American jury in the jury pool who was not removed [...
One last look at Snyder
Posted on March 19, 2008A few passing thoughts on Snyder that I don’t think have received sufficient attention, on the major online sites, wires, lists, etc.. First, Chase Law’s Michael J.Z. Mannheimer hits the most important “take away” from the opinion with this pithy analysis in the comments at the Volokh Conspiracy: First, the case seems to shift [...
Death penalty study bill looks to pass in Maryland
Posted on March 19, 2008Wire stories are reporting that Maryland appears headed to have a study of its death penalty. A state Senate committee voted Wednesday to set up a task force to study hether the death penalty should be repealed. The study proposal still must be approved by the full Senate and the House before [...
A key rehearing
Posted on March 18, 2008The Fifth Circuit has granted rehearing in Moore v. Quarterman, No. 05-70038 (5th Cir. 3/14/2008). The issue is Atkins & the procedural issues surrounding it. From Decision of the Day: In July of 2006, I blogged about this Fifth Circuit decision, in which a divided panel affirmed a denial of habeas relief to a death row [...
Poll numbers
Posted on March 18, 2008The latest Harris numbers on the death penalty are now available. The numbers reflect the sharpest year to year drop in recent memory & the first poll that I recall finding that Americans believe the death penalty is over used. Currently, 63 percent of Americans believe in the death penalty while three in ten (30%) are [...
Losses in the heart of old Dixie
Posted on March 18, 2008The federal appellate courts of the old Confederacy handed down three losses on Tuesday. In quick summary review, Trawick v. Allen, No. 07-11611, (11th Cir 3/18/2008), sees a loss on allegations the prosecution used its peremptories to remove women from the jury in a discriminatory manner...
New scholarship on charging decisions
Posted on March 18, 2008New scholarship by Katherine Y. Barnes, David Sloss, & Stephen C. Thaman, entitled Life and Death Decisions: Prosecutorial Discretion and Capital Punishment in Missouri. The trio examines, as the article’s name suggests, capital charging decisions in Missouri...
SCOTUS doings
Posted on March 17, 2008The Supreme Court granted cert today in five criminal law (or quasi-criminal law) related cases. The Court also heard argument on the right to counsel Rothgery v. Gillespie County.
Georgia Supreme Court to Troy Davis: Innocence doesn’t matter
Posted on March 17, 2008The Georgia Supreme Court’s decision in Davis v. State, No. S07-A1758, is here. In a sharp 4-3 decision the Georgia Supreme Court denies relief over a strong claim of innocence. The evidence of innocence, the majority holds, comes too late...
Monday morning Troy Davis blogging
Posted on March 17, 2008Later this morning the Georgia Supreme Court is expected to rule on what amounts to Troy Davis’ last best hope for justice. The factual background on Davis’ reads something like this: In the early morning hours of August 19, 1989, off-duty police officer Mark McPhail was murdered as he responded to an altercation and assault [...
AG Mukasey — don’t execute the 9/11 plotters & other Gitmo detainees
Posted on March 17, 2008ABC News reports: Attorney General Michael Mukasey suggested Friday that he believes the alleged 9/11 plotters held at Guantanamo Bay should not be executed if convicted. ?I kind of hope they don?t get it,? Mukasey said after a speech at the London School of Economics...
email edition now available
Posted on March 16, 2008The email edition is now available: Several favorable opinions are noted this edition, at least two of which are notable. The easiest way of explaining the Third Circuit’s opinion William Holland v. Horn is that relief was granted on the basis of counsel?s failure to ask for expert assistance (Ake v...
New scholarship
Posted on March 16, 2008In prepping the weekly roundup I’ve spotted several new articles over at SSRN of potential interest: Cara Drinna’s, The Revitalization of AKE: A Capital Defendant’s Right to Expert Assistance, Oklahoma Law Review, Vol. 60, No. 2, 2007; Ryan PatrickAlford ’s, “Catalyzing More Adequate Federal Habeas Review of Summation Misconduct: Persuasion Theory and the Sixth Amendment [...