(866) 635-2689 for Personal Injury or (866) 635-9402 for Criminal Defense
Find a Local Lawyer
Divorce (866) 635-6190
Personal Injury (866) 635-2689
Criminal Defense (866) 635-9402
Capital Defense Weekly 
Covering Capital Defense
Post Frequency: 17.8/day Last Entry: March 28, 2011 at 23:29:51 Recent Entries: 1052
By Karl R. Keys, Esq.
Go to Capital Defense Weekly, find other Criminal Law blogs, or browse all law blogs.
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...
Previous | Next
Medical Malpractice: Your Case Is On The Trial Calendar-Can Defense Lawyers Talk to Your Doctor?
Your New York attorney has notified the Court that your case is re...
The Grave Risk of Harm Defense in Hague Child Abduction Cases
A major debate is under way as to the future of the “grave risk ...
Memo to Rick re Capital Punishment, the Constitution, and the Courts
In response to Rick's post this afternoon, let me say this: We mus...
Capital Punishment ... and the Courts
Rick often says that although he opposes capital punishment, he wa...
Self Defense
It's legal to defend yourself and your family
My fiance's check is DD into a local credit union. Bank seems to have a pattern of "invisibly holding" charges from the debit card until just HOURS before his DD is processed (and this is after hours, of course). Over th
Have your fiance take the information you've collected and go into the bank...
what are the proper and legal steps to dissolve a partnership in an ongoing farm business?
I would say that the final tax forms are dispersed for that year with the indica...
It is my understanding that the 6th Amendment requires, that if you can't afford a lawyer in a criminal case, the Court must provide a lawyer in your defense at no charge to you. However, in a civil case no such protecti
That is not entirely true, even in the case of criminal cases. The court will pr...
Attorney welt, weinberg & reis co....from pittsburgh are collecting a credit card debt from capital one can they force me to send them a list of my assets for sheriffs sale
No! Only a Judge can make you do that and that is only after you have your day i...
I was called to give a deposition for the defense and the defendant is the person who stole our car, there is a chance that I will be called to satisfy at his trial. How can I get out of this, as my husband is to testify
If you were subpoenaed for the deposition you will need to appear or face prosec...
#1 Online Legal Resource
On 08-25 at 15:46PM
Acute perpendicular parking #NYPD #NYFD
On 08-18 at 22:18PM
Parallel parking gone bad. Too much gas UES NYC
On 08-18 at 21:41PM
UES NYC
On 08-18 at 21:25PM
Twitter suspends journalist critical of broadcast partner's coverage on dubious grounds @guyadams #nbcfail #twitterfail
On 07-30 at 17:57PM
Model example of 1st Amendment suppression by the People of New York City's Michael Bloomberg #OWS #NYPD
On 07-12 at 21:07PM
AG Holder lackadaisical on Operation in our Sites domain name seizures & RIAA lobbied free speech suppression @dajaz1
On 06-08 at 22:44PM
Why is the Catholic Church going to court over Obama contraception policy? @NewYorker commentary
On 05-31 at 10:08AM
Monks sue Louisiana for right to sell caskets made from forrest destroyed by Katrina
On 05-31 at 07:47AM
Are the abortion ultrasound laws headed for the Supreme Court?
On 05-15 at 21:52PM
My fiance's check is DD into a local credit union. Bank seems to have a pattern of "invisibly holding" charges from the debit card until just HOURS before his DD is processed (and this is after hours, of course). Over th
Have your fiance take the information you've collected and go into the bank...
what are the proper and legal steps to dissolve a partnership in an ongoing farm business?
I would say that the final tax forms are dispersed for that year with the indica...
It is my understanding that the 6th Amendment requires, that if you can't afford a lawyer in a criminal case, the Court must provide a lawyer in your defense at no charge to you. However, in a civil case no such protecti
That is not entirely true, even in the case of criminal cases. The court will pr...
Attorney welt, weinberg & reis co....from pittsburgh are collecting a credit card debt from capital one can they force me to send them a list of my assets for sheriffs sale
No! Only a Judge can make you do that and that is only after you have your day i...
I was called to give a deposition for the defense and the defendant is the person who stole our car, there is a chance that I will be called to satisfy at his trial. How can I get out of this, as my husband is to testify
If you were subpoenaed for the deposition you will need to appear or face prosec...
 |
|
Contact Us | About Us | Celebrity Law Blog |
Our Partners | Disclaimer
| Law Blog Directory
| Law Jobs
| Law Tweets
| GoDaddy Hosting
All original material � 1999-2011 by USLaw.com. |