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Criminal Law

Capital Defense Weekly

Covering Capital Defense
By Karl R. Keys, Esq.

Post Frequency: 17.8/day

Last Entry: March 28, 2011 at 23:29:51

Capital scholarship roundup

Posted on June 01, 2008
As 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, 2008
DPIC 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, 2008
The 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, 2008
In 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.

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Louisiana date stayed

Posted on May 29, 2008
The 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, 2008
Two 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, 2008
The 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, 2008
Rarely 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, 2008
This 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, 2008
Kevin 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, 2008
One 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, 2008
The 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, 2008
File 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, 2008
Grits 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, 2008
I’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, 2008
Herbie 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, 2008
Tonight’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, 2008
Two 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, 2008
Thanks to the reader who updated us with the pending Florida execution of Mark Schwab.

Berry executed

Posted on May 21, 2008
Convicted 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...

An editorial cartoon

Posted on May 21, 2008
Funny, but true. From DeathWatch:

x-date wire

Posted on May 21, 2008
To 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, 2008
A 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, 2008
Mississippi 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, 2008
Jurors 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, 2008
The 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, 2008
The 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, 2008
New 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, 2008
The 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...

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