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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

Paul House to be released

Posted on April 07, 2008
Excellent 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, 2008
The 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, 2008
From 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, 2008
Two 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)...

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A little fun with YouTube

Posted on April 04, 2008
A 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, 2008
The 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, 2008
Doug 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, 2008
Virtually 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, 2008
I 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, 2008
Glenn 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, 2008
The 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, 2008
If 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, 2008
Back 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, 2008
Following 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, 2008
The 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, 2008
As 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, 2008
The 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, 2008
Two 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, 2008
From 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, 2008
One 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, 2008
In 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, 2008
Members 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, 2008
The 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, 2008
In 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, 2008
The 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, 2008
On 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, 2008
Chris Bowers has, once again, stolen my thoughts. This time here.

Overhaul complete, or almost complete

Posted on March 26, 2008
The 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, 2008
In 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, 2008
The 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...

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