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Death Penalty News & Updates

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Last Entry: October 20, 2009 at 22:21:49

sobering look at quality of counsel and results

Posted on October 20, 2009
DPIC has posted this fairly sobering analysis of private pay vs. appointed counsel in Harris County Texas. Long story short, the rich don’t catch the needle in Houston: Scott Phillips, a professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminology at the University of Denver, recently published a study that revealed disparities in who receives [...

Stay in Texas

Posted on September 29, 2009
Thanks to our Texas “connect” for pointing us to: John Balentine was to die in the state death chamber in Huntsville for a triple slaying in Amarillo almost 12 years ago. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a brief one-paragraph order Tuesday afternoon stopping the 40-year-old inmate’s lethal injection...

9th Circuit grants penalty phase relief

Posted on September 18, 2009
The Ninth Circuit in Michael Allen Hamilton v. Ayers, No. 06-99008, granted relief on well worn grounds, trial counsel’s penalty phase performance: Hamilton was constitutionally entitled to effective representation at the penalty phase of his capital trial, but he did not receive it...

Virginia vacates a death sentence

Posted on September 18, 2009
via WaPo (no opinion yet available from the VaSCt website): Virginia’s highest court has overturned the death sentence of a man convicted in the 1988 slayings of a young couple in Fairfax County, ruling that the jury was given a defective verdict form...

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The strange nether world between freedom and not

Posted on September 04, 2009
Michael Toney was moved from death row late last year and then, oddly, Wednesday night from the local jail. Local media notes: Toney?s abrupt release from jail Wednesday night was the culmination of a stunning turn of events for a man who less than a year ago was still awaiting execution by lethal injection...

Florida kills

Posted on August 20, 2009
Tonight Florida killed John Richard Marek for his role in the death of Adela Marie Simmons. The Associated Press has this story about the execution as viewed from the Office of Gov. Crist. I am struck at how seriously, and solemn, the AP reports Gov...

Stay in Texas

Posted on August 20, 2009
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Wednesday halted the scheduled death of David Leonard Wood. The CCA indicated that Mr. Wood was entitled to a hearing to pursue claims he is mentally impaired and ineligible for execution under Atkins v. Virginia.

An unrepentant Judge Keller: I would do it again

Posted on August 19, 2009
Tex Parte, the Texas Lawyer Magazine blog, hits a home run today in its coverage of the Judge Keller ethics hearing: Sharon Keller, presiding judge of the Court of Criminal Appeals, remains firm in her belief that she did nothing wrong on Sept. 25, 2007, when she told then-CCA general counsel Ed Marty, ?We close at [...

weekly running a touch late

Posted on August 10, 2009
The weekly edition will be out Monday nite due to scheduling conflicts. Specifically, I have two trials scheduled to start in the morning (fortunately I can’t try both at one time). The rough draft of the weekly is here. Most notable from the rough draft: Leading off this week’s is the revised opinion in Keith Thurmond [...

ooopsie, Conn. edition

Posted on August 05, 2009
Every time a man who is wrongly convicted goes to jail a perpetrator is set free to prey again, to victimize again. Decades later, via TalkLeft, Egregious cases of wrongful convictions continue to come to light. Kenny Ireland of Connecticut was imprisoned at age 20 for a rape and murder DNA evidence now shows he [...

DPIC & AP look at the death penalty in Pennsylvania

Posted on July 28, 2009
Forty-seven years have past since Pennsylvania last executed someone who hadn’t “dropped their appeals.” Since restoration of the Pennsylvania death penalty in the disco era 21 people on death row have died of natural causes, 3 agreed to drop the appeals and be executed...

weekly

Posted on July 27, 2009
The weekly email edition is now available. From the intro: Leading off this edition is the Delaware Supreme Court’s decision in James Cooke v. State. The Court granted relief on the breakdown of the attorney-client relationship, counsel?s decision to use a guilty but metnally ill defense rather than a more traditional denial of guilt defense sought [...

The week in losses

Posted on July 02, 2009
Losses galore this week In Brian Thomas v. Horn the Third Circuit reverses the grant of penalty phase and remands for an evidentiary hearing on trial counsel’s pretrial workup for the penalty phase. In Richard Bibble v. Ryan the Ninth Circuit affirms the denial of penalty phase relief as there was no reasonable probability that [...

weekly email edition

Posted on June 29, 2009
The weekly email edition is now available. From the intro: Leading off this week is the Supreme Court’s latest exploration of the Confrontation Clause, Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts. Justice Scalia’S 5-4 opinion holds there is no criminalist exception to the Sixth Amendment...

Odd problem

Posted on June 22, 2009
So I’m prepping the email edition,but Lexis and Westlaw are both NOT showing cases that press accounts are showing have been decided. I’m hoping to get the weekly email out early morning, however, a more realistic timeline is sometime later in the day Monday.

deterrence?

Posted on June 16, 2009
via DPIC: Eighty-eight percent of the country?s top criminologists do not believe the death penalty acts as a deterrent to homicide, according to a new study published June 16 in Northwestern University School of Law?s Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology authored by Professor Michael Radelet, Chair of the Department of Sociology at the University of [...

Alabama kills

Posted on June 12, 2009
from local media: Twice-convicted murderer Jack Trawick died by lethal injection tonight, as relatives of the two murder victims watched. Trawick, 62, who also had claimed to have committed another Birmingham area murder and two in the Pacific northwest, was executed at 6:17 p...

Congrats to this year?s Gruber Justice Prize

Posted on June 12, 2009
Congrats to Bryan Stevenson, this year’s Gruber Justice Prize winner. The Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation announced it was awarding the prize to Stevenson and to the European Roma Rights Center. The two winners will split the award’s $500,000 cash prize...

Atkins (finally) wins in Virginia

Posted on June 05, 2009
The Virginia Supreme Court today upheld the life sentence imposed upon Daryl Atkins. The Virginia Supreme Court has upheld a decision by late York Circuit Judge Prentis to commute death row inmate Daryl Atkins’ sentence to life in prison. Smiley issued the decision in January 2008 after hearing evidence that prosecutors withheld evidence that they coached co-defendant William Jones’ testimony [...

updates elsewhere

Posted on May 27, 2009
Elsewhere: Death Watch has this highly effective post on the state of lethal injection litigation in North Carolina. Scott Cobb @ TMN notes the pending 200th execution under Gov. Rick Perry. Stand Down marks the 30th anniversary of the death penalty in Florida...

Tennessee execution date off

Posted on May 26, 2009
Friends on the ground in Tennessee write to note next Wednesday’s execution date of James A. Dellinger is off due to a stay. Media confirmation is unavailable.

SCOTUS loss

Posted on May 26, 2009
via JoNell at Hamful Error: Montejo v. Louisiana - In a 5-4 decision authored by Justice Scalia, the Court overrules Michigan v. Jackson concerning the rights of a criminal suspect in police custody after the appointment of counsel. The facts: Montejo was charged with first degree murder and the court ordered the appointment of counsel during a [...

huh? on Beard v. Kindler

Posted on May 19, 2009
In light of Justice Alito recusing himself in Beard v. Kindler, can anyone figure out why the Court granted cert in that case when the most likely result is 4-4 (hence affirming the panel’s decision below) or 5-3 for theAppellee. Any insight would be appreciated...

Alabama kills

Posted on May 14, 2009
via the AP: An Alabama death row inmate has been executed for the 1990 killing of a mother of six whose throat was slashed with a pocketknife. Willie McNair was pronounced dead at 6:17 p.m. Thursday after being given a lethal injection at Holman Prison near Atmore...

Oklahoma kills

Posted on May 14, 2009
via the AP : A man convicted of battering his girlfriend’s 8-year-old son and stuffing the dead body in a freezer has been put to death in Oklahoma. Oklahoma Department of Corrections spokesman Jerry Massie says 48-year-old Donald Gilson was pronounced dead at 6:19 p...

who would of thunk it, part deux

Posted on May 12, 2009
via the Innocence Project: DNA testing has proven that Thomas Haynesworth did not commit a 1984 rape for which he was convicted, according to legal papers filed in the case today by attorneys at the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project, Hogan & Hartson LLP and the Innocence Project...

weekly email edition

Posted on May 11, 2009
The weekly email edition is out, in the morning. For those who can’t wait the second to last draft is here.

Who would of thunk it?

Posted on May 11, 2009
Who would have thunk that on the day lightning strikes in the Fourth Circuit in Justin Wolfe’s case that the Ninth Circuit, en banc, would deny rehearing or relief on a plausible claim of factual innocence, that of Kevin Cooper . From Prof Martin: It’s 113 pages...

Pigs fly in the 4th Circuit

Posted on May 11, 2009
Justin Wolfe’s has one of those troubling cases relating to possible innocence. Today he won a remand from the Fourth Circuit. [W]e vacate [the district court's] disposition of the Brady and Giglio claims, as well as its ruling on the court subpart of the venireman claim...

Marek stayed in Florida

Posted on May 11, 2009
The Florida Supreme Court in John Richard Marek v. State issued a stay of execution to permit oral argument.

3rd Circuit and David Paul Hammer

Posted on May 11, 2009
The federal government was handed a capital appellate set back on Monday when in USA v. David Paul Hammer the panel held that the federal government jumped the gun in filing its appeal as resentencing had to occur before the district court’s order was appealable.

weekly email edition

Posted on April 27, 2009
from the intro to this week’s double edition This “double edition” brings two previously unreported “wins.” The Fifth Circuit in an unpublished opinion, John Adams v. Quarterman, affirms the district court’s grant of sentencing relief as trial counsel failed to adequately investigate & present mitigating evidence; the panel denied all other relief...

quick wrap

Posted on April 21, 2009
This email edition isn’t running this week. Long story short, bad week for the defense side of the aisle. Elsewhere: DPIC notes that at least 100 autopsies of Dr. Corinne Stern are being reviewed in Alabama following Dr. Stern finding foul-play where people die of natural causes...

Legal ethicists & the CCA?s presiding judge

Posted on April 21, 2009
That the Tex CCA’s Hon. Sharon Keller is accused of some rather dishonorable conduct would be to understate things. Today, several noted legal ethicists “pile on” indicating that it is time for her to go. In their expert declaration regarding alleged misconduct by Judge Sharon Keller to the Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct they note [...

Rewarding $#!++/ lawyering

Posted on April 21, 2009
The Houston Chronicle reports on the rewarding of $#!++/ lawyers who miss deadlines: Texas lawyers have repeatedly missed deadlines for appeals on behalf of more than a dozen death row inmates in the last 2 years yet judges continue to assign life-or-death capital cases and pay hundreds of thousands in fees to those attorneys, [...

Prof Denno does it again on lethal injection

Posted on April 21, 2009
via Larry Solum: Deborah W. Denno (Fordham University School of Law) has posted The Future of Execution Methods (THE FUTURE OF AMERICA’S DEATH PENALTY: AN AGENDA FOR THE NEXT GENERATION OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT RESEARCH, Charles S. Lanier, William J...

Ohio lethal injection

Posted on April 21, 2009
A federal district court in Ohio has ruled on one of that state’s lethal injection challenges in Cooey v. Strickland: This matter is before the Court upon remand for consideration of whether the Court should continue a previously granted stay of execution to intervening plaintiff Kenneth Biros in light of Baze v...

Colorado legislative victory

Posted on April 21, 2009
Colorado’s House has passed repeal legislation: Colorado House votes to eliminate death penalty—-Money saved would be used to focus on cold cases The Colorado House has approved a plan to eliminate the death penalty and use the money to focus on cold cases...

weekly update

Posted on April 13, 2009
The intro from the weekly update: Leading off this edition, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Wednesday in Ex parte Gene Wilford Ha thorn, Jr. granted penalty phase 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 [...

NM house votes for repeal

Posted on February 12, 2009
The New Mexico House has voted to repeal the death penalty in that state.

Alabama & Texas kill

Posted on February 12, 2009
Two executions are being reported tonight by the wire services: In Texas: Johnny Ray Johnson, 51, was pronounced dead at 6:19 p.m. Thursday. He was condemned for the 1995 murder of Leah Joette Smith, who was raped, beaten and left to die on a Houston street...

Despite evidence of innocence, Florida Kills

Posted on February 11, 2009
Despite evidence Wayne Tompkins may well be innocent, Florida tonight killed him. Wayne Tompkins was executed this evening by lethal injection for the 1983 murder of Lisa DeCarr, his girlfriend’s 15-year-old daughter. DeCarr was strangled and buried under the porch of the Seminole Heights home where the three lived...

Texas kills

Posted on February 10, 2009
from media accounts: Dale Devon Scheanette [asked if he had any final statement] paused and said, “My only statement is that no cases ever tried have been error-free. Those are my words. No cases are error-free.” Nine minutes after the lethal drugs began to flow, he was pronounced dead at 6:21 p...

Email edition out

Posted on February 08, 2009
From the latest email edition: My apologies as I am currently on trial / in trial (depending on your region of the country), for what will be my fifth week of the new year. More precisely, I’m three weeks in to a murder trial on the most recent trial, and my attention is understandably drawn there [...

Larry Swearingen seeks advanced DNA testing with just days schedule to live

Posted on January 22, 2009
via the Innocence Project: Larry Swearingen has been on Texas? death row for eight years for a murder he has always said he didn?t commit. He is scheduled to be executed January 27 in Texas despite his requests for advanced DNA testing that could prove his innocence or guilt ? and possibly identify the real perpetrator [...

Holder on opt-in

Posted on January 16, 2009
A dialogue of note from Senator Kyl & Attorney General-designee Holder Mr. Kyl: And I’ll do my best to help to make sure Congress supports the resource requirements. Next, capital habeas. As you know, in 2005, Congress passed an amendment that will implement the opt-in system for a faster review of state capital cases in federal courts...

germane cert grant

Posted on January 16, 2009
cert grant on Atkins: 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 sentence...

Maryland?s death penalty: an endangered species

Posted on January 16, 2009
via WaPo & every blogger who isn’t in trial hell: Gov. Martin O’Malley said yesterday that he will do “everything in my power” to abolish the death penalty in Maryland this year and for the first time raised the possibility of allowing voters to decide the divisive issue through a constitutional amendment if legislative repeal efforts [...

New SCOTUS crim law opinions

Posted on January 14, 2009
Harmful Error notes: This morning the United States Supreme Court issued opinions in two criminal cases. In Oregon v. Ice, the Court issues a 5-4 decision in which it holds that there is no constitutional violation based upon a judge’s imposition of consecutive sentences based upon facts that were not found by the jury...

Texas kills / first execution of new year

Posted on January 14, 2009
Texas tonight killed Curtis Moore. IHT notes: In a brief, final statement, Curtis Moore, 40, thanked a woman who administers to the spiritual needs of death row inmates. “I want to thank you for all the beautiful years of friendship and ministry,” Moore told Irene Wilcox as she watched through a window a few feet (meters) from him...

Handicapping New Hampshire?s first capital appeal

Posted on December 21, 2008
via press accounts: The defense team’s objections included a litany of constitutional challenges to New Hampshire’s capital murder statute. Since the last death sentence was handed down here in 1959, state law and U.S. Supreme Court law around the death penalty have changed...

weekly email edition

Posted on December 21, 2008
This week’s email edition is available here. As always, the email edition is a little pinch of things that have appeared here recently, a litte touch of legal research, and a whole lot of theft borrowing from people smarter than me friends’ good work: This edition holds three new favorable decisions, two from Texas and one [...

New CLE for January

Posted on December 18, 2008
“In coordination with the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty’s annual conference in Harrisburg, PA, January 22-25, 2009, there will be capital defense CLEs on Friday, January 23rd and on Saturday, January, 24th, 2009. Registration can be for one day or for both days...

New Hampshire: first death sentence since Dick Nixon was Ike?s vice president

Posted on December 18, 2008
via the AP: A jury issued New Hampshire’s first death sentence in a half century Thursday to a man who fatally shot a Manchester police officer to avoid arrest two years ago.. . . Addison, 28, had no reaction as the Hillsborough County Superior Court jury announced its verdict after about 13 hours of deliberation over four [...

Maryland Commission on Capital Punishment: end, don?t mend, Maryland?s broken death penalty

Posted on December 13, 2008
By a vote of 13-9 the Maryland Commission on Capital Punishment recommended Friday to abolish the death penalty in Maryland. The Maryland Commission on Capital Punishment has reviewed testimony from experts and members of the public, relevant Maryland laws and court cases, as well as statistics and studies relevant to the topic of capital punishment in [...

Nichols jury deadlocked?

Posted on December 11, 2008
More proof that the quality of counsel has a direct impact on the chance the State will get a death sentence, the Brian Nichols jury was told to continue deliberating today after they announced they were deadlocked. AJC appears to be forecasting that the jury will not reach a conclusion: he Nichols jury Thursday said it [...

DPIC?s year end report

Posted on December 11, 2008
The Death Penalty Information Center has released it’s 2008 report, The Death Penalty in 2008: Year End Report. From DPiC: Highlights from the Report Decline in the Number of Executions and Death Sentences 37 executions took place in 2008, marking a 14-year low and continuing a downward trend that began in 2000...

New international resource

Posted on December 11, 2008
The Death Penalty Project launched a new Web site on December 10 that includes a legal resource database with a comprehensive list of international legal authorities and case law, some dating back to the 19th century, and detailed head notes for those seeking jurisprudence on criminal, constitutional, and international points of law...

Oral Arguments in Cone v. Bell

Posted on December 10, 2008
The Court on Tuesday heard oral argument in Cone v. Bell (transcript here). In theory the case is about he arcane rules of federal habeas corpus. The argument quickly turned, however, to whether trial prosecutors cheated in getting a death verdict and appellate prosecutors cheated in protecting that verdict...

Texas ?08

Posted on December 07, 2008
TCADP has a year end round-up, Texas Death Penalty Developments in 2008, that effectively deals with that state’s developments, from stays, x-dates & new death sentences. While the total number of executions in Texas declined slightly in 2008 as a result of the de facto moratorium that existed until April 16, the rate at which these [...

Email edition running late

Posted on December 07, 2008
The email edition will be late this week as several opinions that should be in the edition have not yet shown up on Lexis. Most notable among the missing is Ricky Sechrest v. Ignacio from the Ninth Circuit. JoNell @ Harmful Error sums Sechrest ups this way: The Court holds that the prosecutor’s repeated misstatements regarding [...

Very high profile acquittal

Posted on December 04, 2008
We’ve been following in the RSS tracking service to the right the the court martial of SSgt Alberto Martinez over the alleged “fragging” of two officers. SSgt Martinez was accused of murdering two officers with a claymore mine and faced a possible death sentence...

A slew of new Alabama execution dates

Posted on December 03, 2008
From Alabama media accounts: 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...

Update on Ronald Gray?s stayed execution

Posted on December 03, 2008
The Government has moved to life the stay entered on behalf of Pvt. Ronald Gray to allow him an opportunity to litigate has capital habeas petition in federal court. CAAFlog has done a remarkable job covering the stay litigation (indeed, the quality of their blawging of late has been inspirational...

Washington: Darold Ray Stenson?s federal stay lifted

Posted on December 03, 2008
Wire accounts are noting: The U.S. Supreme Court today lifted the federal stay of the execution of Darold Ray Stenson in Washington state, but a state court stay remained in effect. The U.S. Supreme Court today lifted the federal stay of the execution of Darold Ray Stenson in Washington state, but a state court [...

Turkey week review

Posted on November 23, 2008
As happens most holiday seasons we’ll be “doubling up” publication both this week (meaning our next edition will be next week) & for the winter holidays. One case of note, however, that of Dale Wayne Eaton v. State, 2008 Wyo. LEXIS 140 (Wyo 11/14/2008)...

Kentucky kills

Posted on November 21, 2008
Kentucky tonight killed Marco Chapman. a href=”http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/nation/6126129.html”>The Chronicle notes: In the state’s first execution in nine years, Marco Allen Chapman was given a lethal injection at the Kentucky State Penitentiary...

LI protocol in California struck down

Posted on November 21, 2008
via Seth: Great news. A California Court of Appeal has invalidated California’s lethal injection protocol because the state failed to comply with the state’s Administrative Procedure Act. The decision(pdf format) in Morales v. California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, holds that the State’ lethal injection protocol, ?STATE OF CALIFORNIA SAN QUENTIN OPERATIONAL PROCEDURE NUMBER 0-770 EXECUTION [...

Eric Holder as Attorney General

Posted on November 18, 2008
News accounts have President-Elect Obama naming Eric Holder as his AG choice. President-elect Barack Obama’s top choice for attorney general is Eric Holder, a former No. 2 Justice Department official in the Clinton administration and Obama campaign aide who would become the first African American to serve as the nation’s chief lawyer...

DIG in Bell v Kelly

Posted on November 17, 2008
The Supreme Court this morning Dismissed as Improvidently Granted the cert grant in Bell v Kelly. More to follow. [via iPhone]

cert grants from Friday

Posted on November 17, 2008
via SCOTUSBlog In the other three cases, all focusing on criminal law issues, the Court will decide whether an individual can be retried on charges on which a jury could not agree in an earlier trial in which the jury acquitted on other charges (Yeager v...

Kirk Bloodsworth b?day wish

Posted on November 17, 2008
Okay, I’m a little late on this one. Kirk Bloodsworth celebrated his 48th b’day recently. Here was his hope for his b’day: So today, in honor of my 48th birthday and of the work that The Justice Project and I do to reform the broken criminal justice system, I ask you to send a gift of [...

Florida: grant of penalty phase relief

Posted on November 13, 2008
The Florida Supreme Court today affirmed the grant of penalty phase relief in State v. Faunce Levon Pearce. The reason for the grant of relief are, not unusual or surprising, counsel failed to adequately prepare for the penalty phase: We find there is competent, substantial evidence to support the trial court?s finding that counsel did not [...

notable from elsewhere

Posted on November 13, 2008
Two great posts from elsewhere: via TChris at Talkleft Six people convicted in 1985 of a Nebraska murder have been exonerated by DNA testing that implicates the man police originally viewed as a suspect. The day after the murder, Bruce Smith had scratches on his face...

Texas kills

Posted on November 13, 2008
Tonight Texas killed Denard Mann. From local media: After saying he was ?ready for the transition,? Twice-convicted robber Denard Manns, 42, was executed Thursday evening in Huntsville for the robbery, rape and murder of a Fort Hood medic who was killed in her apartment near post...

catch-up

Posted on November 11, 2008
Just to catchup on some news stories & what not that deserve their own post but…. In the other New Hampshire capital trial, the jury has begun deliberating the guilt of Michael Addison for killing police officer Michael L. Briggs. A bill to repeal the New Hampshire death penalty will likely be filed in the new [...

ot: election night photos

Posted on November 07, 2008
David Katz has amazing behind the scene photos of Mr. Obama and his family on election night on Flickr, here.

new scholarship

Posted on November 06, 2008
via DPIC: Professor Bruce Winick of the Miami School of Law has written an article arguing that the Supreme Court should extend the protection it presently offers to those with mental retardation and juveniles to offenders with severe mental illness, as well...

CCA orders briefing in Ex parte Bobby Wayne Woods

Posted on November 05, 2008
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals today ordered briefing in Ex parte Bobby Wayne Woods, No. AP-76,034 on the following issues: (1) Does the fact that Applicant raised this claim in a previous writ application bar him from re-litigating this claim pursuant to Ex parte Blue, 230 S...

13 year old rape victim stoned to death in Somalia for adultery

Posted on November 02, 2008
via the Guardian An Islamist rebel administration in Somalia had a 13-year-old girl stoned to death for adultery after the child’s father reported that three men had raped her. Amnesty International said the al-Shabab militia, which controls the southern port city of Kismayo, arranged for a group of 50 men to stone Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow in front [...

Obama and crime

Posted on October 31, 2008
from the NYT: Mr. Obama has emphasized civil liberties, sensitivity to racial inequality and tough penalties for the most violent felons. He was a state lawmaker when the Illinois police and prosecutors were under siege. In 2003, doubt was cast on the convictions of several Illinois death-row inmates leading to a death-penalty moratorium that is still [...

Delaware LI challenge loses

Posted on October 30, 2008
The title says it all. The lethal injection challenge in Delaware appears to have been rejected. Press accounts here.

An oopsie conference

Posted on October 29, 2008
Bob Ray Sanders, a columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, writes today that Twenty-four ex-Death Row prisoners from across the country will meet Friday at the state Capitol in Austin to call for a moratorium on executions in Texas and for the creation of a statewide commission on wrongful convictions, said Kurt Rosenberg, executive director [...

Scandal in Louisiana

Posted on October 28, 2008
via the Agitator: There?s a major scandal brewing in Louisiana?s criminal justice system. Since 1994, Chief Judge Edward Dufresne has been handling the appeals of indigent Louisiana convicts who had to file their own briefs. Last year, the aid Dufresne had assigned to handle those appeals committed suicide...

email edition ready

Posted on October 26, 2008
This week’s email edition is now available here: Leading off this edition is the Sixth Circuit’s grant of penalty phase relief in Rayshawn Johnson v. Bagley where counsel started thinking about a mitigation strategy when ?the verdict was back and [the jury] found [Johnson] guilty? and otherwise performed poorly in the penalty phase of the trial...

Down ballot races: judicial elections

Posted on October 25, 2008
With the top of the ticket all but decided (Senator McCain is purportedly trailing in early voting even in his home state), media attention is starting to turn to down ballot races. I’ve been looking in vain for a good analysis of judicial elections for the upcoming elections other than fairly awesome collection of links [...

Grant of penalty phase habeas relief in case from Arizona

Posted on October 23, 2008
In a fairly straightforward application of Smith v. Texas, 543 US 37, 45 (2004), a Ninth Circuit panel grants penalty phase habeas relief in James Styers v. Schriro. Specifically, the Arizona state courts erred in concluding that PTSD was not mitigating factor as they incorrectly concluded there had to be a causal connection [...

Rejon Taylor?s death sentence and race

Posted on October 23, 2008
In Chatanooga, local media are asking, did race play a factor in sending Rejon Taylor to death? Statistically and overwhelmingly when the victim is white and the defendant is an African American they certainly ask and seek the death penalty,” Bill Ortwein, Taylor’s attorney, says...

Background on todays stay in Texas

Posted on October 23, 2008
Our friends at TMN note in this must read post: Bobby Woods received a stay of execution today from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. The reason for the stay was not given, but the Austin American-Statesman reported that it likely had to do with Woods’ previous lawyer not adequately representing him by failing to fully [...

Stay in Texas

Posted on October 23, 2008
The Austin American-Statesman’s legal blog has the details of the Wood stay. The order is here. The brief by Profs. Maurie Levin & Rob Owen is here. —– The Texas CCA stayed tonight’s execution of Bobby Wayne Woods. Details at this time are unavailable, save that counsel, Maurie Levin, earlier in the week filed for stay [...

scholarship on Panetti

Posted on October 22, 2008
I’ve been waiting to hear (or perhaps more accurately see) Doug Berman’s reaction @ the Sentencing Blog to Executing Retributivism by Dan Markel and its analysis of Panetti v Quarterman. Specifically, Prof. Markel presents a strong argument for not reading Panetti in an unduly narrow manner...

A disappointing verdict

Posted on October 22, 2008
One of the cases we’ve been following here, that of Rejon Taylor, has resulted in a new federal death sentence. A Federal Court jury on Tuesday afternoon ruled the death penalty for 24-year-old Rejon Taylor in the 2003 shooting of Atlanta restaurant operator Guy Luck...

Getting it right vs. finality: Tommy Arthur

Posted on October 21, 2008
Tommy Arthur’s claims of innocence will get a hearing this winter in Alabama: A Jefferson County judge will hear claims by death row inmate Tommy Douglas Arthur that a confession by another inmate and crime scene DNA evidence will prove his innocence in a 1982 Colbert County murder case...

Texas kills

Posted on October 21, 2008
Texas tonight killed Joseph Ries: Joseph Ries expressed love to friends who watched through a death chamber window and urged them to stay strong because “Jesus is coming back soon.” Looking toward another window, he told two daughters of his victim he was “really sorry for what I’ve done...

x-date set for Troy Davis

Posted on October 15, 2008
The state of Georgia has set an execution date of October 27, 2008 for Troy Davis. Unlike most states, a warrant in Georgia is good for a week so he could be executed any time between the 27th and the November 3rd.

Davis denied

Posted on October 14, 2008
via the SCOTUSBlog Refusing to decide whether the death penalty is barred for an individual with a strong claim of innocence, the Supreme Court on Tuesday turned aside the appeal of Georgia death-row inmate Troy Anthony Davis. The order clears the way for the state to set a new execution date; a Supreme Court stay of [...

Texas kills

Posted on October 14, 2008
Tonight Texas killed Alvin Kelly for his involvement in the death of Devin Morgan, the 22-month-old son of Jerry and Brenda Morgan. Alvin Kelly thanked God, expressed love to friends and relatives and denied committing the murder that led to his execution...

The first execution outside the south this year: Ohio Kills

Posted on October 14, 2008
Ohio today killed Richard Cooey for his role in the murders of Wendy Offredo and Dawn McCreery. AP notes “The government has no conscience, only policy. Today, the policy was state-sanctioned murder of Richard Cooey,” said one of the lawyers, Eric Allen...

Catching up on articles

Posted on October 13, 2008
I’m hoping to spend the week catching up on articles I might have missed, both from SSRN & traditional law reviews. The column on the left now links to both sets of crim law articles on SSRN.

Sixth Circuit penalty phase relief grant

Posted on October 10, 2008
The Sixth Circuit Friday granted penalty phase relief in Rayshawn Johnson v. Bagley, Nos. 06-3846/3847. The story line is familiar:”Johnson?s attorneys admitted in their post-conviction testimony that they began thinking about a mitigation strategy only when ?the verdict was back and [the jury] found [Johnson] guilty...

Florida Supreme Court developments

Posted on October 09, 2008
Three matters of note out of Florida: Dana Williamson v. State, No. SC07-564 & Dana Williamson v. McNeil, No. SC07-1787 (FL 10/8/2008) Remand ordered on “issues alleging that defendant?s counsel was ineffective in failing to request a Frye hearing before the opinion testimony of the State?s expert, Dr...

a not so great September in Arizona

Posted on October 06, 2008
Seven capital habeas petitioners lost in Arizona in September. The good folks at CapDefNet’s Week At a Glance has the details. [h/t Wendy]

Florida stay

Posted on October 06, 2008
The Florida Supreme Court has delayed for three weeks the execution of Wayne Tompkins who had been scheduled to die Oct. 28.

certs denied: Texas

Posted on October 06, 2008
The Associated Press notes: A dozen condemned Texas inmates, including one set to die next week and one of the few women on death row in the state, lost appeals Monday before the U.S. Supreme Court, moving them closer to execution. Including in the dozen denied was Jimmie Urbano Lucero v...

no action on Troy Davis

Posted on October 06, 2008
[Update] Troy Davis’ case will be reconferenced this Friday. —– No action today today from the Suprme Court on Troy Davis’ case. Scotusblog.com will have more.

email edition available

Posted on October 05, 2008
This week’s email edition is out. Leading off this edition are three opinions from the Florida Supreme Court. In Maas v. Olive the court examines the Florida postconviction compensation scheme, its purported caps, and finds it wanting. In Jerry Michael Wickham v...

death row realism II

Posted on October 02, 2008
Jack Payden-Travers of the ACLU?s Capital Punishment Project notes in the Pasadena Star-News: In Maryland, the Urban Institute study of March 2008 noted that it costs the state three times more to try a death penalty case than a non-death penalty case...

Death row realism

Posted on October 02, 2008
via Just Crim: Latimes.com, Opinion: “Death row realism - Do executions make us safer? San Quentin’s former warden says no.” By Jeanne Woodford (October 2, 2008): “As the warden of San Quentin, I presided over four executions...

Tex CCA orders an Atkins remand

Posted on October 01, 2008
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has ordered a remand for further factual development in Ex parte Timothy Cockrell, No. WR-41,775-02. Specifically: BODY,.aolmailheader {font-size:10pt; color:black; font-family:Arial;} a.aolmailheader:link {color:blue; text-decoration:underline; font-weight:normal;} a...

cert grants

Posted on October 01, 2008
The Court granted cert this morning in seven criminal cases, including one capital,(Montejo v. Louisiana, 07-1529 (congrats to the Capital Appeals Project). The two most interesting of the seven on the list, at least from this vantage point here, are: Docket: 07-1529 Title: Montejo v...

Kennedy v. Louisiana

Posted on October 01, 2008
The Supreme Court, as most by now know, refused rehearing in Kennedy v. Louisiana. The SCOTUSBlog’s analysis begins this way: After a summer of public conversation, and legal argument, the Supreme Court put an end ? at least temporarily ? to the speculation that it might alter its approach to the constitutionality of the death penalty...

Life in Wyoming

Posted on October 01, 2008
One of the cases we are tracking at the trial level, the trial of Donald Rolle in Wyoming, has received a life verdict for his role in the kidnapping and death of Jennifer Randel.

SCOTUS stays another execution

Posted on September 30, 2008
from the wires: Two-time killer Freddie Eugene Owens has received an indefinite stay of his scheduled Friday execution from the U.S. Supreme Court. Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. signed the order Tuesday afternoon. Roberts ordered the stay to allow the Greenville man?s attorney time to raise constitutional issues to the high court dealing with his death sentence stemming [...

Tony Amsterdam to be honored

Posted on September 30, 2008
From DPIC: Leading attorney, law professor, and advocate Anthony Amsterdam is being honored by the Southern Center for Human Rights with the Frederick Douglass Human Rights Award in Washington, DC on October 2. Professor Amsterdam conducts the Capital Defender Clinic at New York University Law School and is recognized for his four decades of prominent work [...

Death, an IG and politics

Posted on September 29, 2008
An Investigation into the Removal of Nine U.S. Attorneys in 2006, U.S. Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General and Office of Professional Responsibility, Sept. 2008. (PDF, 392 pp., 3.6 Megs). That report highlights the concerns about Paul Charlton (USA Ariz), p...

Another serial killer gets life

Posted on September 27, 2008
Kill one person, end up on death row, kill half a dozen, DPIC notes: Prosecutors decided against pursuing a death sentence for a serial killer in Terrebonne Parish in Louisiana. Roland Dominique, who was arrested at a homeless shelter, pled guilty to the murder of eight young men, and he may have killed as many as [...

When the Attorney General loses on appeal to a pro se capital litigant

Posted on January 15, 2008
From our friends at Decision of the Day Plaintiff David Hammer lives in the Special Confinement Unit at the federal prison in Terre Haute, where all federal death row inmates are held. Hammer was sent to the SCU for killing his cellmate; although his death sentence has since been vacated, he was unable to participate in several interviews due to the SCU?s strict rules regarding media interviews...

New resources on Kennedy v. Louisiana

Posted on January 14, 2008
Thought you might be interested in a resource page Corey Yung is assembling on the Kennedy case. You can view it at: http://sexcrimes.typepad.com/sex_crimes/kennedy-v-louisiana.html . I’m a big fan of Corey’s blog at work, it has already richly paid off sexcrimes...

A BIG cert denial

Posted on January 14, 2008
A big cert denial today. The Court this morning denied certiorari in federal death penalty case, Fields v. United States. The issue in Fields was the application of the Confrontation Clause to the penalty phase of a capital trial in light of the SCOTUS?s watershed decision in Crawford v...

email edition available

Posted on January 14, 2008
The email edition is now available. From the intro: If you have haven’t guessed, thanks to the traditional early January slowdown, there isn’t much new case law to report in this edition. The Baze oral arguments dominates this issue. The oral argument transcript reveals that all the Justices appear to support the concept that the Eighth Amendment does apply to the procedures of how a person is executed...

New Jersey Lawyer editorial: Give NJ’s public defenders & NJADP the Nobel Prize

Posted on January 13, 2008
This is appearing in Monday’s New Jersey Lawyer: When we ask “what is the difference,” [between Texas and NewJersey on the death penalty] two groups come to mind in addition to our conscientious Supreme Court and its proportionality reviews, and our legislators who moved beyond the simple retributive logic of a life for a life...

Meet the executioners

Posted on January 13, 2008
Two pieces on the people and process of executions in Missouri and Virginia. Together the pieces examine a fundamental and irreconcilable paradox. The gallows fairs of [yesteryear] might have been cruel but they were, at least, human. By contrast, if the ideal “humane execution” were ever achieved, its clinical efficiency would force everyone involved - the warden, the witnesses and the condemned - to envisage a human life as a pure disposable object: a mentality usually associated with profound psychosis...

Machine readable implants for inmates?

Posted on January 13, 2008
Slashdot has this disturbing piece: There is a proposal in the UK to implant “machine-readable” microchips under the skin of thousands of offenders in an effort to free up more space in British jails. The article states that uses are being considered both for home detention, as a means to enforce punishment, as well as for sex offenders after their release...

Slashing counsel’s fees

Posted on January 13, 2008
A federal trial court judge appointed appointed Craig Washington to represent truck driver Tyrone Williams in two federal trials involving the 2003 deaths of 19 illegal immigrants. Over the course of two trials Washington successfully beat back the federal government’s attempts to obtain a death verdict for Williams...

Further costs of a broken system

Posted on January 11, 2008
via TalkLeft Nick Yarris, released from jail four years ago after spending 22 years in prison having been sentenced to death for a murder he didn?t commit, has settled his wrongful conviction case against Delaware County, PA for $4 million. The settlement was the result of a malicious-prosecution lawsuit Yarris filed in 2004 against Delaware County and the law enforcement officials who investigated and prosecuted him, and it came as the case was moving closer to trial in U...

bits & bytes: previews of upcoming posts

Posted on January 10, 2008
I?m hoping to have time to address all the stories below at some length in the not too distant future, however, the remainder of my week is heavy on court dates. Nebraska appears to be more and more looking like it will be having a show down vote on repealing the death penalty in 2008...