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Criminal Law

Capital Defense Weekly

Death Penalty News & Updates

Post Frequency: 3.2/day

Last Entry: March 06, 2011 at 23:00:32

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 [...

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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...

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