Criminal Law

The Nation: Saving Troy Davis From Death Row

Posted on July 03, 2009
by Benjamin JealousNPR.org, July 2, 2009 · In late May I went to Georgia, where I met with Troy Anthony Davis on Death Row. He has been there for eighteen years, and I wanted to speak with him. I came away convinced that he represents the most compelling case of innocence in decades...

Justin Grodin case will go on for several years

Posted on July 03, 2009
Baby killer entitled to many appeals; competency question complicatesPAT GILLESPIEpgillespie@news-press.com When Justin Grodin is sentenced in August ? either to life in prison or most likely to death by lethal injection if his judge follows the jury?s recommendation ? it won?t create closure for the 9-year-old case...

Fight to save Troy Davis grows

Posted on July 03, 2009
Author: Joe Sims People's Weekly World Newspaper, 07/03/09 16:12 The NAACP has initiated an ?I am Troy Campaign? as part of worldwide effort to prevent the execution of Troy Davis, a 40-year-old man on death row in Georgia. Davis, who is African American, was convicted 20 years ago for the death of a white off-duty police officer, Mark MacPhail...

Vermont to California, new laws take effect July 1

Posted on June 28, 2009
Vermont to California, new laws take effect July 1By The Associated Press ? 1 day ago New laws taking effect in several states Wednesday:Alabama:_Makes more women diagnosed with breast or cervical cancer eligible for treatment through Medicaid.California:_Bars schools from serving food containing transfats...

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Jurors who sentenced man to die for '91 Ga. cop killing now split over appeal

Posted on June 28, 2009
GREG BLUESTEIN, RUSS BYNUMAssociated Press Writers10:49 AM PDT, June 28, 2009SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) ? Inside the jury room, seven men and five women huddled around a table to discuss a parade of witnesses in the case of an off-duty police officer shot and killed outside a fast-food restaurant...

OUR VIEW: Postconviction DNA testing should be available whether it's a constitutional right or not

Posted on June 28, 2009
Posted by The Editorial Board June 27, 2009 2:01 AMThe U.S. Supreme Court says people who were wrongly convicted of old crimes have no constitutional right to the DNA testing that could prove their innocence. The justices, in a 5-4 ruling last week, said it's not their job to say who should get DNA testing in old criminal cases...

Supreme Court Expected to Take Up Davis Case

Posted on June 28, 2009
Seven of nine witnesses have recanted testimony By AFRO Staff(June 28, 2009) - The fate of Troy Davis now rests in the hands of the U.S. Supreme Court. The nation?s highest court is expected this week to consider hearing the case of Davis, a Georgia man convicted 20 years ago of killing a Savannah police officer...

Judge orders more DNA testing in death penalty case

Posted on June 25, 2009
Judge orders more DNA testing in death penalty caseFlorida Supreme Court stayed David Johnston's execution in May.http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/orl-bk-david-johnston-dna-testing062309,0,3404529.story?track=rssSarah Lundy Sentinel Staff Writer5:38 PM EDT, June 23, 2009 An Orange Circuit Court judge is allowing a lab selected by the defense and another picked by the state to test evidence for DNA in the death penalty case against David Eugene Johnston, whose execution was stayed last month by the Florida Supreme Court...

Routier still waiting on DNA testing

Posted on June 25, 2009
Tim SampsonThe Daily Times Published June 24, 2009Convicted child killer Darlie Lynn Routier sits on death row waiting for a new round of court-ordered DNA testing a year after the highest criminal appeals court in the state ordered that evidence be re-examined...

Dennis Skillicorn's widow reacts to the halting of Missouri executions

Posted on June 25, 2009
By Nadia Pflaum in Follow That StoryThursday, Jun. 25 2009 @ 6:30AMJust a little over a month after the state ended the life of Dennis Skillicorn by lethal injection, executions are again on hold in Missouri. Incoming Missouri Supreme Court Chief Justice William Ray Price Jr...

Obama names Martin to federal appeals court

Posted on June 22, 2009
Posted on Fri, Jun. 19, 2009 ATLANTAPresident Obama on Friday nominated U.S. District Judge Beverly B. Martin of Atlanta to fill a vacant seat on the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.Martin, a former U.S. attorney in Macon, has been on the district court bench since 2000, when she was appointed by President Clinton...

Death penalty decisions loom for Barack Obama

Posted on June 22, 2009
Death penalty decisions loomBy: Josh Gerstein June 21, 2009 07:03 AM EST For the first time in his career, President Barack Obama may soon confront one of the most weighty and unsavory decisions that a chief executive must make, whether to put a murder convict to death...

NAACP top exec says cop-killer conviction was built on 'lies'

Posted on June 20, 2009
Jan Skutch | Morris News ServiceFriday, June 19, 2009 8:42 a.m.SAVANNAH -- If the conviction of Troy Anthony Davis and his subsequent death sentencing resulted from "lies," then a "cop killer" has remained at large for 18 years, the top executive of the national NAACP says...

Legal stalling is packing Death Row

Posted on June 15, 2009
Tom HarmanMonday, June 15, 2009Legal executions have been the law of the land in California since the late 1800s. They were briefly abolished by the state Supreme Court in 1972 and reinstated by the voters in 1978. Yet only 13 executions have taken place in the 37 years since the death penalty was reinstated...

Former San Quentin warden honored for speaking out against death penalty

Posted on May 23, 2009
Richard HalsteadPosted: 05/22/2009 06:37:40 PM PDTDuring her stint as warden of San Quentin State Prison, Jeanne Woodford oversaw the execution of four death row inmates without ever discussing her personal feelings about the death penalty.On Thursday night, however, Woodford received an award from Death Penalty Focus for her courage in speaking out against capital punishment...

In the Absence of Proof

Posted on May 23, 2009
By BOB HERBERTThe options are running out for Troy Davis, a man who has been condemned to death for killing a police officer in Georgia, but whose guilt is seriously in question.It?s bad enough that we still execute people in the United States. It?s absolutely chilling that we?re willing to do it when we?re not even sure we?ve got the right person in our clutches...

World Wide Protest for Death Row Inmate Troy Davis

Posted on May 22, 2009
Thousands of people in 43 U.S. states and five continents participated in Amnesty International's "Global Day of Action," where people from all over the world protested the death sentence of Georgia man Troy Davis. The activists rallied in efforts to bring awareness and also pressure the state to overturn its decision...

Please Ask Connecticut Governor Rell To Sign The Death Penalty Abolition Bill

Posted on May 22, 2009
Early this morning the Connecticut Senate voted to abolish Connecticut's death penalty. The vote was 19-17. The bill now goes to Governor Jodi Rell (R). She sounds like she will veto the bill. So, if you care about the value of human life and making Connecticut and America more just and ending the barbarism that is the death penalty, this is an important time to spend a few moments to call or email Governor Rell to ask her to sign the bill...

Voices raised for Troy

Posted on May 21, 2009
Troy Davis could again come face to face with the Georgia execution machine. Following a federal court's rejection of his appeal, the stay of execution protecting Troy was lifted on May 16. Troy's lawyers are planning a new appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, pleading once again for justice--that the courts should at least hear persuasive new evidence of Troy's innocence...

Former judges push for hearing on Troy Davis innocence claim

Posted on May 21, 2009
Group asks Supreme Court to send death row case back to federal court.Twenty-seven former judges, justices and prosecutors are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to allow death-row inmate Troy Davis? innocence claims to be heard in federal court. The filing comes a day after Davis? lawyers filed their final legal bid...

After 22 Years on Death Row, Paul House is Cleared

Posted on May 20, 2009
Paul House?s name has finally been cleared, bringing to an end two decades of struggle for freedom after a wrongful conviction in Tennessee. House (pictured above with his mother, Joyce) served more than two decades on Tennessee?s death row before the U...

Missouri executes Skillicorn for 1994 murder

Posted on May 20, 2009
Dennis Skillicorn was calm ? ?remarkably calm? ? in his final hours. The convicted murderer was executed at the state corrections facility here at 12:34 a.m. Wednesday, 11 minutes after being administered a series of injections that left him unconscious and ultimately stopped his heart...

Ex-Inmate Draws Attention To Need For Help

Posted on May 20, 2009
Connecticut - Let us applaud the man's resourcefulness. Leroy James Gardner, a 44-year-old ex-bank robber just out of federal prison, needed help. Mr. Gardner, as reported by Courant columnist Stan Simpson last week, was released in Hartford with no money or contacts and without his anxiety medication...

Missouri prepares for first execution in 4 years

Posted on May 20, 2009
BONNE TERRE, Mo. (AP) ? Missouri early Wednesday executed a man who killed a good Samaritan who had stopped on the road to help him, ending a nearly four-year period without an execution in the state. Texas, meanwhile, executed its 15th prisoner this year...

Missouri executes Skillicorn for 1994 murder

Posted on May 20, 2009
BONNE TERRE, Mo. | Dennis Skillicorn died from lethal injection early this morning, becoming the first Missouri prisoner to be executed in nearly four years and the 67th since 1989. Skillicorn, 49, was pronounced dead at 12:34 a.m. at the state?s Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center...

Missouri's other execution

Posted on May 19, 2009
Obviously, there's been a lot of coverage about the Dennis Skillicorn execution, set for 12:01 a.m Wednesday. But the Missouri Supremes have also scheduled a date for Reginald Clemons, who will be put to death June 17. He is one of four men convicted in the murders of sisters Robin Kerry, 19, and Julie Kerry, 20, on the old Old Chain of Rocks Bridge in 1991...

Rally planned Tuesday to protest Troy Davis execution

Posted on May 19, 2009
Final appeal to be filed with Supreme Court in case where witnesses recanted.Death-row inmate Troy Anthony Davis will file a last-ditch appeal Tuesday to the U.S. Supreme Court, and a rally to protest his execution is planned for Tuesday night at the state Capiol...

As execution nears, Skillicorn loses two more appeals

Posted on May 19, 2009
Legal options for a Kansas City man scheduled to be executed shortly after midnight tonight continue to dwindle with the denial of more appeals.The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis late Monday denied Dennis Skillicorn?s appeal of a federal judge?s ruling last week...

Missouri Supreme Court rejects delay in Skillicorn?s execution

Posted on May 19, 2009
JEFFERSON CITY | The Missouri Supreme Court has denied a request to delay the scheduled execution of a man convicted in the slaying of a Good Samaritan 15 years ago.Dennis Skillicorn is to be executed at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday for the 1994 killing of Richard Drummond, who stopped to help when Skillicorn?s car broke down...

America, Religious Values, and the Death Penalty; Or, If it Was Good Enough for Jesus and Socrates...

Posted on May 18, 2009
America, Religious Values, and the Death Penalty; Or, If it Was Good Enough for Jesus and Socrates...By Louis A. RuprechtPosted on May 18, 2009, Printed on May 18, 2009http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/politics/1216/It is one of the more striking features of the poorly-named ?Western tradition? that two of its foundational stories both involve an act of extraordinary injustice and an ultimately, unwarranted, state-sponsored execution...

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