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Criminal Law

StandDown Texas Project

Texas-centric examination of conditions, reform initiatives, and emerging issues related to best practices in the indigent criminal justice system with particular attention to issues involving capital punishment and the administration of the death penalty.
By StandDown Texas Project

Post Frequency: 45.8/day

Last Entry: May 17, 2013 at 16:06:26

DSM-5 News & Commentary Roundup

Posted on May 17, 2013
ReutersLegal posts, "Psychiatrists unveil their long-awaited diagnostic 'bible'," by Sharon Begley. It's an excellent overview of the debate raging over the new publication. The long-awaited, controversial new edition of the bible of psychiatry can be characterized by many numbers: its...

Public Defender Heads to 8th Circuit Bench

Posted on May 17, 2013
"Jane Kelly's experience rare on US appeals court," is the AP report by Ryan J. Foley. It's also available via ABC News. Jane Kelly will become a federal appeals court judge Friday with an unusual background that supporters say makes...

Innocence Commission Bill Update

Posted on May 17, 2013
Today is the 130th day of the Texas Legislature's 140 day regular session. "Senator Says Innocence Commission Bill is in Trouble," is by Brandi Grissom at the Texas Tribune. Legislation that would create a commission to review wrongful convictions in...

Perry Signs Criminal Discovery into Law

Posted on May 17, 2013
The Texas Tribune posts, "Perry Signs Michael Morton Act," by Brandi Grissom. With exoneree Michael Morton by his side, Gov. Rick Perry on Thursday signed a measure that aims to avoid wrongful convictions by preventing prosecutors from suppressing evidence...

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Give the Death Penalty the Chair

Posted on May 16, 2013
That's the title of a Nebraska editorial column in the North Platte Telegraph written by Peter Rogers, the Telegraph's Publisher. It happens about this time every year: the Nebraska Legislature debates the wisdom of eliminating the death penalty. (Or not:...

Texas Execution Date Withdrawn for DNA Testing

Posted on May 16, 2013
The Austin Chronicle posts, "Pruett Gets 60-Day Delay Pending DNA Testing," by Jordan Smith. According to the state of Texas, on Dec. 17, 1999, Robert Pruett, 20, took a sharpened metal rod wrapped with tape and stabbed prison guard Daniel...

More Calls for Florida Veto

Posted on May 16, 2013
Today's Tallahassee Democrat publishes the editorial, "Speed vs. justice: Be cautious in accelerating executions." Just about the time that many Florida voters again grow tired of the endless appeals and delayed executions of those on Florida?s Death Row, along comes...

The Dust-Up in the Senate Criminal Justice Committee

Posted on May 16, 2013
"Drama in committee hearing ? Sen. Joan Huffman chewed out by witnesses on exoneree bill," is Rodger Jones' post at the Dallas Morning News Opinion blog. Sen. Joan Huffman was chewed out today by witnesses at a Senate hearing after...

Texas Editorials Applaud Legislature's Criminal Justice Reforms

Posted on May 16, 2013
"Morton Act a victory for justice," is the Austin American-Statesman editorial. It's a must-read on the state of major criminal justice reforms in the Texas Legislature. All that remains to be done to make the Michael Morton Act state law...

Texas Execution

Posted on May 16, 2013
Texas carried out its sixth execution of 2013, last night in Huntsville. It was the 498th post-Furman Texas execution since 1982, and the 259th execution conducted under the administration of Governor Rick Perry. Texas has the nation's most active death...

Colorado News

Posted on May 15, 2013
"Gov. Hickenlooper boxed in on Nathan Dunlap," is the latest from Denver Post columnist Vincent Carroll. We are used to impassioned rhetoric by those who oppose the death penalty. But George Brauchler, district attorney for the 18th Judicial District that...

Sentencing Deal in High Visibility Pennsylvania Case

Posted on May 15, 2013
"Abortion doc set for last court hearing amid deal," is the AP report by Maryclaire Dale, via the San Francisco Chronicle. A Philadelphia abortion doctor convicted of killing three babies born alive at his clinic will be formally sentenced in...

More Commentary From David Love

Posted on May 15, 2013
"Putting the Brakes on Philly's Death Penalty," is David Love's latest essay at Huffington Post. Here's an extended excerpt from the beginning of this must-read: Witness to Innocence is a national organization originally founded as a project of Sister Helen...

Florida Update

Posted on May 15, 2013
"Grotesque Speed for Florida Capital Cases," is the title of an editorial published in today's New York Times. The Timely Justice Act, a grotesquely named bill passed by the Florida Legislature, could get to Gov. Rick Scott as soon as...

Repeal Effort Shows Strength

Posted on May 15, 2013
That's the title of the editorial in today's Lincoln Journal Star on the Nebraska repeal legislation filibustered yesterday. The fact that a majority of state senators seems to favor repeal of the death penalty shows they took the time to...

Texas Execution Scheduled for Wednesday

Posted on May 15, 2013
Texas is scheduled to carry out its sixth execution of 2013, tonight in Huntsville. It would be the 498th post-Furman Texas execution since 1982, and the 259th execution conducted under the administration of Governor Rick Perry. Texas has the nation's...

The Arkansas Lethal Injection Drugs

Posted on May 15, 2013
BBC News reports, "UK-based firm stops selling phenobarbital drug to Arkansas." A UK-based pharmaceutical company has stopped selling a drug to Arkansas because the US state planned to use it to execute prisoners on death row. Drug company Hikma, based...

Another Florida Exoneration Looming?

Posted on May 14, 2013
"Lawyers Say DNA Clears Florida Inmate in Two Killings," is the New York Times report by Lizette Alvarez. Seven years after he was sentenced to death in the fatal stabbings of two Florida women, Clemente Javier Aguirre appeared in a...

Nebraska Repeal Legislation Filibustered

Posted on May 14, 2013
The Lincoln Journal Star posts, "Death penalty bill dead for the year," by Kevin O'Hanlon. A bill to abolish Nebraska's death penalty perished for the year Tuesday when supporters were unable to muster enough votes to end a filibuster against...

Exonerated Prisoners Are Winning the Fight Against the Death Penalty

Posted on May 14, 2013
That's the title of an article in the current edition of the Nation, written by David Love, the executive director of Witness to Innocence. The subtitle is, "'I killed the thing that almost killed me,' said Kirk Bloodsworth, who faced...

Missouri Cost Study Legislation Dead

Posted on May 14, 2013
"Mo. Senate defeats study of death penalty costs," is the AP report, via KMBZ-FM. The Missouri Senate has rejected a proposal to study the costs of the state's death penalty. The measure by Democratic Sen. Joe Keaveny, of St. Louis,...

Texas Criminal Discovery One Vote From Governor's Desk

Posted on May 14, 2013
The Longview News-Journal posts AP coverage, "House OKs Morton criminal justice bill." The House on Monday approved the Michael Morton Act, a measure designed to prevent wrongful convictions and named in honor of a Texan who spent nearly 25 years...

Nebraska Repeal Bill May Be Stuck

Posted on May 14, 2013
"Bill abolishing the death penalty could be in peril," is the Lincoln Journal Star report by Kevin O'Hanlon. For the first time in 34 years, a majority of Nebraska lawmakers seems to support abolishing the state's death penalty. But a...

Denver Post Editorial Calls for Commutation in Dunlap Case

Posted on May 13, 2013
"Sympathy for Nathan Dunlap? No. Clemency? Yes.," is the Denver Post editorial. Hickenlooper ought to grant the petition, but not because Dunlap is a miscast character caught in bad circumstances, no matter how hard his lawyers have worked hard to...

Racism in a Texas Death Case

Posted on May 13, 2013
That's the title of a New York Times editorial on the case of Duane Buck. It appeared in the Saturday edition. In the annals of racism in the Texas criminal justice system, seven death penalty cases are in a class...

Nebraska Repeal Bill on the Legislative Floor Today

Posted on May 13, 2013
You can watch the floor debate on Sen. Ernie Chambers' bill to repeal Nebraska's death penalty via NET, Nebraska's PBS and NPR stations. The Omaha World-Herald reports, "New faces may turn tide on capital punishment," by Paul Hammel. The most...

Washington Supreme Court Hears Arguments Over Barred Death Penalty

Posted on May 10, 2013
"High court reviews exclusion of death penalty in 2007 Carnation killings," is by Sara Jean Green for the Seattle Times. A King County judge overstepped his bounds when he ruled that prosecutors can?t seek the death penalty against the two...

Jordan Smith on the Case of Jeffrey Williams

Posted on May 10, 2013
"New Appeal Argues Ineffective Defense," is by Jordan Smith at the Austin Chronicle. It was 9:07pm on May 19, 1990 when undercover Houston Police Officer Troy Blando ran a check through the mobile data terminal in his unmarked Jeep Cherokee,...

From Florida

Posted on May 10, 2013
WCTV-TV posts, "Speeding Up Execution Bill Gets Calls for Veto," by Mike Vasilinda. Florida has averaged three point two executions a year since the death penalty was reinstated in 1979. Three people have already died by lethal injection this year...

Lubbock Avalanche-Journal Series

Posted on May 09, 2013
The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal has published a series of articles under the heading, "Ultimate Punishment: The Death Penalty in Lubbock and the South Plains." The series is written by Walt Nett. There are infographics at the link. "Four local inmates, linked...

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