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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: 49.3/day

Last Entry: April 01, 2011 at 14:21:29

Kentucky Hands Over Its Lethal Injection Drug to DEA

Posted on April 01, 2011
That's the headline of breaking news from AP, datelined Frankfort, Kentucky. Kentucky has turned over its supply of a key lethal injection drug to the federal Drug Enforcement Administration. Kentucky Justice Department spokeswoman Jennifer Brislin said in a statement Friday...

More From Raymond Bonner

Posted on April 01, 2011
"Foreign Companies Eye U.S. Market for Lethal Injection Drugs," appears at the Atlantic. Bonner, Letter From Europe appeared in the New York Times earlier this week. Denmark hasn't had a civilian execution since 1882 and the country banned capital punishment...

The Virginian Pilot on Execution Drugs

Posted on April 01, 2011
"The problem with medicine used to kill," is the editorial in today's Virginian Pilot. As The Associated Press reported last week, Georgia obtained sodium thiopental from a distributor that shares a building with a driving school in a gritty London...

Lethal Injection Controversies

Posted on April 01, 2011
Brandi Grissom writes, "Controversy Follows New Execution Drug," for today's New York Times. A decision to change one of the drugs Texas uses for lethal injections in its busy execution chamber has sparked anew the controversy over the state?s death....

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Notes From the Texas Legislature

Posted on March 31, 2011
"Bill to reduce wrongful convictions passes House," is the title of the AP report by Jay Root, via the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. The legislation is HB 215. The Texas House, aiming to reduce the number of wrongful convictions, approved legislation...

More on Pentobarbital Maker Lundbeck

Posted on March 31, 2011
"AP Exclusive: Danes won?t block execution drug," is the report via Google News. It's also available from the Las Vegas Sun and Ohio.com. A Danish company that unwittingly has become a key supplier of an execution drug in the U.S....

Additional Coverage of Texas Lethal Drug Purchases

Posted on March 31, 2011
The letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, an appendix of exhibits, and the letter to DPS are available in Adobe .pdf format. Today's Dallas Morning News reports, "Lawyers accuse Texas of illegally purchasing execution drugs." It's written by Matthew Huisman...

Did TDCJ Obtain Execution Drugs Illegally

Posted on March 30, 2011
Mike Ward posts, "Complaint: Texas illegally acquiring lethal drugs," at the Austin American-Statesman. In a new challenge to Texas? execution procedure, two condemned convicts complained to federal and state today alleging that state prison officials have been illegally obtaining the...

Texas House Committee Hears Death Penalty Bills

Posted on March 30, 2011
"Bill to ban death penalty doomed, but supporters undeterred," is the title of Karen Brooks' report for the Dallas Morning News. If there is one proposal that is already on death row in the staunchly conservative Legislature, it?s the bill...

More Lethal Injection News

Posted on March 30, 2011
In Nebraska, the Lincoln Journal Star reports, "Lawyer questions legality of purchase of lethal injection drug from Indian company." It's written by Kevin O'Hanlon. A lawyer for death-row inmate Carey Dean Moore is challenging the legality of Nebraska's purchase of...

Letter From Europe

Posted on March 30, 2011
That's the heading of Raymond Bonner's European reports for the New York Times. Today, he writes, "Drug Company in Cross Hairs of Death Penalty Opponents." Virtually all European countries ban capital punishment, and the European Union has been a leader...

News Coverage of Texas Lethal Injection Litigation

Posted on March 30, 2011
The petition in Foster v. TDCJ is available in Adobe .pdf format. Brandi Grissom posts, "Death Row Inmates Sue Over Lethal Injection Drug," at the Texas Tribune. TDCJ decided on March 16 that it would use pentobarbital in executions. Texas...

Lawsuit Filed Over New Texas Lethal Injection Procedures

Posted on March 29, 2011
A news release has just been issued by attorneys for Cleve Foster, who has an April 5th exectuion date, "Lawsuit Seeks to Declare Texas? Execution Protocol Void; Death Row Prisoners Claim State Circumvented Open Government Process in its Rush to...

In Ohio

Posted on March 29, 2011
Alan Johnson reports, "Past prisons chief urges clemency for condemned killer," in today's Columbus Dispatch. Former Ohio prisons director Terry Collins and a Cincinnati civil-rights attorney are jointly urging Gov. John Kasich to spare the life of condemned killer Clarence...

Executions Scheduled in Alabama, Arizona

Posted on March 29, 2011
"Attorneys ask Ala. Supreme Court to stop execution of William Boyd scheduled for Thursday," is the AP report via the Republic. An alternate version is available from the Birmingham News. Attorneys for a 45-year-old inmate have asked the Alabama Supreme...

Death Sentences and Executions 2010

Posted on March 28, 2011
Amnesty International has released its report Death Sentences and Executions 2010. It's available in Adobe .pdf. Additional graphics are also available. "Amnesty: After hitting record low, number of countries executing convicts has inched back up," is the AP post, via...

An Update on the Troy Davis Case

Posted on March 28, 2011
"High court rejects appeal from Troy Davis," is the AP report via the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal from Georgia death row inmate Troy Davis, clearing the way for the state to resume planning for Davis'...

California's Death Penalty Doesn't Serve Justice

Posted on March 28, 2011
That's the title of Los Angeles Times commentary from Gil Garcetti, former Los Angeles District Attorney from 1992-2000. Retired Superior Court Judge Donald A. McCartin expresses clear and persuasive reasons why California should abolish the death penalty...

Arizona to Switch to Single-Drug Lethal Injection

Posted on March 28, 2011
"3-chemical process to be used twice more; Arizona plans to switch to single-drug executions," is the AP report written by Paul Davenport. It's via the Arizona Daily Star. Arizona plans to switch to using just one execution drug, dropping a...

Speaking Out for Transparency in Texas Execution Process

Posted on March 28, 2011
"Texans deserve the truth on death penalty policies," is the title of Joseph R. Larsen's OpEd in the Austin American-Statesman. Larsen is an attorney with Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold in Houston, Texas, and the recipient of the 2010 James...

Jim Willett

Posted on March 28, 2011
Brandi Grissom posts, "Looking Back on a Life as a Death House Warden," at the Texas Tribune. Jim Willett never hit anyone in his life, never even wanted to hurt anyone. But at the height of his career, the mild-mannered,...

Lethal Injection Fraud in Arizona?

Posted on March 25, 2011
"Execution-drug import papers raise questions," is the title of Michael Kiefer's report in today's Arizona Republic. Here's an extended excerpt: Three shipments of drugs imported by the Arizona Department of Corrections were represented to U.S. customs and Food and Drug...

Second Thoughts of a 'Hanging Judge'

Posted on March 25, 2011
That's the title of an OpEd in today's Los Angeles Times, subtitled, "A death sentence in California rarely leads to an execution. Let's stop the charade." It's by Donald A. McCartin, a retired California Superior Court judge. In 1978, the...

Kentucky Moratorium Remains in Place

Posted on March 25, 2011
"Court upholds temporary ban on executions," is the title of Brett Barrouquere's AP report, via KY Post. A ban on executions in Kentucky may stay in place while a judge decides if the state's lethal injection protocol is adequate, the...

Juveniles in the Adult Criminal Justice System in Texas

Posted on March 24, 2011
That's the title of a new report by Michele Deitch of UT's LBJ School of Public Affairs. Juveniles in the Adult Criminal Justice System in Texas is available in Adobe .pdf format. This is from the news release announcing the...

New Book

Posted on March 24, 2011
Convicting the Innocent: Where Criminal Prosecutions Go Wrong is the title of a new book University of Virginia Law prof Brandon Garrett. A news release, "U.Va. Law Professor Brandon Garrett's Book Examines Wrongful Conviction," announces the publication...

Odessa American Editorial on Eyewitness ID Procedures

Posted on March 24, 2011
"Eyewitness standards a good idea," is the editorial in today's Odessa American. It's a reprint of last week's Austin American-Statesman editorial. We?d like to think the legislation would glide as easily through the House. That has proved difficult in previous...

Perry Appointment to CCA

Posted on March 23, 2011
"Hispanic Houston judge named to Court of Criminal Appeals," by Christy Hoppe for the Dallas Morning News. Gov. Rick Perry named Elsa Alcala to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to replace Charles Holcomb, who retired from the court. Alcala...

Eyewitness ID Reform Active in Florida

Posted on March 23, 2011
"Revamped photo lineup rules aim to end ID errors in Florida," is the report by John Torres and Jim Ash for Florida Today. The kind of photo lineup that was used to send Crosley Green to death row in 1991...

Eyewitness ID Reform Moving Forward in Texas Legislature

Posted on March 23, 2011
Rick Casey's latest Houston Chronicle column is, "Eyewitness bill 'a good start,' but ..." Brandon Garrett, a professor at the University of Virginia's School of Law, has a two-part message for Houston State Sen. Rodney Ellis. The first part is...