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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: 49.3/day

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

News Coverage of the Eighth Circuit Hearing

Posted on September 25, 2009
"Other states watching case on lethal injection," is the AP report via the Texarkana Gazette. An attorney for four Arkansas death row inmates who are challenging the state?s lethal injection procedure told a federal appeals court panel Thursday that even...

Proportionality Review - Not in Texas

Posted on September 25, 2009
"Judge denies constitutionality motion," is the title of John Tompkins' report in today's issue of the Brazosport Facts. His article is datelined Angleton, Texas. A Brazoria County judge on Thursday denied a motion from an accused murderer?s attorneys that claimed...

Orr & Lefstein on Public Defenders for Harris County

Posted on September 25, 2009
"County can save money with public defenders," is the OpEd by Cynthia Hujar Orr and Norman Lefstein in today's Houston Chronicle. Orr is an attorney in San Antonio and President of the National Association of Defense Lawyers. Lefstein is the...

Opinion Roundup

Posted on September 24, 2009
Reason reposts Steve Chapman's syndicated column, "What Do We Owe Exonerated Inmates?" It originally appeared in 2006, and was noted here. It's just as relevant today. Michael Evans won an Illinois lottery. The state presented him with a check for...

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Eighth Circuit Hears Arkansas Lethal Injection Challenge

Posted on September 24, 2009
The U.S Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit today is hearing a challenge to Arkansas' lethal injection procedure. "Appeals court to hear Ark. lethal injection case," is Jon Gambrell's AP report via the Belleville News Democrat. Four Arkansas death-row...

Ohio Secretary Of State Calls for Moratorium

Posted on September 24, 2009
Jennifer Brunner writes, "Time for a Moratorium to Rethink Executions," for Huffington Post, today. I am running for the United States Senate because I believe that public service is for the purpose of helping our fellow citizens realize improvement in...

Shouldn't Innocence Matter?

Posted on September 24, 2009
That's the title of David Fathi's latest at Huffington Post. LINK He's the Director of the Human Rights Watch U.S. program. On August 17, the US Supreme Court ordered a lower federal court in Georgia to conduct a hearing in...

A Catholic Perspective on Todd Willingham

Posted on September 24, 2009
Florida Catholic has the OpEd, "Innocent man?s execution shows shame of death penalty," from the Tennessee Register. The death penalty may have finally crossed a shameful line that, if there is any sense of reason or justice in American society,...

More Willingham Commentary

Posted on September 24, 2009
"Putting to death innocent (or not-innocent) people," is the title of Susan Campbell's Fear, Itself blog at Connecticut's Hartford Courant: If you haven't already, read the recent (long-but-worth-it) New Yorker piece on Cameron Todd Willingham. I started life as a...

Supreme Court Issues Stay in Scheduled Texas execution

Posted on September 24, 2009
"Convicted killer of Garland police officer wins reprieve on Texas death row," is the AP report via today's Dallas Morning News. The U.S. Supreme Court Wednesday night stopped the scheduled execution of Texas death row inmate Kenneth Mosley a day...

Texas Execution

Posted on September 23, 2009
Texas carried out its 18th execution of 2009, this evening in Huntsville. It was the state's 441st execution since 1982. Texas has far and away the most active death chamber in America, accounting for more than 37% of the nation's...

Uncertain Fates

Posted on September 23, 2009
That's the title of Dave Maass' article in the Santa Fe Reporter. It's subtitled, "NM's next governor could commute death sentences." Here's an extended excerpt: And you thought capital punishment was dead. Although the New Mexico Legislature voted to repeal...

Profiteering at the Expense of the Exonerated or Cost of Business?

Posted on September 23, 2009
"Exonerated man fights $1 million payout to lawyer," is the title of Mitch Mitchell's Fort Worth Star-Telegram report. A man freed from prison by DNA evidence has asked a judge to stop his former lawyer from taking more than $1...

Ohio Editorials

Posted on September 23, 2009
"Lethal injection is not humane option," is the editorial in Ohio's Newark Advocate today. Last week's fiasco was the third time since 2006 that Ohio corrections officials have struggled to complete an execution by lethal injection. The problem each time...

Ohio Lethal Injection Hearing Reset for November 30

Posted on September 23, 2009
"Execution delayed temporarily," is the title of the Cleveland Plain Dealer report. A federal judge extended Romell Broom's life at least until Nov. 30. On Tuesday, the day the state had planned a second attempt to execute him, federal Judge...

Shouting From the Rooftops

Posted on September 22, 2009
That's the title of Diann Rust-Tierney's last post at Huffington Post. LINK She's the Executive Director of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. Three years ago, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonio Scalia wrote: "(there has not been) a...

Why Is the Prosecutor Who Took Willingham's Life Smiling?

Posted on September 22, 2009
That's one of two questions Michael Landauer poses in, "Two new questions in the Todd Willingham case," at the Dallas Morning News Opinions blog. An interview with John Jackson, the lead prosecutor in the Willingham case, is disturbing. Jackson smirks...

Justice Sotomayor Joins the Cert Pool

Posted on September 22, 2009
Tony Mauro reports, "The Supreme Court Cert Pool: Sotomayor Joins It, Lawyers Attack It," for National Law Journal. As expected, new Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor has joined the Court's so-called cert pool, at least for now. Court public information...

Intellectual Competence & the Death Penalty

Posted on September 22, 2009
That's the name of blog started recently by Dr. Kevin McGrew, Director of the Institute for Applied Psychometrics. The blog is here. I'll be adding it in the left-column webroll next. Thanks to Saor Stetler for passing on information of...

Coverage and Commentary on the Florida ABA-FSU Symposium

Posted on September 22, 2009
Last week, Florida State University's Center for the Advancement of Human Rights hosted a symposium marking the three-year anniversary of the release of an ABA assessment of the state's administration of capital punishment. The event was noted here. In the...

Dying in Vein

Posted on September 22, 2009
That's the title of a Newsweek Web Exclusive written by Krista Gesaman. It's subtitled, "Is subjecting an inmate to a failed execution cruel and unusual punishment?" Can a vein save a convicted killer? It the case of Romell Broom?it might....

Texas Execution ... And New Questions in Another Texas Death Case

Posted on September 22, 2009
Texas is scheduled to carry out its 18th execution of 2009, this evening in Huntsville. It would be the state's 441st execution since 1982. Texas has far and away the most active death chamber in America, accounting for more than...

More Commentary on Hood Ruling

Posted on September 22, 2009
"Ruling in Hood case degrades court system," is the title of a Dallas Morning News. Texas' highest criminal court's latest dismaying ruling in the scandalous Charles Dean Hood murder case can be interpreted with five words: "Anything goes in Texas...

The Case of Christopher Coleman

Posted on September 21, 2009
Mike Tolson reports, "New issue emerges in murder case," in today's Houston Chronicle. Elsy ?Daisy? Prado was the sole survivor of a nighttime assault that claimed the lives of her brother, boyfriend and 3-year-old son in north Houston. Wounded and...

Cleveland Plain Dealer on the Ohio Botch

Posted on September 21, 2009
"Ohio's latest botched execution is another reminder of why the death penalty should be abolished," is the title of the editorial in today's paper. Even people who support capital punishment should have been horrified by what took place last Tuesday....

More on Linda Carty

Posted on September 21, 2009
Clive Stafford Smith's OpEd, "The final act of Linda Carty's tragedy," is in the Guardian. Stafford Smith is the director of Reprieve. All of this leads up to last week's final tragedy. The fifth circuit court of appeals turned down...

Texas: The Kinder, Gentler Hang 'Em High State

Posted on September 21, 2009
That's the title of Hilary Hylton's article for Time. LINK Tim Cole couldn't tell his own story and so his family recounted the saga to the hard-bitten Texas legislators last spring. The convict had insisted he was innocent right up...

More From Alan Berlow on Charles Dean Hood

Posted on September 21, 2009
"Ardor in the Court, Part 3," is the latest installation of Alan Berlow's reportage on the contorted Charles Dean Hood case. It's subtitled, "A Texas court affirms the right of a judge and a prosecutor who slept together to condemn...

Error-Prone Death Penalty System Ensnares Innocent

Posted on September 21, 2009
That's the title of an OpEd from the Sunday edition of the Houston Chronicle. It's written by John Holdridge and Christopher Hill of the ACLU Capital Punishment Project. LINK Cameron Todd Willingham's unthinkable story has shocked the conscience of many...

Governor Perry Responds

Posted on September 21, 2009
"Perry defends disputed '04 execution of Corsicana man," is Todd Gillman's Dallas Morning News article from the Saturday edition. It's datelined Washington, DC, where Perry made his comments. Gov. Rick Perry on Friday strenuously defended the execution of a Corsicana...

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