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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

North Carolina Racial Justice Act Advances

Posted on June 09, 2009
"Committee OKs bill meant to help defendants challenge death penalty," is the title of James Romoser's report in today's Winston-Salem Journal. A bill that would establish a new procedure for defendants to challenge the use of the death penalty advanced...

Death Penalty Case Reveals Failings in Alabama

Posted on June 08, 2009
That's the title of Adam Liptak's latest Sidebar column for the New York Times. LINK Kenneth B. Trotter had been practicing law for less than a year when an Alabama judge appointed him to assist two more seasoned lawyers in...

Changes in McLennan County Indigent Defense System

Posted on June 08, 2009
"New law aims to save McLennan County time, money by streamlining courts," is the Waco Tribune-Herald report by Tommy Witherspoon. It appeared in yesterday's edition. McLennan County judges are hoping that a new law passed earlier this month will create...

New Public Opinion Polling

Posted on June 08, 2009
"Americans Pick Death Penalty for Murder Cases," is from Angus Reid Global Monitor. Many adults in the United States believe capital punishment is a better penalty for murder, according to a poll by Opinion Research Corporation released by CNN. 53...

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Death Penalty Saves Lives: A Prosecutor's View

Posted on June 08, 2009
That's the title of an OpEd by Eric Zahnd from the Kansas City Star. He is the Platte County prosecuting attorney. LINK A recent editorial (5/14, A-14, ?Death penalty system has serious flaws?) seeks a moratorium of the death penalty...

Connecticut

Posted on June 08, 2009
"Rell's death penalty veto faces override," is Ken Dixon's report from the Saturday edition of the Connecticut Post. Minutes after Gov. M. Jodi Rell vetoed the bill that would have abolished the death penalty, Speaker of the House Christopher G....

The Latest From Bob Ray Sanders

Posted on June 08, 2009
"Texas does lots of things on a grand scale, including executing people," is the title of his latest column. It appeared in Saturday's Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Here's an excerpt from this must-read: Last Tuesday, as the state of Texas prepared...

Conservative Group Criticizes Sotomayor on Death Penalty Memo

Posted on June 05, 2009
That's the title of a fresh post by Jerry Markon at the Washington Post's Opening Arguments blog. LINK A conservative group is criticizing Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor for signing a 1981 memo that opposed the death penalty and said...

First Obama Judicial Nominees Near Senate Vote

Posted on June 05, 2009
"Circuit Nominees, DOJ Nominee Head to Full Senate," is David Ingram's report today at National Law Journal. The Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday overwhelmingly endorsed two presidential nominees for prominent legal positions: Andre Davis for the 4th U...

Controlling Corrections Costs in Illinois: Lessons from the Coasts

Posted on June 05, 2009
That's the title of a new report by Malcolm Young of the Northwestern University School of Law. examining the impact of criminal justice systems in New York and California. "Study finds N.Y.'s crime-fighting strategies more effective than California's," is Lynne...

North Carolina Racial Justice Act Stalls

Posted on June 04, 2009
"'Racial Justice' bill is held in House panel," is James Romoser's report in today's Winston-Salem Journal. A bill aimed at stopping racial bias in the administration of the death penalty stalled yesterday in a legislative committee. The bill, which is...

UN Investigator Says US Death Penalty Leads to Miscarriage of Justice

Posted on June 04, 2009
That's the title of a Voice of America report by Lisa Schlein, datelined Geneva. LINK A U.N. Special Investigator is criticizing the application of the death penalty in the United States, saying it sometimes leads to miscarriages of justice. The...

Crisis in Cook County Illinois

Posted on June 04, 2009
"Public defender: No money, no death penalty," is John Byrne's report for the collective Chicago Breaking News. The Cook County public defender's share of a fund used to cover expenses to represent people in death-penalty cases is empty, the agency's...

This Morning's Washington Hearing

Posted on June 04, 2009
Earlier this morning the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security of the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on "Indigent Representation: A Growing National Crisis." I will update when the archived webcast becomes available. Here's the witness list: Robert...

Nationwide, Public Defender Offices Are in Crisis

Posted on June 04, 2009
That's the title of a major AP report by national writer Deborah Hastings. Earlier this morning a House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on indigent defense. I'll have more information on that in the next post, followed by a post...

Case of Death Row Inmate Troy Davis Puts New D.A. in Tight Spot

Posted on June 03, 2009
That's the title of an article in today's Los Angeles Times written by Richard Fausset. The sub-head is, "Some say Davis, a black man, was wrongly convicted of killing an off-duty white police officer. They are pressing the county's first...

Louisiana Considers Death Penalty Expansion

Posted on June 03, 2009
"House panel approves serial killer condition," by Mark Ballard is in today's Baton Rouge Advocate. A House committee approved, without objection Tuesday, legislation to make serial killers more easily subject to the death penalty. Prem Burns, who prosecuted convicted killer...

Miklos Honored

Posted on June 03, 2009
Freshman State Representative Robert Miklos chaired the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee's Death Penalty Subcommittee this session. The Mesquite News reports, "Miklos selected as Democratic Freshman of the Year." This week Representative Robert Miklos was named the House Democratic Freshman of...

Challenge Filed to Nebraska Lethal Injection Law

Posted on June 03, 2009
"Motion challenges new lethal injection law," is Paul Hammel's report in the Omaha World-Herald. Five days after being signed into law, Nebraska?s new lethal injection law was challenged Tuesday. A lawyer for death-row inmate Raymond Mata Jr. filed an appeal...

Washington Lethal Injection Trial Completed

Posted on June 03, 2009
"Lethal-injection trial wraps up," is the AP report via the Seattle Times. Arguments wrapped up Tuesday in a civil trial questioning Washington's lethal injection system, with lawyers for three death row inmates arguing the state's preferred execution method needs a...

More From the Keller Files

Posted on June 02, 2009
Chuck Lindell continues his series with a sixth item on the Austin American-Statesman Focal Point blog. It's titled, "Why the last-minute appeal?" Twenty years after Michael Richard was convicted of raping and killing a Hockley mother of seven, his lawyers...

Texas Execution

Posted on June 02, 2009
Texas is scheduled to carry out its 16th execution of 2009, tonight in Huntsville. It would be the state's 439th execution since 1982. Texas has far and away the most active death chamber in America, accounting for more than 37%...

Convicted Judge Kent Resigns ... Next Year; Impeachment Looms

Posted on June 02, 2009
You can read Judge Kent's letter to the President here, thanks to Texas Lawyer. "Galveston's Judge Kent to quit next year," is Stewart Powell's article for the Houston Chronicle. Prison- bound U.S. District Court Judge Samuel Kent told President Barack...

Texas Execution

Posted on June 02, 2009
Texas carried out its 16th execution of 2009, tonight in Huntsville. It was the state's 439th execution since 1982. Texas has far and away the most active death chamber in America, accounting for more than 37% of the nation's post-Furman...

Money, the Death Penalty, and California

Posted on June 02, 2009
Natasha Minsker's OpEd, "Save $1 Billion in Five Years: End the Death Penalty California," is in the current issue of City Watch LA. She's the death penalty policy director for the ACLU of Northern California. In the market for a...

The Power of Habeas

Posted on June 02, 2009
"In Rare Habeas Grant, 3rd Circuit Finds Evidence of Murder Insufficient," is the title of Michael Booth's report in the New Jersey Law Journal, a Law.com publication The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday granted a writ of...

Terri Hodge

Posted on June 02, 2009
Gromer Jeffers writes, "Dallas lawmaker Terri Hodge could go out on a high note," in the Dallas Morning News. Most lawmakers view the finish of a legislative session as a time for relaxation and recharging. But for Dallas Democratic Rep....

Supreme Court Rules in Ohio Case of Bobby v. Bies

Posted on June 01, 2009
AP reports, "High court rules for Ohio in death penalty case ," via FindLaw. The Supreme Court has unanimously ruled that the state of Ohio should have another chance to sentence a convicted killer to death, despite a previous factual...

Jury Sends Former Officer Back to Death Row

Posted on June 01, 2009
That's the headline from the Houston Chronicle report on the Houston trial of Robert Fratta. It was written by Brian Rogers. LINK A taut and emotional roller coaster ride ended Saturday when 12 jurors decided to send Robert Fratta back...

Death Cases Among Early Issues for New Justice

Posted on June 01, 2009
That's the title of a report by AP's Mark Sherman, via Google News. It was filed in Washington on Saturday. LINK Sonia Sotomayor has never confronted the contentious issue of the death penalty as a federal judge, but she was...

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