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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

In New Hampshire

Posted on September 22, 2008
"2 rare capital trials conducted in New Hampshire," is the AP report via Google News.One capital murder trial is under way and another is about to start in New Hampshire, a state that last executed someone in 1939, has no...

The Nichols Trial

Posted on September 22, 2008
"Brian Nichols finally faces jury," is the Atlanta Journal-Constitution report.Three years and six months after the Fulton County courthouse shootings, Superior Court Judge James Bodiford called the Brian Nichols murder case for trial at 9:01 a.m. Monday...

Hashimoto on Watkins

Posted on September 22, 2008
"Is Watkins' goal justice or publicity?," is the title of Dallas Morning News latest Mike Hashimoto column. How could a reasonable person find fault with Craig Watkins' latest publicity venture, grandly reopening his predecessors' 40 not-yet-resolved death penalty cases? Taken...

Judge Dismisses Libel Suit Against John Grisham, Barry Scheck

Posted on September 19, 2008
That's the headline of an AP report via Law.com. LINKA federal judge has dismissed a libel lawsuit filed against best-selling author John Grisham and two other writers over books they wrote about the wrongful conviction of two men in a...

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A Conversation With Erwin Chemerinsky

Posted on September 19, 2008
At FindLaw, Wajahat Ali has a conversation with UC-Irvine Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky. It's titled, "Judicial Activism: Playing with the Constitution. An Interview with Constitutional Law Scholar Erwin Chemerinsky on Abortion, the 2nd Amendment, the War on Terror and Guantanamo...

An Update on the Paul House Case

Posted on September 19, 2008
"DA: Hair in victim's fist is not House's," is the AP dispatch in Nashville's Tennessean.A new DNA test shows that hair found clenched in the hand of a fatally beaten woman in 1985 does not match the man who contends...

In Illinois

Posted on September 19, 2008
"Lawmakers hold committee debate on death penalty," is the title of Christy Gutowski's report in the Chicago Daily Herald.Anthony Mertz has years of future appeals before the condemned man, who has served the longest on Illinois' death row, faces execution...

Lethal Injection Round-Up

Posted on September 19, 2008
From California, the Stockton Record reports, "Morales case gets another hearing."Attorneys for the state brought their case against condemned Stockton man Michael Angelo Morales to an appeals court Thursday in San Francisco for arguments on changes made to California's method...

Posthumous Exoneration in Lubbock

Posted on September 19, 2008
"A rape victim is working to clear the name of a dead man convicted of attacking her," is Max Baker's report in today's Fort Worth Star Telegram.Michele Mallin never expected to get this kind of phone call. A rape victim...

Dallas Morning News Editorial

Posted on September 19, 2008
"DA right to re-examine death penalty cases," is the title of an editorial in today's paper.District Attorney Craig Watkins does not want to see an innocent man executed on his watch. Around this unassailable goal, there is near universal agreement.....

Still No DNA Match In Yogurt Shop Case

Posted on September 18, 2008
That's the title of Steven Kreytak's report in today's Austin American-Statesman. LINKProsecutors in the cases against two men facing retrial in the 1991 Austin yogurt shop murders have yet to figure out whose DNA was discovered this year in swabs...

The U.S. Supreme Court and International Law

Posted on September 18, 2008
Adam Liptak reports, "U.S. Court Is Now Guiding Fewer Nations," in today's New York Times. It is part of his American Exception series. Here's a preview from the article:Judges around the world have long looked to the decisions of the...

The Reluctant Prosecutor

Posted on September 18, 2008
That's the title of a profile of Texas District Attorney Randy Reynolds in the latest Texas Monthly. It's written by Nate Blakeslee. LINK Here's the introduction:?There are some men in this world,? Harper Lee wrote in To Kill a Mockingbird,...

Kennedy v. Louisiana

Posted on September 18, 2008
SCOTUS Blog's Lyle Denniston reports, "Court urged to hold fast against death for child rape." Here is an extended excerpt:Lawyers for a death-row inmate in Louisiana, arguing that military law is beside the point when deciding the constitutionality of criminal...

Michael Blair Added to DPIC Exoneration List

Posted on September 18, 2008
The Death Penalty Information Center has just added Michael Blair to its list of men and women exonerated from death row. He is the 130th person sentenced to death to be exonerated since 1973. Death penalty exonerations have occurred in...

In California

Posted on September 18, 2008
"Appeals Court to Consider State's Death Penalty Gridlock," is Howard Mintz' report in today's San Jose Mercury News.Five months after the U.S. Supreme Court offered a legal road map to states dealing with challenges to lethal injection, California is no...

Texas Execution

Posted on September 18, 2008
Texas carried out its ninth execution of 2008 last night in Huntsville; the 414 execution in the state since 1982. A Reuters report on the execution of William Murray is here. It was the 22nd execution in America this year;...

Wait a Minute

Posted on September 17, 2008
That's the title of a Tuesday Houston Chronicle editorial subtitled,"A stay of execution for convicted murderer Charles Dean Hood raises troubling questions of judicial integrity."Tuesday evening, 24 hours before he was due to be put to death by lethal injection,...

DoJ Provides Federal Funding for Post-Conviction DNA Testing

Posted on September 17, 2008
The U.S. Department of Justice has issued a press release, "Department of Justice Provides States with Funding for Tests in Postconviction Cases," via MarketWatch. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) today announced $500,000 to the State of Texas to help...

The Exoneration Front

Posted on September 17, 2008
It appears that Dallas County's 19th DNA exoneration is in the works. Tiara Ellis reports, "Dallas man one step closer to freedom after DNA clears him in 1981 rape," in the Dallas Morning News. While a 28-year-old woman was being...

Mediation Ordered in Lethal Injection Suit

Posted on September 17, 2008
That's the headline of a Delaware Online report by Sean O'Sullivan. LINKA judge has ordered parties involved in the federal civil rights lawsuit over Delaware's use of lethal injection to mediation. District Judge Sue L. Robinson directed attorneys for Delaware...

Legal Experts Slam Texas Judge-Prosecutor Link

Posted on September 17, 2008
That's the title of an AP report on the Charles Hood case, via Google News. LINKLegal experts are harshly criticizing a former judge and an ex-Texas prosecutor, saying their alleged sexual affair while handling cases together represents a black eye...

More on Craig Watkins

Posted on September 17, 2008
Following up on yesterday's post about Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins' plans to review death penalty cases, AP reports, "Dallas DA to examine all death cases in county," via Google News.A Texas district attorney known for his willingness to...

Jack Alderman Executed in Georgia - Texas to Execute Tonight

Posted on September 17, 2008
"Alderman's death by lethal injection took 14 minutes," is the Atlanta Journal-Constitution report. Earlier in the day, the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles rejected his clemency petition. It was the 21st execution in America in 2008; the 1,120th in...

Craig Watkins

Posted on September 16, 2008
"Dallas County DA wants to re-examine nearly all of pending death row cases," is the Dallas Morning News report written by Jennifer Emily and Steve McGonigle. Here are several excerpts: Troubled that innocent people have been imprisoned by faulty prosecutions,...

Clemency Hearing in Georgia

Posted on September 16, 2008
"Jack Alderman to get clemency hearing Tuesday," is the title of Bill Rankin's report in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.The state Board of Pardons and Paroles on Monday agreed to hold a new clemency hearing for Jack Alderman, just hours after a...

Additional Hood Coverage

Posted on September 16, 2008
"Latest tale of Texas justice rated E for embarrassment," was the Austin American-Statesman's Friday editorial.Thanks to the Charles Dean Hood capital murder case, the Texas judicial system these days looks more like a Lifetime cable channel movie about the secret...

More from Alan Berlow on the Hood Case

Posted on September 16, 2008
I'm still playing catch-up from last week's travel. Last Tuesday, I noted Alan Berlow's "Travesty in Texas," in this post. Following the stay of execution, Berlow wrote, "A Legal Affair," for Atlantic. It's another must-read; here's the opening:Convicted double murderer...

Executions Kill Any Chance to Correct Injustices

Posted on September 16, 2008
That's the title of an OpEd in today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution focused on the Troy Davis case. LINKOn Sept. 23, our great state of Georgia is poised to deliver a miscarriage of justice in the name of its citizenry. A man,...

More Music for Life

Posted on September 16, 2008
Acclaimed Texas singer-songwriter Sara Hickman will perform another of her Music for Life concerts in Waco on Thursday evening. Yesterday's Waco Tribune-Herald carried her OpEd, "Let's talk about death penalty."As a mom and a musician, I wanted to start a...

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