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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

Lethal Injection Roundup

Posted on October 07, 2010
There is news from California and Ohio. "State obtains new supply of lethal injection drug," is the title of Paul Elias' AP report. It's via the Silicon Valley Mercury News, which seems to have the most recently updated filing. Prison...

Texas Judges Run in the Dark

Posted on October 07, 2010
That's the title of an editorial in today's Austin American-Statesman making endorsement for Texas high courts races in the upcoming general election. LINK As we've noted many times before, Texans zealously cling to their right to elect their judges but...

Criminal Justice Integrity Unit News

Posted on October 07, 2010
Today's Dallas Morning News reports, "Judge Barbara Hervey, Texas Criminal Justice Integrity Unit working to educate officials about issues with forensic science," by Erin Mulvaney. Barbara Hervey first noticed flaws in the criminal justice system when she was a law...

Willingham Court of Inquiry Coverage

Posted on October 07, 2010
"Judge postpones Willingham case," is the title of this morning's Austin American-Statesman report by Steven Kreytak. A much-anticipated inquiry into whether Cameron Todd Willingham was wrongly executed in 2004 was postponed Wednesday after state District Judge Charlie Baird said he...

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Justice Brennan: Liberal Champion

Posted on October 07, 2010
That's the title of a highly anticipated biography of the late Supreme Court Justice William Brennan. I'll link to several book reviews, and I'm expecting to see even more. Tomorrow evening, Politics & Prose book store in Washington, DC, hosts...

Ohio Execution

Posted on October 06, 2010
The AP report is, "Ohio executes man who killed lover over ATM card," by Julie Carr Smyth. It's via Google News. An Ohio man who bludgeoned his girlfriend to death and then stole her ATM card to buy crack cocaine...

"I Did It"

Posted on October 06, 2010
That's the title of a lengthy examination of false confessions in the current issue of New York Magazine. It's subtitled, "Why do people confess to crimes they didn?t commit?" It's written by Robert Kolker. Here's a brief excerpt from this...

Death Penalty Matters - The SMU Human Rights Series

Posted on October 06, 2010
The Dallas Morning News Death Penalty blog posts, "Why don't people in Texas talk about the death penalty?" It's by Rick Halperin, Director of SMU's Human Rights program. The death penalty in America should be a topic of constant discussion...

Navarro County DA Seeks Judge's Recusal in Willingham Court of Inquiry

Posted on October 06, 2010
The petition for a court of inquiry and the district attorney's motion to recuse are available in Adobe .pdf format, via the Texas Tribune. The AP report is, "Judge asked to declare executed Texas man innocent," by Jeff Carlton. Prosecutors...

An Update on the Willingham Court of Inquiry

Posted on October 06, 2010
"Judge delays hearing into Texas man's execution," is Jeff Carlton's latest AP post, via the Houston Chronicle. A judge has postponed a hearing in Austin until next week in the case of a Texas man executed for setting fire to...

Death Penalty in the Political Mix in Debates

Posted on October 06, 2010
The issue is front and center in the California attorney general's race and the Connecticut governor's election. The Fresno Bee reports, "Attorney general candidates Cooley, Harris face off in only debate," written by Jim Sanders. Republican Steve Cooley and Democrat...

Supreme Court Rejects Review of Texas & Georgia Cases

Posted on October 05, 2010
Bill Mears posts, "Georgia death row inmate denied high court review," at CNN. Troubling questions over Georgia's controversial death penalty system will remain unresolved for now, after the Supreme Court declined Monday to review an appeal from a death-row inmate...

A Report on Prosecutorial Misconduct in California

Posted on October 05, 2010
The National Law Journal reports, "Prosecutorial Misconduct Is Rarely Punished, Says New Study." It's written by Leigh Jones. Only a tiny percentage of prosecutors who engaged in misconduct were disciplined by the State Bar of California during a 12-year period,...

Lethal Injection Roundup

Posted on October 05, 2010
"Killer's death could be historic; State would hit new toll in era of lethal injections," is the title of a Columbus Dispatch report by Alan Johnson. If Michael Benge is lethally injected as scheduled on Wednesday, Ohio will have executed...

Support Is Waning for Death Penalty

Posted on October 05, 2010
That's the title of an OpEd in today's Richmond Times-Dispatch written by two noted conservatives, Richard Viguerie and Brent Bozell. LINK We lifelong conservatives and Tea Party supporters recently urged the death sentence for Teresa Lewis in Virginia be commuted...

From California

Posted on October 04, 2010
The San Francisco Chronicle reports, "Murder victim survivors split on death penalty," written by Kevin Fagan. It appeared on the front page of Saturday's paper. Murder is the ultimate crime, and the loved ones left behind to mourn are the...

Supreme Court Term Begins

Posted on October 04, 2010
Adam Liptak previewed the term's cases in, "Supreme Court Term Offers Hot Issues and Future Hints," in the Sunday New York Times. The new Supreme Court term, which begins Monday, includes cases on some of the most contested issues of...

Justice Stevens on the Death Penalty

Posted on October 04, 2010
NPR's Nina Totenberg conducts an extensive interview with retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens. The first part of the interview ran earlier today during Morning Edition. It will conclude this afternoon on All Things Considered. It's titled, "Justice Stevens:...

Todd Willingham, the FSC, and Junk Science

Posted on October 04, 2010
"Willingham hearing imperfect but important," is the title of a Dallas Morning News editorial. It appeared in the Saturday edition. The questions surrounding the Cameron Todd Willingham case have become a constant drumbeat in Texas' death penalty discussion...

From California

Posted on October 01, 2010
"Rushed to Death," is the title of an editorial in today's San Francisco Chronicle. California has been trying, in vain, to carry out its first execution in nearly five years. Its efforts to execute death row inmate Albert Greenwood Brown...

Delay in Willingham Case Is Unconscionable

Posted on October 01, 2010
That's the title of an editorial in today's San Antonio Express-News. LINK The Texas Forensic Science Commission agreed to take up the Willingham case in 2007. It is precisely the kind of case the commission was created to address ?...

The Latest on North Carolina's Crime Lab Scandal

Posted on October 01, 2010
"Strange lab 'secret'," is today's Raleigh News & Observer editorial. The wheels truly must be coming off at Attorney General Roy Cooper's office. Public confidence already was on the rocks after a string of embarrassing disclosures about the State Bureau...

California Supreme Court Jumps into Lethal Injection Fray

Posted on September 30, 2010
The California Supreme Court ruling is here, in Adobe .pdf format. "Calif execution try collapses after court setbacks," is the AP report by Paul Elias, via Google News. California's first execution attempt in nearly five years collapsed Wednesday amid two...

Texas Innocence Group Fights Use of `Junk Science'

Posted on September 30, 2010
That's the title of Jeff Carlton's AP report, via the Houston Chronicle. LINK A woman convicted of killing her uncle by dousing him with gasoline and setting him on fire asked the Texas Forensic Science Commission on Wednesday to determine...

Judy Kerr on California's Costly Death Penalty

Posted on September 30, 2010
"Honor homicide ictims - oppose death penalty," is her latest OpEd. It appeared in Wednesdy's San Francisco Chronicle. Kerr is with California Crime Victims for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. When someone you love is murdered, life as you know...

More Reporting on Drug Shortage

Posted on September 30, 2010
"Shortage of Widely Used Anesthetics Is Delaying Executions in Some States," is the title of Kevin Sack's report in today's New York Times. Several states have postponed executions and others may soon do so because of the scarcity of thiopental...

Justice Quizzed on Death Penalty

Posted on September 30, 2010
That's the title of an article in today's Jackson Clarion Ledger of Mississippi, covering a U.S. Senate hearing. It's written by Katherine Reynolds Lewis. LINK Mississippi Justice James Graves Jr. clarified his position on the death penalty Wednesday during a...

The 50 Best Blogs Discussing Capital Punishment

Posted on September 30, 2010
That's the post at Criminal Justice Degree. LINK Capital punishment is one of the most hotly debated issues facing the United States criminal justice system. While over 70% of the general population reportedly supports the death penalty, there is a...

Editorials Watching California Train Wreck

Posted on September 30, 2010
"Execution hurry-up," is the editorial in today's Chino News & Review. In any event, isn?t it comforting to know that, after 90-some days without a state budget and seeing child-care centers and medical clinics closing as funding dries up, we...

Simon Owens posts, "The Live-Tweeting

Posted on September 29, 2010
Simon Owens posts, "The Live-Tweeting of a Murderer's Execution," at The Next Web. Ben Tribbett was not a witness to Teresa Lewis?s execution last Thursday, but this did not stop him from tweeting a minute-by-minute narrative of the event as...

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