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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

Wilbert Rideau to Speak in Houston Tuesday at Brazos Bookstore

Posted on May 10, 2010
Tomorrow evening Brazos Bookstore in Houston host an author event for Wilbert Rideau and his memoir, In the Place of Justice: A Story of Punishment and Deliverance. Details of the event are here. As noted previously, a number of author...

In Mississippi

Posted on May 07, 2010
The Jackson Clarion-Ledger reports, "16 death row inmates sue Miss.," written by Jerry Mitchell. Sixteen death row inmates in Mississippi filed suit Thursday, saying their executions should be halted because their state-appointed attorneys were untrained, inexperienced and overwhelmed...

Judge Should Know Better

Posted on May 07, 2010
That's the title of an editorial in today's Amarillo Globe-News. LINK For better or worse, citizens expect their judges to be completely above reproach. Perhaps the public expects too much of them, yet those are the expectations. A Texas criminal...

New Complaint Lodged Against Sharon Keller

Posted on May 07, 2010
"Keller draws a new complaint," is the title of R.G. Ratcliffe's post at the Houston Chronicle's Texas Politics blog." The Texas Civil Rights Project today filed a complaint against her with the Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct, asking that she...

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Tonight - ABC 20/20 Examines Texas, Indiana Arson Investigations

Posted on May 07, 2010
ABC News has issued a press release on tonight's segment on 20/20, "Burned: 20/20 Investigates Three Alleged Arson Cases with the Help of the Nation's Leading Fire Experts and the Latest Techniques." It airs tonight at 10:00 pm, EDT (9:00...

An Update on the American Board of Anesthesiologists Action

Posted on May 07, 2010
Earlier this week I noted the American Board of Anesthesiologists' decision to sanction members who participate in lethal injection executions. Today, Dr. David B. Waisel, an associate professor of anesthesia at Harvard Medical School, has a letter to the editor...

Justice Stevens on Capital Punishment

Posted on May 06, 2010
"Stevens: Risk of wrongful sentences higher," is the title of Joan Biskupic's report in USA Today. Modern pressures on the judicial system have raised the chance a defendant could be wrongly sentenced to death, Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens...

Texas Tribune Interviews David Oshinsky

Posted on May 05, 2010
Brandi Grissom of the Texas Tribune conducts the interview with the Pulitzer Prize-winning UT scholar. Oshinsky's latest book is Capital Punishment on Trial: Furman v. Georgia and the Death Penalty in Modern America. It's titled, "David Oshinsky: The TT Interview...

Editorials Praise Keller Ethics Fine

Posted on May 05, 2010
Two Texas newspaper editorial boards examine Judge Sharon Keller's $100,000 fine ordered by the Texas Ethics Commission. Today's Dallas Morning News carries, "Keller's ethics fine is hefty but fair." When the Texas Ethics Commissionimposed a six-figure punishment on Sharon Keller,...

In Utah: Victim's Family Opposed to Capital Punishment as Execution Nears

Posted on May 05, 2010
The Salt Lake Tribune reports, "Gardner fights to stave off execution," written by Nate Carlisle. Somebody wants to save Ronnie Lee Gardner from the firing squad: the loved ones of the man Gardner is on death row for murdering.Gardner asked...

Death Row is Reborn, But Is It Humane?

Posted on May 05, 2010
That's the title of a report from San Francisco's KTVU. LINK California's new death chamber was completed one year ago at cost of $400 million, and it has never been used. Although 702 inmates sit on death row, executions are...

ABC 20/20 to Examine Willingham Case Friday

Posted on May 04, 2010
ABC News has posted, "Evidence Under Attack in Two Texas Arson Convictions," by Jay Schadler and Thomas Berman. Arson charges can be difficult to rebut. But getting a conviction overturned can seem almost impossible -- even when the stakes are...

Defense Lawyers Rip Texas Forensics Panel

Posted on May 04, 2010
That's the title of Allan Turner's report in today's Houston Chronicle. LINK Texas defense lawyers took aim at the state's Forensic Science Commission Monday, charging that the group ? now probing the possibly botched arson investigations that sent an East...

Liebman on Justice Stevens

Posted on May 04, 2010
Columbia Law prof James Liebman contributes an essay to SCOTUS Blog's appreciation of Justice John Paul Stevens. It's titled, "Justice Stevens as Legal Innovator: The Capital Cases." Liebman clerked for Justice Stevens in the Court's 1978-79 term. He's the co-author...

Supreme Court Rejects Review of Linda Carty Case

Posted on May 04, 2010
"Supreme Court rejects plea from British woman on death row," is the title of Renee Lee's report in the Houston Chronicle. The Supreme Court has refused to review the case of a British woman sentenced to death for killing a...

Revisions to California Execution Protocol

Posted on May 03, 2010
"California revises execution guidelines," is the title of Carol Williams' report in the Los Angeles Times. California moved a step closer to resuming executions Thursday when corrections officials announced new lethal injection procedures, beating a May 1 deadline by one...

American Board of Anesthesiologists To Censure Participants in Lethal Injections

Posted on May 03, 2010
"Group to censure physicians who play role in lethal injections," is the title of a Washington Post report by Rob Stein. A national physicians organization has quietly decided to revoke the certification of any member who participates in executing a....

News Coverage of Ethics Commission Order & Fine

Posted on May 03, 2010
Today's Texas Lawyer reports, "Ethics Commission Levies Record Fine Against Texas Judge," by Mary Alice Robbins. Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Presiding Judge Sharon Keller faces a hit to the pocketbook. In an order signed Wednesday, the Texas Ethics Commission...

Texas Ethics Commission Orders Record Fine Against Sharon Keller

Posted on May 03, 2010
The Texas Ethics Commission Final Order is in Adobe.pdf format. Texans for Public Justice, which filed the initial ethics complaint against Keller, issued a news release, "Texas Regulators Slap Top Criminal Judge With Biggest Ethics Fine in State History...

Friday

Posted on April 30, 2010
I'll be traveling much of the day. Posts will resume later today.

Oklahoma Pushes Legal Limits on Taxpayers' Dime

Posted on April 29, 2010
That's the title of an AP report by Sean Murphy via Google News. LINK The Oklahoma Legislature is considering a non-homicidal death penalty expansion bill that has been passed by both the House and Senate, but in slightly different forms....

More From New Hampshire

Posted on April 29, 2010
Today's Union Leader reports, "Supreme Court asked to review death penalty fairness," by Dale Vincent. The New Hampshire Supreme Court was asked yesterday to decide what type of cases should be used to judge the fairness of the death penalty...

CCA Reverses Two Death Sentences Over Flawed Jury Instructions

Posted on April 29, 2010
"2 condemned Texas killers win new punishment trial," is the title of the AP report by Michael Graczyk, via the Houston Chronicle. Two convicted killers who have been on death row for 20 years in Texas had their sentences thrown...

New Hampshire Supreme Court to Examine Capital Punishment

Posted on April 28, 2010
Today's Sea Coast Online carries the AP report, "N.H. high court to weigh fairness of death penalty," by Lynne Tuohy. With a convict on death row for the first time in nearly 40 years, the New Hampshire Supreme Court must...

Federal District Court Hearing Set for Troy Davis

Posted on April 28, 2010
The Savannah Morning News reports, "Troy Davis hearing set for June 30." It's written by Jan Skutch. A June 30 hearing was scheduled Tuesday for convicted murderer Troy Anthony Davis to present his innocence claims in the 1989 slaying of...

Proportionality Review Retained in Georgia

Posted on April 28, 2010
"Death-penalty review still part of Georgia law," is the title of Bill Rankin's report in today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution. In a surprise turnaround, the state Senate on Tuesday voted to retain the so-called proportionality review for death-penalty cases after a key...

Harris County Moves Forward on Indigent Defense Reforms

Posted on April 28, 2010
"Harris County OKs hybrid public defender office," by Chris Moran is in today's Houston Chronicle. The Harris County Commissioners Court voted Tuesday to start a public defender office on an experimental basis, as long as the state covers the $4.4...

What's More Compromising Than Money?

Posted on April 28, 2010
That's the title of an editorial in this morning's New York Times on the Charles Dean Hood case. LINK The Supreme Court abdicated its responsibility to address fundamental questions of ethics and fairness when it declined to review the case...

Texas Execution

Posted on April 28, 2010
Texas carried out its seventh execution of 2010, last night in Huntsville. It was the 454th Texas execution since 1982. Texas has far and away the most active death chamber in America, accounting for more than 37% of the nation's...

Bianca Jagger on the Linda Carty Case

Posted on April 27, 2010
She posts, "A Case for the Supreme Court," at Huffington Post, today. Linda Carty, a British citizen, faces the death penalty by lethal injection later this year, unless the Supreme Court agrees to hear her case. As with so many...

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