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Criminal Law

Texas Death Penalty Blog

Death penalty cases and legislation in Texas and elsewhere.
By "Persian Cowboy"

Post Frequency: 3.3/day

Last Entry: July 21, 2016 at 22:00:00

Texas Issues Apology For Executing Innocent Man

Posted on September 09, 2009
This week's "Moment of Clarity" video by comedian Lee Camp creates an alternate reality where Texas actually apologizes for killing an innocent man.In this interview from his appearance on MSNBC, David Grann, who wrote the article "Trial by Fire" in the New Yorker about the Todd Willingham case, says there is "not a single shred of evidence of arson"...

Screening of State Vs. Reed by Ryan Polomski and Frank Bustoz

Posted on September 08, 2009
Join the Austin Campaign to END the Death Penalty Wednesday, September 9th @ 7pm at UT campus, MAIN 26* for a screening of State Vs. Reed, an award winning documentary about Texas death row prisoner Rodney Reed. A Q&A will follow this event.(*Note the room change)*******************************************************A SCREENING OF THE AWARD WINNING DOCUMENTARY ABOUT THE CASE OF TEXAS DEATH ROW PRISONER RODNEY REED...

After Todd Willingham and Sharon Keller Debacles, Where are the Candidates Challenging Members of the CCA?

Posted on September 07, 2009
Where are the Democratic candidates challenging the incumbents on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals who are running for re-election in 2010? The CCA allowed an innocent person to be executed - Todd Willingham. It is the court that one of its own current members says became a national laughingstock years before Sharon Keller said "we close at 5"...

Rice University Teach-In for Troy Davis

Posted on September 02, 2009
The Death Penalty, Race, Institutional Flaws and What You Can DoIn 1991 Troy Anthony Davis was convicted of the murder of off-duty police officer Mark MacPhail and sentenced to death in Georgia. In the case Davis pleaded innocent and through out his time on death row he has never changed this assertion...

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Innocent but Dead

Posted on September 01, 2009
That's the title of Bob Herbert's column in today's New York Times.There is a long and remarkable article in the current New Yorker about a man who was executed in Texas in 2004 for deliberately setting a fire that killed his three small children. Rigorous scientific analysis has since shown that there was no evidence that the fire in a one-story, wood frame house in Corsicana was the result of arson, as the authorities had alleged...

The Eye and Tooth Project: Confronting Capital Punishment in Texas

Posted on September 01, 2009
By John SullivanCall it the ultimate deterrent; call it retribution, or closure, or simply an ?eye for an eye,? Americans have historically supported capital punishment with strong resolve and a clear national conscience. Recently, however, this mandate has weakened as pressures for reappraisal and change kick against the goad of tradition...

New Yorker Examines Texas' Execution of Todd Willingham - Judge Jackson's Flawd Arguments Against Willingham

Posted on September 01, 2009
In the Sept 7, 2009 edition of the New Yorker David Grann comprehensively examines the Todd Willingham case in which an innocent person was executed by Texas. The proven execution of an innocent person means the end of the death penalty in the United States...

Music Video: "Warn Them" - The Welfare Poets

Posted on August 31, 2009
Title track from the "Warn Them" album, the latest release from The Welfare Poets.THE WELFARE POETS: The Welfare Poets are a collective of activists, educators, and artists together since 1990. Through teaching residencies and workshops, through activism around community struggles and through sharp-edged performances of music that incorporates Hip Hop, Bomba y Plena, Latin Jazz and other rhythms, the Welfare Poets bring information and inspiration to those facing oppression and those fighting for liberation...

San Antonio Express-News: Keller is unsuited for top court job

Posted on August 27, 2009
The San Antonio Express-News, a newspaper that ran long articles covering each day of the trial of Judge Sharon Keller that took place in that city, says in an editorial today titled "Keller is unsuited for top court job" that "one step toward restoring confidence in the system is to hold Keller accountable for the events that took place in 2007 and remove her as presiding judge of the Court of Criminal Appeals...

Senator Edward "Ted" Kennedy on the Death Penalty - R.I.P

Posted on August 26, 2009

DMN Editorial: Judge Keller's disappointing testimony

Posted on August 25, 2009
Dallas Morning News is the second newspaper in Texas after the Austin American-Statesman to publish an editorial following last week's trial of Judge Sharon keller. It was impossible not to gasp last week when Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Presiding Judge Sharon Keller addressed the question of what she would do differently if she had a do-over in the execution of Michael Richard...

Texas Executed an Innocent Person: Cameron Todd Willingham

Posted on August 25, 2009
The Chicago Tribune is breaking the story that the investigator for the Texas Forensic Science Commission is going to report that the fire for which Cameron Todd Willingham was sentenced to death for setting to murder his children was an accidental fire and not arson...

NYT: An Unfit Judge

Posted on August 22, 2009
That's the title of New York Times' Friday editorial calling for the removal of Judge Sharon Keller.Judge Sharon Keller, the Texas appellate court judge who closed the clerk?s office before a death row inmate could file a last-minute appeal, is fighting to keep her job...

Keller drags Texas through the mud

Posted on August 20, 2009
The following is last Monday's Austin American-Statesman editorial on the trial of Judge Sharon Keller. As each side rests its case on Thursday, it is good to read this editorial again and remember that closing the courtroom at 5 PM was only one of the many outrageous decisions Sharon Keller has made during her career as the presiding judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals...

Evidence Presented at Trial Supports Removal of Sharon Keller from CCA

Posted on August 20, 2009
Students Against the Death Penalty which joined Texas Moratorium Network in filing a judicial complaint against Sharon Keller in November 2007, has monitored the trial of Sharon Keller and finds the evidence presented at trial supports the severest sanctions against Keller - her removal from office for violating the Execution-Day Procedures of her court and for casting discredit on the Texas judiciary...

Judge Sharon Keller Trial: Lesson for Activists

Posted on August 19, 2009
The following article was in today's New York Times. It is significant that this reprehensible, pro-prosecution judge, who has done so much more than kill Michael Richard by "closing at 5:00," is now a defendant. It is important for all of us who are activists to recognize the role we play in bringing down capital punishment...

Sharon Keller Trial - Day 1

Posted on August 17, 2009
A group of people who signed a judicial complaint against Judge Sharon Keller held a demonstration at the Bexar County Courthouse before Keller's trial began. The trial took place in the courtroom of David Berchelmann jr, presiding judge of the 37th District Court...

U.S. Supreme Court Orders Hearing for Troy Davis

Posted on August 17, 2009
The Innocence Project is reporting that in a highly unusual step, the U.S. Supreme Court today ordered a new hearing in the case of Troy Davis, who has been on Georgia?s death row for nearly two decades for a murder he says he didn?t commit. Ruling on a habeas corpus petition from Davis, the court ordered a federal judge to ?receive testimony and findings of fact as to whether evidence that could not have been obtained at the time of trial clearly establishes [Davis?] innocence...

Demonstration Before Trial of Judge Sharon Keller - August 17 at 8:00 AM in San Antonio

Posted on August 16, 2009
Representatives of Peoples' Judicial Complaint Signed by About 1,900 Members of the Public to Participate in Demonstration at Trial of Sharon KellerA group of people who signed a judicial complaint against Judge Sharon Keller will hold a demonstration at 8 AM in San Antonio at the Bexar County Courthouse before Keller's trial begins on August 17...

Ohio Governor Denies Clemency

Posted on August 14, 2009
Earlier today, Ohio governor Ted Stickland made the decision to deny clemency to Jason Getsy. The governor's decision directly contradicts that which was made by the Ohio Parole Board on July 19, 2009.Jason Getsy participated in a murder-for-hire scheme that killed Ann Serafino and left Charles Serafino, her son, critically injured...

HOWARD ZINN TO SPEAK AT THE CEDP CONVENTION

Posted on August 14, 2009
We are proud and honored to announce that historian, author and activist Howard Zinn will be the keynote speaker at the Campaign to End the Death Penalty's 9th annual convention! The convention will be held on the weekend of November 7-8 at the University of Chicago, and Howard will be speaking on Saturday night...

Time: A Texas Judge on Trial: Closed to a Death-Row Appeal?

Posted on August 13, 2009
The following is Time Magazine's article on the upcoming trial of Judge Sharon "Killer" Keller in San Antonio. By Hilary Hylton / AustinSoft-spoken and a devout Christian, Judge Sharon Keller presides as chiefjustice of Texas' highest criminal court. She's also known as "Sharon Killer"by her opponents, who are going to see her in court next week on charges ofjudicial misconduct...

Passage of Racial Justice Act ?A Great Spiritual Victory? Say Supporters

Posted on August 06, 2009
With the passage of the North Carolina Racial Justice Act by the NC Senate yesterday by a vote of 25-18 the State of North Carolina stepped up to lead the South away from the worst of its racist past. The bill allows for court reviews over capital defendants? claims that racial bias influenced their cases...

Reginald Blanton's Warrant of Exeuction

Posted on July 30, 2009

Reginald Blanton's Statement About His Execution Date

Posted on July 29, 2009
Death SalivatesOctober 27th 2009Execution Date 2pm. 7-16-09. I just woke up. I had slept for exactly 8 hours. I am a night owl. Yet, I was not rejuvenated. I did not feel balanced. I told myself that something was happening in the Universe. In the distant dark galaxy of my being I felt something approaching...

Free Film Screening: Willie Francis Must Die Again

Posted on July 29, 2009
On August 6, 2009, "Willie Francis Must Die Again" Film Screening will take place at 7 PM. The documentary is about Willie Francis who was a teenager wrongfully accused of killing a pharmacist and survived a botched electrocution only to lose his Louisiana Supreme Court appeal and be executed again...

Planning Meeting For 10th Annual March Against the Death Penalty in Texas!

Posted on July 28, 2009
Wednesday, July 29th at 7pmCarver Library, Room 4, in AustinThe March to Stop Executions has been held each October since 2000 in cooperation with several Texas and national anti-death penalty organizations. It is a coming together of activists, family members of those on death row, community leaders, exonerated prisoners and all those calling for abolition...

Texas Monthly: "The Judgement of Sharon Keller"

Posted on July 24, 2009
Texas Monthly has a long article by Michael Hall in its August edition titled "The Judgement of Sharon Keller" about the presiding judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Keller said "we close at 5" when asked by attorneys for Michael Richard in 2007 to allow them to file a late appeal for Michael Richard on the day of his scheduled execution...

Death penalty is abolished in Kazakhstan

Posted on July 22, 2009
Nursultan Nazarbayev, Kazakhstan?s President, has signed the law abolishing death penalty in all cases except acts of terrorism entailing loss of life and especially grave crimes committed in wartime. The law includes the right to seek pardon.Abolishing the death penalty has been one of the main objectives of President Nazarbayev...

Urge your MOC's to Remove Death Penalty Provision

Posted on July 21, 2009
Dear Abolitionists,Today (7/20/09) the U.S. Senate passed the Matthew Shepherd Hate Crimes Prevention Act, with an amendment making hate crimes punishable by death. Below please find the statement of the President of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, of which NCADP is an active member...

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