Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> StandDown Texas Project

Criminal Law

: StandDown Texas Project

Deeper Look Shows Even More Cases of Unequal Justice

By Steve Hall

That's the title of John Seigenthaler's followup article in the Sunday edition of the Tennessean.  LINKA news story published here Dec. 20 under my byline reported critically on the striking differences in sentences that state judges and juries gave three Tennessee women convicted of killing their abusive husbands.Further research makes it clear that the article failed to deal in adequate depth with the question of whether penalties handed down in such cases by Tennessee courts reflect what Judge Richard S. Arnold of the U.S. Court of Appeals called "the reality and perception of equal justice."A review of the disparate levels of punishment the courts dispensed in these and six similar cases over the last quarter-century makes the point:? Two of the nine cases resulted in the killers being granted full probation ? one after a new trial and the other after 67 days in a mental health facility...continue to full post

Full post as published by StandDown Texas Project on January 11, 2010 (boomark / email).