Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> Texas Death Penalty Blog

Criminal Law

: Texas Death Penalty Blog

Louisiana Court of Appeals Trashed 2,500 Habeas Patitions

By "Persian Cowboy"

A 2007 suicide note by a clerk of the Louisiana Court of Appeals who killed himself at the courthouse revealed that 2500 prisoner petitions had been summarily rejected over a period of 13 years without having been read. According to a reporter, "Although every criminal writ application is supposed to be reviewed by three judges, he was deputed to winnow out any that had been filed pro se and arrange for their automatic rejection." The Louisiana Supreme Court ordered that the petitions be considered by judges not involved in the improper rejection. (Opinion here) However, some, including Supreme Court Justice Weimer, objected to allowing judges from the same circuit decide the petitions, because all of the judges knew about the improper practices for at least several onths before taking any steps to remedy it...continue to full post

Full post as published by Texas Death Penalty Blog on October 28, 2008 (boomark / email).