Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> Capital Defense Weekly

Criminal Law

: Capital Defense Weekly

By Karl R. Keys, Esq.

This week’s edition is now out.  As always thanks for reading. Three grants of relief are noted this week: Comm. v. Wayne Smith (Penn), Danny Keith Hooks v. Workman (10th Cir), and, Kenneth Glenn Thomas v. Allen (11th Cir). Of the three Smith leads off.   Smith examines the interplay of counsel during a capital trial  and the responsibility for penalty phase investigation and in-court mitigation efforts. Mr. Smith’s attorney thought he might be able to win a penalty phase verdict short of first degree murder, known elsewhere as capital murder.  Lead trial counsel ?myopically? focused on the possibility of winning a lesser included included verdict,  As a result he  failed to provide meaningful direction to the mitigation team members, and, resultingly, missed low hanging mitigation evidence...continue to full post

Full post as published by Capital Defense Weekly on June 01, 2010 (boomark / email).