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Criminal Law

Capital Defense Weekly Capital Defense Weekly

Covering Capital Defense
By Karl R. Keys, Esq.

Post Frequency: 17.8/day

Last Entry: March 28, 2011 at 23:29:51

Recent Entries: 1052

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weekly’s finally out

Posted on November 25, 2009
Weekly edition is out here: Two favorable cases are noted since the last edition.  In Ex parte Brian Edward Davis the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granted penalty phase relief as “[t]he nullification instruction given to applicant?s jury was not a sufficient vehicle to allow jurors to give meaningful consideration and full effect to the mitigating [...


Kenneth Biros and the one drug protocol

Posted on November 24, 2009
Those inside Ohio are arguing that the one drug protocol is unnecessary human experimentation.  Those outside Ohio are seemingly welcome the new protocol.  If the new protocol fails seemingly so does Ohio’s current execution method resulting in indefinite moratorium...


David meet Goliath. WestLaw & Lexis meet your doom

Posted on November 24, 2009
Google Scholar has added law reviews & case law.  Dan Friedlander has more.


Cert grants from the long conference

Posted on September 30, 2009
The so-called “long conference” cert list is down.  No capital cases are noted, although a fair number of criminal cases were granted.  A case not granted today is likely to be, but not guaranteed to be, denied Monday, October 5, 2009. SCOTUSBlog has the details.


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Pigs fly: Texas CCA grants relief

Posted on September 30, 2009
The CCA in Ex Parte Carl Buntion, NO. AP-76,236,  granted relief in light of Penry II issues.  Specifically: The nullification instruction given to applicant?s jury was not a sufficient vehicle to allow jurors to give meaningful effect to the mitigating evidence presented by applicant...


Shuffling the chairs on the Titanic & the Texas Forensic Science Commission

Posted on September 30, 2009
From the wires: In a surprise move, Gov. Rick Perry today appointed two new members to a state commission investigating case of a Corsicana man who some believe was wrongly executed for murdering his children ? forcing the cancellation of a meeting on the case scheduled for Friday...


SCOTUSBlog issues final “Petitions to Watch”

Posted on September 29, 2009
The SCOTUSBlog has issued their final “Petitions to Watch.”  This list is heavy on criminal cases, especially capital and homicide cases.


weekly email edition is available

Posted on September 28, 2009
The weekly email edition is available.  From the intro Leading off this week is the Illinois Supremes Court’s holding in People v. Laurence Lovejoy. Pretrial the prosecution furnished in discovery an expert?s report indicating that the substance in which a  footprint, identified as Lovejoy’s print, was discovered was not blood, at trial, however, the expert testified [...


A LI challenge to watch in Ohio

Posted on September 28, 2009
via NYT: Lawyers for that inmate, Lawrence Raymond Reynolds Jr., who is scheduled to die on Oct. 8, said training and procedures for the execution team were inadequate to prevent cruel and unusual punishment. They cited the problems associated with the unsuccessful execution of Romell Broom, who was convicted of the 1984 abduction, rape and murder [...


Another failed costly government program

Posted on September 28, 2009
This morning, the New York Times came out with an editorial urging states to consider abolishing the death penalty on the ground that it costs too much and depletes already sapped state budgets. It is far from a national trend, but some legislators have begun to have second thoughts about the high cost of death row...


Pennsylvania legislative development

Posted on September 28, 2009
Pennsylvania is the only state in the northeast where both chambers of the state legislature have not for repeal of the death penalty. Pennsylvania took a step in the direction Monday with the introduction of Senate Bill 1110. The bill calls for a two-year suspension of executions while a thorough study of the  capital punishment system [...


Texas stay

Posted on September 24, 2009
The Supreme Court has stayed the execution of Kenneth Mosley: The U.S. Supreme Court Wednesday night stopped the scheduled execution of Texas death row inmate Kenneth Mosley a day before he was to receive lethal injection for the fatal shooting of a suburban Dallas police officer...


New scholarship on race and the death penalty

Posted on September 24, 2009
Professor Scott Phillips, University of Denver has just published”Racial Disparities in Capital Punishment: Blind Justice Requires a Blindfold,” jin the latest edition of Advance: The Journal of the ACS Issue Groups. From ACS: In Harris County, Texas, the death penalty is more likely to be imposed against black defendants  than white defendants, and death is more [...


Texas kills

Posted on September 22, 2009
via the Morning News: A convicted hit man was executed Tuesday evening for a triple slaying in Houston nearly 14 years ago. Christopher Coleman, 37, was condemned for his part in a scheme by a Colombian man who hoped to eliminate a drug debt by staging a robbery...


Broom postponed indefinitely

Posted on September 22, 2009
The New York Times indicates that Romell Broom’s potential (re)execution date has been pushed back indefinitely.  As Doug Berman points out here, the real question is now whether any execution will be permitted to go forward in the Sixth Circuit.


For those who can’t wait,

Posted on September 21, 2009
For those who can’t wait, the cases from the next edition are here. The email edition should be sent out Monday night.


this week’s edition is up

Posted on September 21, 2009
This week’s edition is available here. Leading off this week are two decisions, the Florida Supreme Court’s Timothy Lee Hurst v. State and the Ninth Circuit’s Michael Allen Hamilton v. Ayers.  In both cases the outcome is the same, a new sentencing hearing ordered...


updates

Posted on September 21, 2009
Note: I’ve updated the execution dates to the right. Additionally, I’ve added below the execution dates the RSS feed from my delicious bookmarks for news stories that may or may not make it here pertaining to indigent defense, the death penalty, as well as other criminal defense & civil liberties issues (for some [...


Ohio stay – Broom

Posted on September 18, 2009
NYT reports that An Ohio prisoner whose execution was halted after two hours on Tuesday because technicians were unable to find a usable vein that could be injected with lethal drugs won a stay Friday against another attempt to put him to death next week...


More on Cameron Todd Willingham’s death

Posted on September 18, 2009
Nightline Thursday night covered in depth the Cameron Todd Willingham execution.  The video is below:


Texas kills

Posted on September 17, 2009
via AP: Stephen Moody, 52, strapped to the Texas death chamber gurney at Walls Unit in Huntsville, about 70 miles north of Houston, addressed his victim’s mother and son as they watched through a window. “I was unable to respond to you in the courtroom,” he said...


Florida penalty phase grant of relief

Posted on September 17, 2009
The Florida Supreme Court Thursday in Timothy Lee Hurst v. State, No. SC07-179, unanimously granted a new sentencing hearing.  The Court granted Mr.  Hurst relief as trial counsel failed to present evidence that inclued his low IQ, borderline intellectual functioning and possible brain damage due to fetal alcohol syndrome.


Relief denied in DA/Judge affair

Posted on September 16, 2009
Wire accounts note: The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals issued a ruling today that convicted murderer Charles Dean Hood should have raised concerns about the affair between the now retired court officials in earlier appeals. The ruling overturned a lower court’s recommendation that Hood be able to argue for a new trial...


this week’s edition

Posted on September 15, 2009
This week’s edition is available. From the intro. Numerous defense favorable cases are noted in this edition covering cases since late August.  Leading off, the Sixth Circuit in Gregory Thompson v. Bell remands in this Rule 60(b) appeal.  The Bell panel remands on two separate and distinct sets of claims...


Ohio botch

Posted on September 15, 2009
Ohio badly botched this morning’s execution.  Possible double jeopardy challenge on the way.  From DPIC: Romell Broom (pictured) was to be executed at 10 AM on Tuesday, September 15, in Ohio.  The execution was delayed as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit considered granting him a hearing...


On holiday

Posted on September 06, 2009
We’ll be back midweek from an extended Labor Day holiday. The weekly email edition will run next week.


Images of mitigation

Posted on September 03, 2009
The Herald Tribune has some amazing photos of the mitigation presentation during the Michael King trial. h/t Brooke Butler.


Catching up on reading

Posted on September 02, 2009
Ok, I confess, I read law review articles on an eliptical.  When you don’t see law review articles posted here you can assume I’m not hitting the eliptical machine as much as I should.  That doesn’t mean, however, that there hasn’t been new germane law review articles...


This week’s edition

Posted on September 01, 2009
From the introduction to this week’s email edition: The Tenth Circuit’s opinion in Michael Lee Wilson v. Workman, en banc, leads off this week.  The Wilson Court examines whether or not an “adjudication on the merits” was had in State court for purposes of the AEDPA...


A post worth repeating

Posted on September 01, 2009
A Criminal Enterprise offers this post on the federal death penalty in NOLA & surrounding counties: When cases are prosecuted in federal court ? here, the Eastern District of Louisiana (which encompasses Orleans Parish) ? the jury is culled from the district as a whole, not just the county or parish where the crime occurred...


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