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Capital Defense Weekly 
Covering Capital Defense
Post Frequency: 17.8/day Last Entry: March 28, 2011 at 23:29:51 Recent Entries: 1052
By Karl R. Keys, Esq.
Go to Capital Defense Weekly, find other Criminal Law blogs, or browse all law blogs.
a to do list for the new administration.
Posted on November 06, 2008A very thoughtful and provocative to do list for the next administration has been released by the Constitution Project and its collaborators. After the 2008 elections, America?s policymakers will take a fresh look at the criminal justice system, which so desperately needs their attention...
Florida grant of penalty phase relief
Posted on November 06, 2008The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday affirmed the grant of penalty phase relief in Rodney Tyrone Lowe v. State, No. SC05-633, on the basis of trial counsel’s failure to discover and present evidence that another person, and not the Condemned, had confessed to civilian witnesses that he, and not Mr...
CCA remands
Posted on November 05, 2008The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals remanded in Ex parte William Speers, No. WR-59,101-02, on the claim the State withheld evidence of a cooperation agreement was not disclosed. Applicant asserts that prison investigators used another inmate as an informant to testify against him...
more on what to expect in the new administration
Posted on November 05, 2008Talkleft, PFAW, & NACDL all have thoughts on yesterday’s fedeal elelction and crimlaw. Mark Bennett & StandDown looks at the elections in Texas and crimlaw.
Jan 21, 2009: crimlaw issues
Posted on November 04, 2008I’m sure I’m not the only crimlaw type wondering what to expect from the next administration following what is expected today’s Democratic electoral victory. Speaking strictly for me, here is what I think we’ll see. As to the narrow issue of this blog, following the elections the death penalty will likely continue to wither on the [...
Obama and the death penalty
Posted on November 04, 2008A quick primer on Obama in the death penalty that appeared some time ago in the Washington Post. “In a nutshell: He’s pro-death penalty but he is also pro-let’s not execute the wrong guy” Five years later, Obama waded into a complex capital-punishment debate after a number of exonerations persuaded then-Gov...
cert grant
Posted on November 03, 2008A germane cert grant is noted by the SCOTUS Blog: The Supreme Court agreed on Monday to decide whether a state prison inmate may seek access to DNA evidence for use in pursuing a claim of innocence, by filing a civil rights claim after his trial is over...
Texas kills
Posted on October 30, 2008Texas tonight killed Gregory Wright. DNA seemingly indicates that Mr. Wright’s co-defendant, and not he, was responsible for the murder at bar. Proclaiming his innocence, condemned prisoner Gregory Wright was executed Thursday evening for the fatal stabbing and robbery of a Dallas-area woman who tried to help him when he was homeless...
Life in Indiana
Posted on October 28, 2008Somehow we missed a decision for life for Zolo Agona Azania in Indiana in one of that state’s highest profile capital cases. From the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette: After years of wrangling over whether he would be executed for the 1981 murder of a Gary police officer and days before a jury would again consider his [...
Texas kills
Posted on October 28, 2008from media accounts: Asked by the warden if he had a final statement, Eric Nenno replied, ?No, warden.? Eight minutes after the lethal drugs began to flow, he was pronounced dead at 6:20 p.m. CDT. The girl?s father and grandfather were among the witnesses, but Nenno did not acknowledge them...
Withering on the vine?
Posted on October 26, 2008Two divergent sources, same analysis, capital punishment is dying. Campus Progress notes: Last year, New Jersey became the first state to outright abolish its death penalty since 1965. And despite upholding the constitutionality of Kentucky?s lethal injection procedure in April of this year, in June the Supreme Court concluded the execution of child rapists is illegal...
New x-dates
Posted on October 25, 2008A number of new execution dates have been added in recent days including this curious one out of Kentucky, which hasn’t executed anyone in almost a decade. From press accounts: BODY,.aolmailheader {font-size:10pt; color:black; font-family:Arial;} a...
Davis stayed
Posted on October 24, 2008The issue on which on Davis was stayed? the parties are directed to address whether Davis may be executed if he can establish actual innocence under 28 U.S.C. § 2244(b)(2)(B)(ii), but cannot satisfy his burden under § 2244(b)(2)(B)(i). Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant...
I should have known
Posted on October 24, 2008This video is funny, really funny. Thanks to whomever sent it:
New scholarship: a dirty little secret and confessions
Posted on October 22, 2008Ok, the header is slightly misleading. A few weeks ago Brandon Garrett placed online at SSRN an article entitled The Substance of Falsw Confessions. Prof. Garrett asked that it not be circulated or cited without approval. I’ve held off mentioning the article out of deference for his wishes...
Walker v. Georgia
Posted on October 20, 2008The Court on Monday denied cert in Georgia v. Walker. DPIC’s summary is better than any I could have written Justice Stevens wrote:I find this case, which involves a black defendant and a white victim, particularly troubling. . . Rather than perform a thorough proportionality review to mitigate the heightened risks of arbitrariness and discrimination [...
email edition not running
Posted on October 19, 2008The headline says it all. The email edition won’t be running this week in light of a very, very light week in reported cases. - karl
New Hampshire’s first death eligible homicide conviction in almost 50 years
Posted on October 18, 2008John Brooks was found guilty Thursday of capital murder in New Hampshire. This is the first death eligible homicide conviction since 1959 in New Hampshire and the first state capital murder conviction in any state in the First Circuit in decades. The penalty phase begins Wednesday.
Texas kills
Posted on October 16, 2008Texas on Thursday executed Kevin Watts. From media sources: Texas carried out the second execution of the week Thursday evening in Huntsville as a 27-year-old street gangster convicted of gunning down three people during a robbery in 2002 in San Antonio was put to death...
Capital court martials
Posted on October 16, 2008The good folks at CAAFlog note: According to this article from the lower Hudson Valley’s Journal News, the ongoing capital court-martial of Army Staff Sergeant Alberto Martinez is mired in the member selection stage. While the trial on the merits was expected to start at Fort Bragg this week, opening statements have now “been postponed until [...
Geography of Death
Posted on October 13, 2008One might suspect it is an election year. The Atlanta Journal Constitution Sunday examined the recent uptick in Dekalb & Fulton County (for “geographically challenged” like me those appear to be the Atlanta area) in capital prosecutions...
SD stay
Posted on October 13, 2008via email & the AP: One of South Dakota?s death row inmates was originally scheduled for execution next week, but it?s on hold because of his appeal to the state Supreme Court. Briley Piper of Anchorage, Alaska, hopes to get his death sentence overturned...
If we had time
Posted on October 12, 2008Stories we haven’t had time to cover, or at least cover yet: The first execution this year outside theDeath Belt is scheduled for this week in Ohio, that of Richard Cooey. (DPIC notes executions this year include: 9 in Texas, 4 in Virginia, and 3 in Georgia with at least 12 cases have been granted stays [...
Giving respect where respect is due: voted Houston’s best criminal defense attorney
Posted on October 12, 2008via Mark Bennett: When the free weekly Houston Press tabloid newsletter published its annual ?Best Of? issue this month, and named the best criminal defense attorney in Houston, it wasn?t one of my high-dollar brethren or sistren. It was Danalyn Recer of the Gulf Regional Advocacy Center (GRACe)...
Texas to kill12 in six weeks
Posted on October 12, 2008The Texas execution machine is about to go in to overdrive with 12 people scheduled to be killed in the next six weeks. From the Associated Press: The crowd on A-Wing A-Section at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Polunsky Unit is about to get thinned...
email edition up
Posted on October 12, 2008This week’s email edition is now available: Leading off this edition is the Sixth Circuit’s grant of penalty phase relief in Maurice Mason v. Mitchel. The grant of relief here is unexceptional. Counsel’s investigation consisted of “no more than reviewing documents provided by the state, arranging for a psychiatric evaluation limited to predicting Mason?s future dangerousness, [...
the costs of federal captial trials
Posted on October 11, 2008The Office of Defender Services of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts has released an updated report on the cost, quality and availability of defense representation in federal death penalty cases. Unsuprisingly death costs much, much, more...
certs denied NC
Posted on October 07, 2008Our good friend at Death Watch NC notes: The U.S. Supreme Court today denied cert for North Carolina death row inmates Eric Call and Jimmie Lawrence. This was the final appeal for both Call and Lawrence. NC?s own Jack Payden-Travers has this op-ed in a California newspaper about the tremendous financial cost of the death penalty.
Finality over fairness
Posted on October 05, 2008Over at the ACS Blog former FBI Director and federal judge William Sessions, a member of the Constitution Project’s Death Penalty Initiative notes: The release of 130 individuals from death row has made clear that the administration of the death penalty is not infallible...
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Self Defense
It's legal to defend yourself and your family
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My fiance's check is DD into a local credit union. Bank seems to have a pattern of "invisibly holding" charges from the debit card until just HOURS before his DD is processed (and this is after hours, of course). Over th
Have your fiance take the information you've collected and go into the bank...
what are the proper and legal steps to dissolve a partnership in an ongoing farm business?
I would say that the final tax forms are dispersed for that year with the indica...
It is my understanding that the 6th Amendment requires, that if you can't afford a lawyer in a criminal case, the Court must provide a lawyer in your defense at no charge to you. However, in a civil case no such protecti
That is not entirely true, even in the case of criminal cases. The court will pr...
Attorney welt, weinberg & reis co....from pittsburgh are collecting a credit card debt from capital one can they force me to send them a list of my assets for sheriffs sale
No! Only a Judge can make you do that and that is only after you have your day i...
I was called to give a deposition for the defense and the defendant is the person who stole our car, there is a chance that I will be called to satisfy at his trial. How can I get out of this, as my husband is to testify
If you were subpoenaed for the deposition you will need to appear or face prosec...
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