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Capital Defense Weekly

Death Penalty News & Updates

Post Frequency: 3.2/day

Last Entry: March 06, 2011 at 23:00:32

Florida: grant of penalty phase relief

Posted on November 13, 2008
The Florida Supreme Court today affirmed the grant of penalty phase relief in State v. Faunce Levon Pearce. The reason for the grant of relief are, not unusual or surprising, counsel failed to adequately prepare for the penalty phase: We find there is competent, substantial evidence to support the trial court?s finding that counsel did not [...

notable from elsewhere

Posted on November 13, 2008
Two great posts from elsewhere: via TChris at Talkleft Six people convicted in 1985 of a Nebraska murder have been exonerated by DNA testing that implicates the man police originally viewed as a suspect. The day after the murder, Bruce Smith had scratches on his face...

Texas kills

Posted on November 13, 2008
Tonight Texas killed Denard Mann. From local media: After saying he was ?ready for the transition,? Twice-convicted robber Denard Manns, 42, was executed Thursday evening in Huntsville for the robbery, rape and murder of a Fort Hood medic who was killed in her apartment near post...

catch-up

Posted on November 11, 2008
Just to catchup on some news stories & what not that deserve their own post but…. In the other New Hampshire capital trial, the jury has begun deliberating the guilt of Michael Addison for killing police officer Michael L. Briggs. A bill to repeal the New Hampshire death penalty will likely be filed in the new [...

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ot: election night photos

Posted on November 07, 2008
David Katz has amazing behind the scene photos of Mr. Obama and his family on election night on Flickr, here.

new scholarship

Posted on November 06, 2008
via DPIC: Professor Bruce Winick of the Miami School of Law has written an article arguing that the Supreme Court should extend the protection it presently offers to those with mental retardation and juveniles to offenders with severe mental illness, as well...

CCA orders briefing in Ex parte Bobby Wayne Woods

Posted on November 05, 2008
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals today ordered briefing in Ex parte Bobby Wayne Woods, No. AP-76,034 on the following issues: (1) Does the fact that Applicant raised this claim in a previous writ application bar him from re-litigating this claim pursuant to Ex parte Blue, 230 S...

13 year old rape victim stoned to death in Somalia for adultery

Posted on November 02, 2008
via the Guardian An Islamist rebel administration in Somalia had a 13-year-old girl stoned to death for adultery after the child’s father reported that three men had raped her. Amnesty International said the al-Shabab militia, which controls the southern port city of Kismayo, arranged for a group of 50 men to stone Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow in front [...

Obama and crime

Posted on October 31, 2008
from the NYT: Mr. Obama has emphasized civil liberties, sensitivity to racial inequality and tough penalties for the most violent felons. He was a state lawmaker when the Illinois police and prosecutors were under siege. In 2003, doubt was cast on the convictions of several Illinois death-row inmates leading to a death-penalty moratorium that is still [...

Delaware LI challenge loses

Posted on October 30, 2008
The title says it all. The lethal injection challenge in Delaware appears to have been rejected. Press accounts here.

An oopsie conference

Posted on October 29, 2008
Bob Ray Sanders, a columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, writes today that Twenty-four ex-Death Row prisoners from across the country will meet Friday at the state Capitol in Austin to call for a moratorium on executions in Texas and for the creation of a statewide commission on wrongful convictions, said Kurt Rosenberg, executive director [...

Scandal in Louisiana

Posted on October 28, 2008
via the Agitator: There?s a major scandal brewing in Louisiana?s criminal justice system. Since 1994, Chief Judge Edward Dufresne has been handling the appeals of indigent Louisiana convicts who had to file their own briefs. Last year, the aid Dufresne had assigned to handle those appeals committed suicide...

email edition ready

Posted on October 26, 2008
This week’s email edition is now available here: Leading off this edition is the Sixth Circuit’s grant of penalty phase relief in Rayshawn Johnson v. Bagley where counsel started thinking about a mitigation strategy when ?the verdict was back and [the jury] found [Johnson] guilty? and otherwise performed poorly in the penalty phase of the trial...

Down ballot races: judicial elections

Posted on October 25, 2008
With the top of the ticket all but decided (Senator McCain is purportedly trailing in early voting even in his home state), media attention is starting to turn to down ballot races. I’ve been looking in vain for a good analysis of judicial elections for the upcoming elections other than fairly awesome collection of links [...

Grant of penalty phase habeas relief in case from Arizona

Posted on October 23, 2008
In a fairly straightforward application of Smith v. Texas, 543 US 37, 45 (2004), a Ninth Circuit panel grants penalty phase habeas relief in James Styers v. Schriro. Specifically, the Arizona state courts erred in concluding that PTSD was not mitigating factor as they incorrectly concluded there had to be a causal connection [...

Rejon Taylor?s death sentence and race

Posted on October 23, 2008
In Chatanooga, local media are asking, did race play a factor in sending Rejon Taylor to death? Statistically and overwhelmingly when the victim is white and the defendant is an African American they certainly ask and seek the death penalty,” Bill Ortwein, Taylor’s attorney, says...

Background on todays stay in Texas

Posted on October 23, 2008
Our friends at TMN note in this must read post: Bobby Woods received a stay of execution today from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. The reason for the stay was not given, but the Austin American-Statesman reported that it likely had to do with Woods’ previous lawyer not adequately representing him by failing to fully [...

Stay in Texas

Posted on October 23, 2008
The Austin American-Statesman’s legal blog has the details of the Wood stay. The order is here. The brief by Profs. Maurie Levin & Rob Owen is here. —– The Texas CCA stayed tonight’s execution of Bobby Wayne Woods. Details at this time are unavailable, save that counsel, Maurie Levin, earlier in the week filed for stay [...

scholarship on Panetti

Posted on October 22, 2008
I’ve been waiting to hear (or perhaps more accurately see) Doug Berman’s reaction @ the Sentencing Blog to Executing Retributivism by Dan Markel and its analysis of Panetti v Quarterman. Specifically, Prof. Markel presents a strong argument for not reading Panetti in an unduly narrow manner...

A disappointing verdict

Posted on October 22, 2008
One of the cases we’ve been following here, that of Rejon Taylor, has resulted in a new federal death sentence. A Federal Court jury on Tuesday afternoon ruled the death penalty for 24-year-old Rejon Taylor in the 2003 shooting of Atlanta restaurant operator Guy Luck...

Getting it right vs. finality: Tommy Arthur

Posted on October 21, 2008
Tommy Arthur’s claims of innocence will get a hearing this winter in Alabama: A Jefferson County judge will hear claims by death row inmate Tommy Douglas Arthur that a confession by another inmate and crime scene DNA evidence will prove his innocence in a 1982 Colbert County murder case...

Texas kills

Posted on October 21, 2008
Texas tonight killed Joseph Ries: Joseph Ries expressed love to friends who watched through a death chamber window and urged them to stay strong because “Jesus is coming back soon.” Looking toward another window, he told two daughters of his victim he was “really sorry for what I’ve done...

x-date set for Troy Davis

Posted on October 15, 2008
The state of Georgia has set an execution date of October 27, 2008 for Troy Davis. Unlike most states, a warrant in Georgia is good for a week so he could be executed any time between the 27th and the November 3rd.

Davis denied

Posted on October 14, 2008
via the SCOTUSBlog Refusing to decide whether the death penalty is barred for an individual with a strong claim of innocence, the Supreme Court on Tuesday turned aside the appeal of Georgia death-row inmate Troy Anthony Davis. The order clears the way for the state to set a new execution date; a Supreme Court stay of [...

Texas kills

Posted on October 14, 2008
Tonight Texas killed Alvin Kelly for his involvement in the death of Devin Morgan, the 22-month-old son of Jerry and Brenda Morgan. Alvin Kelly thanked God, expressed love to friends and relatives and denied committing the murder that led to his execution...

The first execution outside the south this year: Ohio Kills

Posted on October 14, 2008
Ohio today killed Richard Cooey for his role in the murders of Wendy Offredo and Dawn McCreery. AP notes “The government has no conscience, only policy. Today, the policy was state-sanctioned murder of Richard Cooey,” said one of the lawyers, Eric Allen...

Catching up on articles

Posted on October 13, 2008
I’m hoping to spend the week catching up on articles I might have missed, both from SSRN & traditional law reviews. The column on the left now links to both sets of crim law articles on SSRN.

Sixth Circuit penalty phase relief grant

Posted on October 10, 2008
The Sixth Circuit Friday granted penalty phase relief in Rayshawn Johnson v. Bagley, Nos. 06-3846/3847. The story line is familiar:”Johnson?s attorneys admitted in their post-conviction testimony that they began thinking about a mitigation strategy only when ?the verdict was back and [the jury] found [Johnson] guilty...

Florida Supreme Court developments

Posted on October 09, 2008
Three matters of note out of Florida: Dana Williamson v. State, No. SC07-564 & Dana Williamson v. McNeil, No. SC07-1787 (FL 10/8/2008) Remand ordered on “issues alleging that defendant?s counsel was ineffective in failing to request a Frye hearing before the opinion testimony of the State?s expert, Dr...

a not so great September in Arizona

Posted on October 06, 2008
Seven capital habeas petitioners lost in Arizona in September. The good folks at CapDefNet’s Week At a Glance has the details. [h/t Wendy]

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