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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

Texas kills

Posted on February 10, 2009
from media accounts: Dale Devon Scheanette [asked if he had any final statement] paused and said, “My only statement is that no cases ever tried have been error-free. Those are my words. No cases are error-free.” Nine minutes after the lethal drugs began to flow, he was pronounced dead at 6:21 p...

Email edition out

Posted on February 08, 2009
From the latest email edition: My apologies as I am currently on trial / in trial (depending on your region of the country), for what will be my fifth week of the new year. More precisely, I’m three weeks in to a murder trial on the most recent trial, and my attention is understandably drawn there [...

Larry Swearingen seeks advanced DNA testing with just days schedule to live

Posted on January 22, 2009
via the Innocence Project: Larry Swearingen has been on Texas? death row for eight years for a murder he has always said he didn?t commit. He is scheduled to be executed January 27 in Texas despite his requests for advanced DNA testing that could prove his innocence or guilt ? and possibly identify the real perpetrator [...

Holder on opt-in

Posted on January 16, 2009
A dialogue of note from Senator Kyl & Attorney General-designee Holder Mr. Kyl: And I’ll do my best to help to make sure Congress supports the resource requirements. Next, capital habeas. As you know, in 2005, Congress passed an amendment that will implement the opt-in system for a faster review of state capital cases in federal courts...

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germane cert grant

Posted on January 16, 2009
cert grant on Atkins: Whether a state is constitutionally barred from challenging the claim of mental retardation of an individual it seeks to execute for crime, if a state court had once found the person to be retarded even while upholding a death sentence...

Maryland?s death penalty: an endangered species

Posted on January 16, 2009
via WaPo & every blogger who isn’t in trial hell: Gov. Martin O’Malley said yesterday that he will do “everything in my power” to abolish the death penalty in Maryland this year and for the first time raised the possibility of allowing voters to decide the divisive issue through a constitutional amendment if legislative repeal efforts [...

New SCOTUS crim law opinions

Posted on January 14, 2009
Harmful Error notes: This morning the United States Supreme Court issued opinions in two criminal cases. In Oregon v. Ice, the Court issues a 5-4 decision in which it holds that there is no constitutional violation based upon a judge’s imposition of consecutive sentences based upon facts that were not found by the jury...

Texas kills / first execution of new year

Posted on January 14, 2009
Texas tonight killed Curtis Moore. IHT notes: In a brief, final statement, Curtis Moore, 40, thanked a woman who administers to the spiritual needs of death row inmates. “I want to thank you for all the beautiful years of friendship and ministry,” Moore told Irene Wilcox as she watched through a window a few feet (meters) from him...

Handicapping New Hampshire?s first capital appeal

Posted on December 21, 2008
via press accounts: The defense team’s objections included a litany of constitutional challenges to New Hampshire’s capital murder statute. Since the last death sentence was handed down here in 1959, state law and U.S. Supreme Court law around the death penalty have changed...

weekly email edition

Posted on December 21, 2008
This week’s email edition is available here. As always, the email edition is a little pinch of things that have appeared here recently, a litte touch of legal research, and a whole lot of theft borrowing from people smarter than me friends’ good work: This edition holds three new favorable decisions, two from Texas and one [...

New CLE for January

Posted on December 18, 2008
“In coordination with the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty’s annual conference in Harrisburg, PA, January 22-25, 2009, there will be capital defense CLEs on Friday, January 23rd and on Saturday, January, 24th, 2009. Registration can be for one day or for both days...

New Hampshire: first death sentence since Dick Nixon was Ike?s vice president

Posted on December 18, 2008
via the AP: A jury issued New Hampshire’s first death sentence in a half century Thursday to a man who fatally shot a Manchester police officer to avoid arrest two years ago.. . . Addison, 28, had no reaction as the Hillsborough County Superior Court jury announced its verdict after about 13 hours of deliberation over four [...

Maryland Commission on Capital Punishment: end, don?t mend, Maryland?s broken death penalty

Posted on December 13, 2008
By a vote of 13-9 the Maryland Commission on Capital Punishment recommended Friday to abolish the death penalty in Maryland. The Maryland Commission on Capital Punishment has reviewed testimony from experts and members of the public, relevant Maryland laws and court cases, as well as statistics and studies relevant to the topic of capital punishment in [...

Nichols jury deadlocked?

Posted on December 11, 2008
More proof that the quality of counsel has a direct impact on the chance the State will get a death sentence, the Brian Nichols jury was told to continue deliberating today after they announced they were deadlocked. AJC appears to be forecasting that the jury will not reach a conclusion: he Nichols jury Thursday said it [...

DPIC?s year end report

Posted on December 11, 2008
The Death Penalty Information Center has released it’s 2008 report, The Death Penalty in 2008: Year End Report. From DPiC: Highlights from the Report Decline in the Number of Executions and Death Sentences 37 executions took place in 2008, marking a 14-year low and continuing a downward trend that began in 2000...

New international resource

Posted on December 11, 2008
The Death Penalty Project launched a new Web site on December 10 that includes a legal resource database with a comprehensive list of international legal authorities and case law, some dating back to the 19th century, and detailed head notes for those seeking jurisprudence on criminal, constitutional, and international points of law...

Oral Arguments in Cone v. Bell

Posted on December 10, 2008
The Court on Tuesday heard oral argument in Cone v. Bell (transcript here). In theory the case is about he arcane rules of federal habeas corpus. The argument quickly turned, however, to whether trial prosecutors cheated in getting a death verdict and appellate prosecutors cheated in protecting that verdict...

Texas ?08

Posted on December 07, 2008
TCADP has a year end round-up, Texas Death Penalty Developments in 2008, that effectively deals with that state’s developments, from stays, x-dates & new death sentences. While the total number of executions in Texas declined slightly in 2008 as a result of the de facto moratorium that existed until April 16, the rate at which these [...

Email edition running late

Posted on December 07, 2008
The email edition will be late this week as several opinions that should be in the edition have not yet shown up on Lexis. Most notable among the missing is Ricky Sechrest v. Ignacio from the Ninth Circuit. JoNell @ Harmful Error sums Sechrest ups this way: The Court holds that the prosecutor’s repeated misstatements regarding [...

Very high profile acquittal

Posted on December 04, 2008
We’ve been following in the RSS tracking service to the right the the court martial of SSgt Alberto Martinez over the alleged “fragging” of two officers. SSgt Martinez was accused of murdering two officers with a claymore mine and faced a possible death sentence...

A slew of new Alabama execution dates

Posted on December 03, 2008
From Alabama media accounts: BODY,.aolmailheader {font-size:10pt; color:black; font-family:Arial;} a.aolmailheader:link {color:blue; text-decoration:underline; font-weight:normal;} a.aolmailheader:visited {color:magenta; text-decoration:underline; font-weight:normal;} a...

Update on Ronald Gray?s stayed execution

Posted on December 03, 2008
The Government has moved to life the stay entered on behalf of Pvt. Ronald Gray to allow him an opportunity to litigate has capital habeas petition in federal court. CAAFlog has done a remarkable job covering the stay litigation (indeed, the quality of their blawging of late has been inspirational...

Washington: Darold Ray Stenson?s federal stay lifted

Posted on December 03, 2008
Wire accounts are noting: The U.S. Supreme Court today lifted the federal stay of the execution of Darold Ray Stenson in Washington state, but a state court stay remained in effect. The U.S. Supreme Court today lifted the federal stay of the execution of Darold Ray Stenson in Washington state, but a state court [...

Turkey week review

Posted on November 23, 2008
As happens most holiday seasons we’ll be “doubling up” publication both this week (meaning our next edition will be next week) & for the winter holidays. One case of note, however, that of Dale Wayne Eaton v. State, 2008 Wyo. LEXIS 140 (Wyo 11/14/2008)...

Kentucky kills

Posted on November 21, 2008
Kentucky tonight killed Marco Chapman. a href=”http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/nation/6126129.html”>The Chronicle notes: In the state’s first execution in nine years, Marco Allen Chapman was given a lethal injection at the Kentucky State Penitentiary...

LI protocol in California struck down

Posted on November 21, 2008
via Seth: Great news. A California Court of Appeal has invalidated California’s lethal injection protocol because the state failed to comply with the state’s Administrative Procedure Act. The decision(pdf format) in Morales v. California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, holds that the State’ lethal injection protocol, ?STATE OF CALIFORNIA SAN QUENTIN OPERATIONAL PROCEDURE NUMBER 0-770 EXECUTION [...

Eric Holder as Attorney General

Posted on November 18, 2008
News accounts have President-Elect Obama naming Eric Holder as his AG choice. President-elect Barack Obama’s top choice for attorney general is Eric Holder, a former No. 2 Justice Department official in the Clinton administration and Obama campaign aide who would become the first African American to serve as the nation’s chief lawyer...

DIG in Bell v Kelly

Posted on November 17, 2008
The Supreme Court this morning Dismissed as Improvidently Granted the cert grant in Bell v Kelly. More to follow. [via iPhone]

cert grants from Friday

Posted on November 17, 2008
via SCOTUSBlog In the other three cases, all focusing on criminal law issues, the Court will decide whether an individual can be retried on charges on which a jury could not agree in an earlier trial in which the jury acquitted on other charges (Yeager v...

Kirk Bloodsworth b?day wish

Posted on November 17, 2008
Okay, I’m a little late on this one. Kirk Bloodsworth celebrated his 48th b’day recently. Here was his hope for his b’day: So today, in honor of my 48th birthday and of the work that The Justice Project and I do to reform the broken criminal justice system, I ask you to send a gift of [...

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