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Criminal Law

StandDown Texas Project

Texas-centric examination of conditions, reform initiatives, and emerging issues related to best practices in the indigent criminal justice system with particular attention to issues involving capital punishment and the administration of the death penalty.
By StandDown Texas Project

Post Frequency: 49.3/day

Last Entry: April 01, 2011 at 14:21:29

Cost of Death Penalty Gets National Examination

Posted on January 29, 2010
The widely-read Sunday magazine Parade has posted, "Debating the Cost of Capital Punishment," written by Joe Bargmann. As cash-strapped states consider the high cost of sentencing prisoners to death, capital punishment has fallen on hard times. In New Mexico, which...

Kansas Senate Judiciary Committee Advances Abolition Legislation

Posted on January 29, 2010
"Kansas Senate panel endorses measure to repeal state death penalty," is the title of the initial AP report via the Lawrence Journal-World. A Senate panel has endorsed a bill to repeal the Kansas death penalty, saying it?s a debate that...

Members of Tim Cole Panel Stop by His Grave Site

Posted on January 29, 2010
That's the title of Alex Branch's report in today's Fort Worth Star-Telegram. LINK Members of a panel reviewing flaws in the Texas legal system visited Tarrant County on Thursday to study the district attorney?s much-praised policy of making its case...

Live Webcast of FSC Meeting

Posted on January 29, 2010
The Texas Forensic Science Commission is meeting at this time. Thanks to the Innocence Project, you can watch the streaming video at this LINK. Earlier coverage is here.

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Part 2 - Texas Tribune Coverage of Hank Skinner Case

Posted on January 29, 2010
Part two of Brandi Grissom's examination of the Hank Skinner is at the Texas Tribune today. It's "Case Open: The Investigation." It makes sense to Greg Jonsson that police in Pampa set their sights on Hank Skinner when they found...

An Update on Ohio Lethal Injection Litigation

Posted on January 29, 2010
The AP report, "Condemned Ohio inmate joins injection challenge," is via the Dayton Daily News. A federal judge has allowed an inmate scheduled to die Feb. 4 for killing a convenience store owner to challenge Ohio's lethal injection system. The...

Innocence Project to Webcast FSC Meeting Tomorrow

Posted on January 28, 2010
Eric Ferrero of the Innocence Project informs me that the IP will webcast tomorrow morning's Texas Forensic Science Commission meeting. The streaming video will be available at this LINK The Texas Forensic Science Commission is meeting tomorrow for the first...

Hank Skinner and Post-Conviction DNA Testing

Posted on January 28, 2010
Brandi Grissom writes, "Case Open," the first of two articles looking at the case of Hank Skinner. Here's an excerpt from the beginning of the article: Twila Busby was Hank Skinner?s soul mate. ?We just fell together. We just clicked,...

An Update on the David Powell Case

Posted on January 28, 2010
"Death row inmate apologizes to family of officer he killed in 1978," is the title of Tony Plohetski's report in today's Austin American-Statesman. In his first comments to the family of an Austin police officer he fatally shot more than...

Indigent Defense in Alabama

Posted on January 27, 2010
Lagniappe of Mobile reports, "Legal Expert Calls Mobile County?s Indigent Defense System the ?Perfect Storm?." It's written by Peter Teske. Mobile County?s indigent criminal population is at the mercy of a system one expert in Washington D.C calls the ?perfect...

Missouri Justices Split on Proportionality Review Standard

Posted on January 27, 2010
"Missouri Supreme Court overturns Lyons' death sentence, upholds Deck's," is the title of David Lieb's AP report, via the Springfield News-Leader. The Missouri Supreme Court on Tuesday overturned the death sentence of a man it determined was mentally disabled...

Pro Death: America Alone

Posted on January 27, 2010
That's the title of an editorial in West Virginia's Charleston Gazette. LINK In the dark past, virtually every government put people to death for various criminal, political or religious reasons. For example, Italy's Papal States had an official executioner, Giovanni...

The Cost Argument in Kansas

Posted on January 27, 2010
"Kansas could abolish death penalty to cut costs," is the title of Erin Brown's commentary in today's University Daily Kansan. The state budget crisis has forced Kansas legislators to re-evaluate state spending, leading some lawmakers to review the cost and...

Adam Liptak's Latest Sidebar

Posted on January 26, 2010
His Sidebar column in today's New York Times is, "After 34 Years, a Plainspoken Justice Gets Louder." The Supreme Court announced its big campaign finance decision at 10 in the morning last Thursday. By 10:30 a.m., after Justice Anthony M....

Jury Selection and the Petit Case in Connecticut

Posted on January 26, 2010
Blawgger and Connecticut attorney Norm Pattis writes the commentary, "Cheshire Case Illustrates Jury Picking Problems," for the Connecticut Law Tribune. Ice is melting in a New Haven courtroom, and the world has turned out to watch. Will members of the...

Lethal Injection Concerns Continue in Kentucky

Posted on January 26, 2010
Today's Louisville Courier-Journal carries the AP report, "Kentucky lethal injection protocol vague, experts say," written by Brett Barrouquere.The state's protocol for carrying out an execution outlines the last days and hours of an inmate's life leading up to execution by...

The Clemency Question in Maryland

Posted on January 26, 2010
Charles Lane posts, "Why doesn't O'Malley clear death row?" at the Washington Post's Post Partisan blog. Maryland Governor Martin O?Malley staunchly opposes the death penalty: Given its flaws -- the lack of deterrent impact, the risk of a wrongful execution,...

Judge Keller Shouldn't Get a Pass

Posted on January 26, 2010
That's the title of an editorial in today's Dallas Morning News. LINK On this we agree with a special master's finding on Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Presiding Judge Sharon Keller: She could have and should have done more to...

OpEd Roundup

Posted on January 25, 2010
Frank Baumgartner writes the OpEd, "Death penalty's vanishing point?" for the News & Observer of North Carolina. He's a political science prof at UNC-Chapel Hill. In this time of fiscal stress, a new study by Duke economist Philip Cook suggests...

Death Row Exonerations Point to Flaws in System

Posted on January 25, 2010
That's the title of Alison Bath's report in the Sunday edition of the Shreveport Times. LINK Eight men have been found innocent of the crimes that put them on Louisiana's death row. All were exonerated before they were put to...

The San Antonio Express-News on Judge Keller

Posted on January 25, 2010
"Remove Sharon Keller from appeals court post," is the title of the editorial from the Saturday edition of the paper. The key finding in State District Judge David Berchelmann's report on Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Sharon Keller is...

David Dow at Huffington Post

Posted on January 25, 2010
The Director of the Texas Innocence Network at the University of Houston Law Center posts, "The Autobiography of an Execution," at Huffington Post this morning. The post is a must read, and I'm looking forward to reading the book. I've...

New Rule Allows Use of Partial DNA Matches

Posted on January 25, 2010
That's the title of Jeremy Peters' report in today's New York Times. LINK New York has become the latest of a handful of jurisdictions to permit a controversial use of DNA evidence that gives law enforcement authorities a sophisticated means...

In Pennsylvania

Posted on January 25, 2010
"Death row inmates stay indefinitely: No one has been executed in Pennsylvania since 1999," is the title of Torsten Ove's report for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Richard Baumhammers and Ronald Taylor have a lot in common. Both are racially motivated mass...

Rethinking How the Law Deals with Mentally Ill Criminals

Posted on January 22, 2010
That's the title of Lance Dickie's column in today's Seattle Times. It's subtitled, "The Washington State Legislature is looking at two bills that would change how the law deals with mentally ill criminals. The time might be right." My opposition...

In Illinois

Posted on January 22, 2010
Today's Chicago Tribune carries the OpEd, "Illinois can't afford its death penalty system." It written by Betsy Wilson, an attorney in Illinois. Illinois is broke. Comptroller Dan Hynes announced that the state is currently unable to pay more than $5...

Jury Selection

Posted on January 22, 2010
The next several posts will form on opinion roundup of columns and OpEds. Let's start with Connecticut attorney Richard Meehan Jr.'s column, "Jury selection in capital case an arduous, tricky process," for the Norwich Bulletin. Jury selection began this week...

El Paso Medical Examiner's Credentials Questioned

Posted on January 22, 2010
"El Paso medical examiner to keep his job," is the title of David Crowder's El Paso Inc. report from Tuesday. The El Paso County chief medical examiner, Dr. Paul Shrode, who has been under fire for apparent falsehoods in his...

Kansas Legislative Hearing Continues

Posted on January 22, 2010
Today's Wichita Eagle reports, "Victims' families argue to keep death penalty." It's written by Jeannine Koranda. The state?s death penalty should be retained as justice for victims of killers like the Carr brothers and Justin Thurber, lawmakers heard Thursday...

FSC to Meet - Willingham Not a Topic

Posted on January 22, 2010
"Texas panel to meet, but Willingham not on agenda," is the title of Jeff Carlton's AP report, via the Washington Post. A state science panel looking into a possible wrongful conviction in a Texas death penalty case is meeting for...

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