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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

Deterrence Studies at Odds

Posted on January 07, 2010
Both studies have received earlier news coverage, noted here. I believe that the most accurate and succinct comment on the topic comes from Cass Sunstein and Justin Wolfers in their 2008 Washington Post OpEd, "A Death Penalty Puzzle," noted here:...

Assessing the Justice of Capital Punishment Cases

Posted on January 07, 2010
That's the title of a post at the Washington Post's Short Stack's blog on books. LINK It's the severest penalty in the land: the death sentence. But often the rulings that put inmates on death row are riddled with questions....

More Coverage of ALI

Posted on January 06, 2010
The Orlando Homicide Report blog of the Orlando Sentinel has, "Even people who helped reinstante the death penalty think it?s a failure," posted by Willoughby Mariano. The New York Times posted a fascinating article about the death penalty. The American...

Opinion Roundup

Posted on January 06, 2010
There are links to editorials in the Chicago Tribune and New Hampshire's Union Leader, as well as an Illinois OpEd and a Washington state column. Monday's Chicago Tribune carried the editorial, "Voice from death row." In March 2000, Oklahoma City...

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Texas Execution

Posted on January 06, 2010
Texas is scheduled to carry out its first execution of 2010, Thursday night in Huntsville. If Kenneth Mosley is executed, it would be the 448th Texas execution since 1982. Texas has far and away the most active death chamber in...

California Proposes New Lethal Injection Procedures

Posted on January 06, 2010
That's the title of Carol Williams' report in today's Los Angeles Times. The subtitle is, "The changes mark a first step toward resuming executions after a four-year moratorium. A federal judge had deemed the previous three-drug method unconstitutional...

The Professor and the Prosecutor

Posted on January 06, 2010
That's the title of a lengthy article in the February edition of Chicago magazine written by Bryan Smith. It's subtitled, "Anita Alvarez?s office turns up the heat on David Protess?s Medill Innocence Project." Here's a small excerpt from the beginning:...

Supreme Court Case on Prosecutorial Immunity Settles

Posted on January 05, 2010
Tony Mauro writes, "Supreme Court Drops Undecided Prosecutorial Immunity Case After Parties Settle," for National Law Journal.The U.S. Supreme Court announced late Monday that it had dismissed an important pending case over prosecutorial immunity after being alerted that the dispute...

Editorial Roundup

Posted on January 05, 2010
Today's Oklahoman carries the editorial, "Reform rollback: Capital crime law facing challenge." One of the most tangible outcomes of the Oklahoma City bombing was reform of the capital punishment appeals system. Survivors of murder victims had been forced to wait...

Capital Costs in North Carolina

Posted on January 05, 2010
"Study: End death cases, save money," is the title of Mandy Locke's report in the News & Observer. If the state stopped trying to execute killers, it would free up $11 million a year, according to a study by a...

Lethal Injection

Posted on January 05, 2010
Tony Rizzo's Kansas City Star report, "States reluctant to switch from three-drug 'cocktail' for executions," is being distributed by McClatchy News Service. It appears in today's Boston Herald and other papers. After a failed execution in September, the state of...

More Coverage of ALI Death Penalty Position

Posted on January 05, 2010
"In Compromise, ALI Dumps Capital Punishment Project," is the title of Ashby Jones' post at the Wall Street Journal's Law Blog. Is it just us, or does it seem like we?re in the throes of an upheaval in the administration...

The Florida Exoneration of James Bain

Posted on January 05, 2010
Syndicated columnist Byron Williams writes, "After 35 Years and DNA James Bain Is Free," for Huffington Post. The United States legal system has a long and distinguished history that derives many of its legal traditions from English law, and English....

Adam Liptak on the ALI Capital Punishment Resolution

Posted on January 04, 2010
Liptak's Tuesday Sidebar column has been posted at the New York Times website. It's titled, "Group Gives Up Death Penalty Work in Frustration." It's a must-read. Last fall, the American Law Institute, which created the intellectual framework for the modern...

Death Row Cases Decline in 2009

Posted on January 04, 2010
That's the title of a report from today's NPR's Morning Edition, written by Laura Sullivan. You can also listen to the report at the LINK. Prosecutors sought the death penalty less often in 2009, while judges and juries handed down...

The Decline of Death Sentences in Texas

Posted on January 04, 2010
"Harris County loses state lead in executions," is the title of Lise Olsen's December 28 report for the Houston Chronicle. Long the state's leader in sending convicts to death row, Harris County has fallen behind both Bexar and Tarrant counties...

David Brooks on Capital Punishment

Posted on January 04, 2010
The New York Times OpEd columnist wrote, "The Sidney Awards," for the December 25 issue of the Times. Every year, I give out Sidney Awards to the best magazine essays of the year. In an age of zipless, electronic media,...

Editorial Roundup

Posted on January 04, 2010
There are also editorials from the Washington Post focusing on Virginia and national trends, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Salina Journal in Kansas, and Alabama's Birmingham News. Sunday's Washington Post carried, "A year for more executions." It references the Death Penalty...

With Doubt's Raised, It's Time to Address Flawed System

Posted on January 04, 2010
That's the title of an editorial from yesterday's edition of the Austin American-Statesman. LINK Like the overdue family chat about the uncle everybody knows is not quite right, it's time for Texas to talk about something many folks know is...

The Case of Kevin Cooper

Posted on January 04, 2010
"Doubts remain -- but legal recourse does not -- in Kevin Cooper case," is the title of Carol Williams' report from the Sunday Los Angeles Times. Now, after 26 years, the legal hurdles to Cooper's execution have been surmounted. With...

How I Convinced a Death-Row Murderer Not to Die

Posted on December 22, 2009
That's the title of Michael Finkel's article in the current issue of Esquire magazine. LINK Eight years ago, Christian Longo murdered his wife and three children. On the lam, he assumed the identity of the author, a man he'd never...

The Death Penalty Debate in New Hampshire - Editorials

Posted on December 22, 2009
"Does the death penalty deter?" is the Keene Sentinel editorial. It appeared in Monday's edition. A recent legislative effort in Concord indirectly raises the following question: Would Kimberly Cates of Mont Vernon be alive today if, following the murders of...

The Price of Justice

Posted on December 22, 2009
That's the title of an in-depth, three-day examination of Texas' indigent defense system, particularly in Hidalgo County in South Texas. The Monitor of McAllen series is a must-read. It's written by Jeremy Roebuck and Jared Janes. The series front is...

Proportionality Questions in Tennessee

Posted on December 21, 2009
"The uneven hand of justice in TN murders," is the title of John Seigenthaler's report in the Tennessean. Here's the beginning of this must-read: There was no obvious link between the two recent national headlines. One said: "Woman who killed...

Kansas Legislature to Consider Repeal in 2010

Posted on December 21, 2009
"Legislature to consider end to death penalty," is the title of Ron Sylvester's report for the Wichita Eagle, via the Kansas City Star. Kansas will consider abolishing the death penalty next year as death sentences are declining across the United...

The Latest on the Troy Davis Case

Posted on December 21, 2009
"Troy Davis case raising novel legal issues," is the title of Bill Rankin's Atlanta Journal-Constitution report. Condemned inmate Troy Anthony Davis filed the legal equivalent of a Hail Mary when he petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court for a hearing on....

Editorial Roundup

Posted on December 21, 2009
In addition to Florida, newspapers in Connecticut and Utah also have capital punishment editorials. Today's Connecticut Law Tribune carries, "A Death Penalty Proposal." Earlier this year, the state legislature voted to prospectively eliminate the death penalty...

Commentary From Florida

Posted on December 21, 2009
"Wrongful ways: Innocence commissions safeguard society," is the title of a Sunday Tallahassee Democrat editorial. Last year, the Florida Legislature passed a law that automatically grants former inmates who have been found innocent $50,000 for each year they were wrongfully...

Additional Coverge of DPIC Report

Posted on December 21, 2009
The Death Penalty Information Center report, ?The Death Penalty in 2009: Year End Report," is in Adobe .pdf format. The Los Angeles Times reports"California's death row grows as death sentences decline nationwide," written by Carol Williams and Jack Leonard...

In New Hampshire

Posted on December 18, 2009
Tom Fahey writes, "House blocks introduction of home invasion bill," for the Union Leader. Leaders of the New Hampshire House yesterday blocked the late introduction of a bill that would punish home invasion murders with the death penalty. In rejecting...

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