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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

Beyond Willingham - More 'Arson' Cases Called Into Question

Posted on September 14, 2009
"Are Texas arsons a case of bad science? Some experts think so," is the title of Christy Hoppe's report in the Dallas Morning News. It appeared in the Sunday edition, and it's a must-read. Arson investigators in Texas have relied...

More Willingham Commentary

Posted on September 14, 2009
"Exoneration comes too late," is the title of David Kaczynski's OpEd from the Albany Times Union. He's the executive director of New Yorkers for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. Here's an extended excerpt: Five years after his execution in Texas,...

Texas Justice System Has Major Flaws

Posted on September 14, 2009
That's the title of an editorial from the Sunday edition of the Corpus Christi Caller Times. LINK For the past three years in Texas, news reports have revealed that dozens of innocent people have been convicted of violent crimes they...

Fingerprints, Barred in a Maryland State Proseuction, Allowed in Federal Case

Posted on September 11, 2009
"Fingerprints are back in as federal judge finds them reliable," is the title of Caryn Tamber's report in Daily Record of Maryland. Prosecutors say they are not surprised but were relieved that a federal judge will allow fingerprint evidence against....

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More Commentary on Todd Willingham

Posted on September 11, 2009
Salon carries Len Kovarsky's essay, "Opposing the death penalty is not about innocence." In the last several weeks, two major events have reignited the controversy that engulfs capital adjudication in this country. First, the U.S. Supreme Court took a potentially...

More on Willingham in the Blogosphere

Posted on September 10, 2009
"Blinded by Tunnel Vision: What the Execution of Cameron Todd Willingham Can Teach Us About Wrongful Convictions," is by John Maki at Huffington Post In the recent New Yorker, there is a chilling story about Cameron Todd Willingham, a Texas...

Texas Put in Uncomfortable Spotlight

Posted on September 10, 2009
That's the title of Ted Oberg's report on a U.S. Senate hearing for KTRK-TV, the ABC affiliate in Houston. LINK On Wednesday in Washington, senators took a tough look at Texas justice. They are concerned bad science is getting into...

Politics and Todd Willingham

Posted on September 10, 2009
"Perry's denial of stay could become campaign issue," is the title of Austin American-Statesman political columnist W. Gardner Selby's latest. Nothing could trouble a governor more than the thought that he or she has let an innocent person die. "That's...

London Art Project Focuses on Linda Carty

Posted on September 10, 2009
"Texas death row inmate appeals to Londoners," is Rafael Satter's AP report via Google News. Texas death row inmate Linda Carty's voice was broadcast into London's Trafalgar Square on Thursday, begging Britons to help save her life. Carty's seven-minute appeal,...

Michigan Prosecutors Sue State Over Parole of Violent Offenders

Posted on September 09, 2009
That's the title of Tresa Baldas' report posted at National Law Journal. LINK Michigan prosecutors are suing the state Department of Corrections over the release of hundreds of violent offenders, alleging murderers and rapists are being paroled with little or...

Indigent Defense at Crossroads in Nevada

Posted on September 09, 2009
"Public Defender Caseload: State panel debates limits," is the title of Alan Maimon's report in today's Las Vegas Review-Journal. Here's an extended excerpt: Court officials, equal-justice advocates, and county managers agree that action is needed to address a severe shortage...

Ohio & Women - Few Capital Cases

Posted on September 09, 2009
"Death row women a rarity," is the Cincinnati Enquirer report by Janice Morse. Here's an excerpt: The Hamilton woman accused of killing her infant son last month, Asuncion Avila-Villa, is among a mere handful of women ever to face a...

State Panel to Hear Willingham Arson Report

Posted on September 09, 2009
That's the title of Jane Jacobs article in today's Corsicana Daily Sun. LINK An independent review that claims the arson investigation that led to the execution of Cameron Todd Willingham was flawed will be presented to a state panel Oct....

Ohio's Lethal Injection

Posted on September 08, 2009
"EMT rules not same as nurses' or doctors'," is the title of Suzanne Hoholik's report in the Columbus Dispatch. In the regulation of medical professionals in Ohio, different boards have different rules. The state medical and nursing boards say they...

More Columns on Todd Willingham

Posted on September 08, 2009
"Front row seat to a tragedy," is the title of Corsicana Daily Sun Managing Editor Bob Belcher's latest column. Here's an excerpt from Belcher's unique perspective. The re-surfacing of the Cameron Todd Willingham story over the last couple of weeks...

Blogosphere Buzzes Over Todd Willingham Case

Posted on September 08, 2009
"So Did Texas Execute an Innocent Man?" is from Radney Balko today at the Reason.com Hit & Run blog. I wrote at the time that it was tough to say Willingham was innocent, only that he should never have been...

AFP on Willingham Case

Posted on September 08, 2009
"Execution opponents hope Texas case will be US turning point," is the title of Lucile Malandain's Washington datelined AFP report, via Google News. Here's an excerpt: He was executed in Texas in 2004, convicted of setting a fire that killed...

David Grann: The Prosecution Defends Itself

Posted on September 08, 2009
The author of last week's high voltage New Yorker article has the above titled post at the New Yorker News Desk blog. LINK Here's a brief excerpt: Several people have asked me what I thought of the op-ed that John...

More on the Michael Toney Case

Posted on September 04, 2009
"Texas hasn't ruled out retrying freed Death Row inmate in Lake Worth bombing," is Alex Branch's report in today's Fort Worth Star-Telegram. State authorities say they have not ruled out retrying Michael Toney in the 1985 bombing of a Lake...

Lithwick: Innocent Until Executed

Posted on September 04, 2009
That's the title of Dahlia Lithwick's latest Newsweek column, and it tops today's coverage of Todd Willingham's tragic case. It's subtitled, " We have no right to exoneration. For years, death-penalty opponents and supporters have been working their way toward...

A Snitch, a Brady Violation, and Freedom - The Michael Toney Case

Posted on September 03, 2009
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram has posted Alex Branch's report, "Defendant freed, nine months after conviction and death sentence were overturned." Michael Toney was released from the Tarrant County Jail on Wednesday night, nine months after his conviction and death sentence...

From Froma Harrop

Posted on September 03, 2009
"Cracked Justice Enabled Girl Rape Case," is the title of syndicated columnist Froma Harrop's latest, via Real Clear Politics. Harrop uses as a news peg, the case of David Garrido, accused of kidnapping and rape of Jaycee Dugard. She notes...

Linda Carty

Posted on September 03, 2009
The UK's Independent reports, "British citizen on Death Row in Texas launches 'last chance' appeal." It's written by Tom Leonard. Carty, 51, a grandmother from the Caribbean island of St Kitts, was sentenced to death for the murder in 2001...

Constitutional Question

Posted on September 03, 2009
That's the title of an OpEd in today's Washington Times by Bob Barr, the former Georgia congressman. LINK Strange as it might seem, the Supreme Court of the United States has never directly and explicitly held that it is unconstitutional...

Willingham Web Extras

Posted on September 03, 2009
The last of these three posts linking the latest coverage is Web Extra content from the New Yorker and NPR> NewYorker.com has "Ask the Author Live: David Grann." This week in the magazine, David Grann writes about a possible case...

Today's Willingham News Coverage

Posted on September 03, 2009
Today's Temple Daily Telegram has, "Texas House speaker visits Temple's economic engines," in which Joe Straus comments on the case. It's written by Janice Gibbs. Straus commented on the recent news coverage about the 2004 execution of Cameron Todd Willingham...

Continued Coverage of Todd Willingham, An Innocent Executed

Posted on September 03, 2009
There is a great deal of coverage of the Willingham case in the press today. I'm breaking the coverage into several posts based on the type of content. I'll start with news columns. and an OpEd. "Time to do away...

Tea Leaf Reading at the Supreme Court

Posted on September 02, 2009
"Stevens Hires Only One Law Clerk, Spurring Retirement Speculation," is Debra Cassens Weiss' post at the ABA Journal this morning. Justice John Paul Stevens has so far hired only one law clerk for 2010, leading to speculation that he will...

California and the Death Penalty - New Public Opinion Polling

Posted on September 02, 2009
"Californians' support for death penalty waning," is the title of Carol Williams' report in today's Los Angeles Times. A majority of Californians still favor the death penalty, but their support has waned from 79% to 66% over the last two...

Time to Face the Truth in the Willingham Case

Posted on September 02, 2009
That's the title of Nina Morrison's post at the Dallas Morning News Death Penalty blog. LINK It addresses the recent OpEd, noted here, written by one of Todd Willingham's prosecutors. Morrison is a staff attorney at the Innocence Project and...

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