StandDown Texas Project: Criminal Law

Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs

OR PHONE (866) 635-1838 for Bankruptcy Help, (866) 635-6190 for Divorce,
(866) 635-2689 for Personal Injury or (866) 635-9402 for Criminal Defense

Find a Local Lawyer

Bankruptcy (866) 635-1838
Divorce (866) 635-6190
Personal Injury (866) 635-2689
Criminal Defense (866) 635-9402

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

Up in Smoke

Posted on September 02, 2009
That's the title of an editorial in today's Houston Chronicle on the Todd Willingham case. LINK Cameron Todd Willingham was executed in 2004 for starting a house fire in Corsicana 13 years earlier that killed his three young daughters. From...

A Criminal Enterprise

Posted on September 01, 2009
That's the title of a great new blog by Bidish Sarma of the Justice Center's Capital Appeals Project, and Rob Smith of Harvard's Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice. A Criminal Enterprise has some great posts already, and...

Why Is the UK Involved in a Texas Death Case?

Posted on September 01, 2009
That's the title of a guest entry at the Dallas Morning News Death Penalty blog. It's written by Hugh Southey, a British Barrister. LINK The United Kingdom recently took the relatively unusual step of filing an Amicus brief in the...

Bob Herbert on the Todd Willingham Case

Posted on September 01, 2009
"Innocent but Dead," is the title of his OpEd column in today's New York Times. There is a long and remarkable article in the current New Yorker about a man who was executed in Texas in 2004 for deliberately setting...

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

DNA, the BPP, and 'Sex' Crimes

Posted on August 31, 2009
There are two news articles today involving the Board of Pardons and Paroles. One involves a new law passed by Texas legislators in this year's legislative session; the second, a BPP practice under fire. The second story may give even...

More Editorial Criticism of Judge Keller

Posted on August 31, 2009
"Tarnished justice: Misconduct trial of Judge Keller depicts a court of confusion," is the title of the Houston Chronicle editorial from the Sunday edition. Being Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Presiding Judge Sharon Keller apparently means never having to say...

Questions About an Execution

Posted on August 31, 2009
That's the title of an editorial in today's New York Times. LINK An excerpt: People should have no illusions about the brutal injustice of the death penalty after all of the exonerations in recent years from DNA evidence, but the...

Trial by Fire - Did Texas execute an innocent man?

Posted on August 31, 2009
That's the title of a major article in the September 7 issue of the New Yorker. It's written by David Grann. LINK Here's the beginning of this must read: The fire moved quickly through the house, a one-story wood-frame structure...

Focus on Gershowitz Scholarship

Posted on August 28, 2009
Diane Jennings notes Adam Gershowitz' latest scholarship in a post this morning at the Dallas Morning News Death Penalty blog, "Creation of statewide death penalty prosecution unit suggested." An excerpt: Use of the death penalty in Texas has always been...

Utah AG Continues Push to Limit Appeals in Capital Cases

Posted on August 28, 2009
"Passing the gavel; Let judges handle death row appeals," is the title of a Salt Lake Tribune editorial that appeared on August 19. Here's an extended excerpt: Frustrated that Utah inmates are growing old on death row while filing appeals...

More on the El Paso Case of David Wood

Posted on August 28, 2009
Diana Washington Valdez' report "Convicted serial killer David L. Wood's mental capacity is life, death issue," is in today's El Paso Times. Lawyers for convicted serial killer David Leonard Wood saved him from the executioner last week by arguing that...

Nebraska's New Lethal Injection Law

Posted on August 28, 2009
"Lethal injection challenge seen," is the title of By John Keenan's report in the Omaha World-Herald. Michael Nelson, attorney for Michael Ryan, the Rulo cult leader, addressed the Suburban Rotary Club Thursday on the subject of the death penalty. Ryan?s...

More Commentary on Troy Davis

Posted on August 28, 2009
Amy Goodman writes the syndicated column, "Troy Davis and the meaning of ?actual innocence?," via the Northport Gazette of Alabama. Sitting on death row in Georgia, Troy Davis has won a key victory against his own execution. On Aug. 17,...

Doubt and the Death Penalty

Posted on August 28, 2009
That's the title of an essay at Huffington Post by Cy Vance, a candidate for Manhattan District Attorney. LINK Cameron Todd Willingham did not make a sympathetic defendant. He was accused of one of the worst types of crime we...

Caging Children

Posted on August 27, 2009
That's the title of Richard Whittaker's Austin Chronicle article on the recent LBJ School of Public Affairs report principally authored by Michele Deitch. LINK Michele Deitch, author of the new report shaking up assumptions about child incarceration Photo by Jana...

An Update on Anthony Graves

Posted on August 27, 2009
Today's Houston Chronicle carries Harvey Rice's report, "Ex-DA turns to court of public opinion." The news item on KBTX (Channel 3) in Bryan-College Station was one indignity too many for former Burleson County District Attorney Charles Sebesta. The television report...

More Coverage of the Beyler Report on Todd Willingham

Posted on August 27, 2009
"Report: Faulty fire investigation led to execution," is the title of Jamie Stengle's AP report via Google News. A fire investigation that led to the execution of a man in the deaths of his three young children was so seriously...

Keller Is Unsuited for Top Court Job

Posted on August 27, 2009
That's the title of an editorial in today's San Antonio Express-News. LINK Even in Texas, the execution of a convicted murderer is not a commonplace occurrence. When the state is prepared to administer the ultimate, irreversible sanction of justice, its...

A Profile of Rick Halperin

Posted on August 26, 2009
Today's SMU Daily Campus has, "SMU professor goes to extremes to fight for equality," by Nicole Jacobsen. Today, 3,297 inmates are lined up on death row, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. The third largest group of 338 is...

Did the Supreme Court Recognize an Innocent Person's Right Not to Be Executed?

Posted on August 26, 2009
That's the title of Cornell Law prof Michael Dorf's latest column at FindLaw.com, concerning last week's Supreme Court order in the Troy Davis case. LINK Last week, the Supreme Court offered Davis a ray of hope. In response to his...

New Scholarship From Adam Gershowitz

Posted on August 26, 2009
University of Houston Law prof Adam Gershowitz' latest work at SSRN is, "Statewide Capital Punishment: The Case for Eliminating Counties' Role in the Death Penalty." Here's the abstract: In almost every state that authorizes capital punishment, local county prosecutors are...

The Beyler Report

Posted on August 26, 2009
The report by Craig Beyler, a nationally recognized arson expert, prepared for the Texas Forensic Science Commission is here in Adobe .pdf format. Chuck Lindell writes, "Man convicted of murder, executed over arson that wasn't, scientist says," for today's Austin...

Restorative Justice Blog

Posted on August 25, 2009
I see that Howard Zehr has started a Restorative Justice blog. I'm adding a new category to the left-column webroll and will add a link.

An Important Update on the Todd Willingham Case

Posted on August 25, 2009
"Cameron Todd Willingham case: Expert says fire for which father was executed was not arson," is the title of Steve Mills' report for the Chicago Tribune. Here's an extended excerpt from this must-read: In a withering critique, a nationally known...

Offering Up Comfort for Crime Victims

Posted on August 25, 2009
That's the title of a Q & A with Howard Zehr, Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at Eastern Mennonite University. It's subtitled, "Liaisons foster good will between families, defense counsel." The Anglo-American criminal justice system hasn?t done a good job...

Fallout From Prosecutorial Misconduct

Posted on August 25, 2009
"Judge won't drop Tarrant DA's office from Richardson capital-murder appeal," is the title of Melody McDonald's Fort Worth Star-Telegram report. A state district judge has denied an attorney?s request to recuse the Tarrant County district attorney?s office from the appellate...

Arkansas

Posted on August 25, 2009
"Ark. lethal injection suit to be heard in October," is Jon Gambrell's AP report via Newsday. Whether Arkansas resumes executing death-row inmates could hinge on how justices on the state's highest court read five words. Those five words ? "is...

Judge Keller's Disappointing Testimony

Posted on August 25, 2009
That's the title of an editorial in today's Dallas Morning News. LINK It was impossible not to gasp last week when Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Presiding Judge Sharon Keller addressed the question of what she would do differently if...

Cost Still an Issue in Georgia

Posted on August 24, 2009
"State can't afford to defend Gwinnett capital murder case," is the title of Bill Rankin's report from the Sunday edition of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Gwinnett County prosecutors want the death penalty for a Vietnamese immigrant accused of killing a Lilburn...

More on Keller

Posted on August 24, 2009
"My thanks to maligned Judge Keller," is the title of Rick Casey latest column from the Sunday Houston Chronicle. Here's an extended excerpt: I'd like to express my gratitude to Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Presiding Judge Sharon Keller. She...

Previous | Next

Related Law Bulletins

Texas Governor Takes Surprising Stand In Favor Of Immigrants
Texas Governor Rick Perry, normally an ultra-conservative, surpris...

District Judge Upholds Texas' Moment of Silence Law
In 2003, the Texas legislature amended a "moment of silence" law s...

Irving, Texas Losing Students Due To Immigration Crackdown?
The Dallas Morning News had an interesting story Sunday about the ...

Two New USCIS Training Centers To Open In North Texas
The Dallas Morning News reports today that two regional training c...

Comprehensive Explanation of Irving, Texas Immigration Situation
The Dallas Morning News has a very good series of articles today a...