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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

Maryland

Posted on March 12, 2009
"House next to argue death penalty," by Douglas Tallman and Sean Sedam is from Southern Maryland Newspapers Online. After a tortuous week in the Senate, the death penalty debate now shifts to the House of Delegates, where members are more...

Debate Returns to Kansas Senate

Posted on March 12, 2009
"Kan. Senate to debate death penalty repeal Monday," is Jessica Oakley's AP report via KSN-TV. A bill repealing Kansas' death penalty law is scheduled for debate Monday in the Senate. That announcement was made Wednesday by Majority Leader Derek Schmidt,...

How Long Can Executions Be Delayed?

Posted on March 12, 2009
That's the title of Walter Richey's report in today's Christian Science Monitor. LINK Thirty-two years is a long time for a death-row inmate to contemplate his pending execution. But is it so long that it violates the Eighth Amendment's ban...

Texas Execution

Posted on March 11, 2009
Texas carried out its 11th execution of 2009 last night in Huntsville. It was the state's 434th execution since 1982. Texas has far and away the most active death chamber in American, accounting for more than 37% of the nation's...

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Texas on Pace to Execute Far More in 2009

Posted on March 11, 2009
That's the title of Anna Tinsley's article in today's Fort Worth Star-Telegram. LINKAs states debate whether to stop executing criminals, Texas ? long the nationwide leader in executions ? has picked up the pace and is on a rate to...

Reviews of A Saint on Death Row

Posted on March 11, 2009
"A Killing in Texas," is Richard Bernstein's review at Daily Beast.If you're at all like me you've always assumed that the criminal justice system generally works pretty well in these United States, even knowing how slowly its wheels turn and...

Let the Death Penalty Die

Posted on March 11, 2009
That's the title of Thomas Cahill's post at Daily Beast. His book, A Saint on Death Row: The Story of Dominique Green, was published yesterday.One state, Texas, leads all others both in the number of its executions and in the...

Bob Ray Sanders

Posted on March 11, 2009
"Texas Legislature should pass two death-penalty related bills," is the title of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram writer's latest column.During each session of the Texas Legislature, the House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence receives a slew of very significant bills and must...

Texas Execution

Posted on March 11, 2009
Texas carried out its 12th execution of 2009 tonight in Huntsville. It was the state's 435th execution since 1982. Texas has far and away the most active death chamber in American, accounting for more than 37% of the nation's executions....

Executions Are Just Not Worth It

Posted on March 10, 2009
That's the title of an article in the Delmarva Daily Times examining the death penalty debate in Maryland. LINKFor the first time in more than 30 years, Maryland's legislature is taking on the death penalty. The Senate on Thursday passed...

Montana Governor Watching

Posted on March 10, 2009
"Governor Keeping Close Eye on Death Penalty Debate," is Matt Gouras' AP report via Montana's Flat Head Beacon.Gov. Brian Schweitzer said Monday he remains in favor of the death penalty, but is keeping an open mind as a proposed ban...

Texas Execution

Posted on March 10, 2009
Texas is scheduled to carry out it's 11th execution of 2009, shortly after 6:00 pm, in Huntsville. It would be the state's 434th execution since 1982. Texas has far and away the most active death chamber in American, accounting for...

A Prayer and a Plea

Posted on March 10, 2009
"Legislators, lobbyists push health insurance reform - Before prayer, pastor asks for halt to executions," is Mike Ward's item in today's Austin American-Statesman Capitol Digest.In offering Monday's prayer in the House, the Rev. Michael Piazza of Dallas used the podium...

New Mexico

Posted on March 10, 2009
"NM Senate committee OKs death penalty repeal," is Deborah Baker's AP report, via Google News. Legislation abolishing New Mexico's death penalty has cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee ? its highest hurdle yet ? and is headed to the full Senate...

In Tarrant County

Posted on March 10, 2009
"In Tarrant courts, new electronic system should speed felony docket," is Martha Deller's report in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.On any given Thursday morning, about 40 defendants fill all but two rows in Criminal District Court No. 4. Another 20 wait...

Justices Rule on Legal Effects of Slow-Moving Cases

Posted on March 10, 2009
That's the title of Adam Liptak's report in today's New York Times. LINKThe Supreme Court issued two rulings on Monday concerning the consequences of long delays in the criminal justice system.In one, the court declined to hear an appeal from...

Indigent Defense Roundup

Posted on March 10, 2009
Following Walter Mondale's OpEd, it's appropriate that there is indigent defense news today from Georgia and Kentucky."Public defender's office ordered to pay lawyers," is Bill Rankin's report in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on a long-running, closely watched Georgia case...

Walter Mondale on Gideon

Posted on March 10, 2009
"A Key Legal Right at Issue," is former state attorney general, U.S. Senator and Vice President Walter Mondale's OpEd in today's Washington. Post. More than 45 years ago, as attorney general of Minnesota, I joined with the attorneys general of...

Roma Khanna Talks With Thomas Cahill

Posted on March 09, 2009
The Houston Chronicle reporter who wrote much of the paper's coverage of the Houston Police Department Crime Lab scandal talked with the author of A Saint on Death Row. Her interview is, "Sharing the story of a reformed killer," from...

Opposing the Death Penalty

Posted on March 09, 2009
That's the title of Jay Winkler's latest message. He's the General Secretary of the United Methodist Chuch General Board of Church & Society. LINKI have led hundreds of workshops on The United Methodist Church?s Social Principles during the past 20...

New Death-Penalty Law Raises Concerns

Posted on March 09, 2009
That's the title of Sara Israelsen-Hart's report in Utah's Deseret News. LINKThere's a new rule when it comes to aggravated murder, and one attorney is arguing that using it against a father charged with the death of his 4-month-old baby...

From Catholic News Service

Posted on March 09, 2009
"Abortion, death penalty wins slow in coming on state-by-state basis," is Mark Pattison's report via Baltimore's Catholic Review.If Roe v. Wade ? the 1973 Supreme Court decision that made abortion legal nationwide at virtually any point in a woman?s pregnancy...

In Kansas

Posted on March 09, 2009
"Irony in debate of Kansas death penalty," is Jeanine Koranda's report in today's Wichita Eagle.Lt. Gov. Mark Parkinson helped shepherd through the state's death penalty law in 1994. Eventually, he might be asked to sign a bill to abolish it....

10 Years Since Last Execution in Illinois

Posted on March 09, 2009
That's the title of an article by Maurice Possley in the Sunday Chicago Sun-Times. "Last state execution was March 1999, but fight goes on to abolish death penalty," is the subtitle.Before he was executed on March 17, 1999, convicted murderer...

OpEds From the States

Posted on March 09, 2009
There is also OpEd commentary from North Carolina and Alaska."Death Penalty Should Be Abolished In NC," is Tom Campbell's OpEd for the Sunday Raleigh Telegram.The arguments for and against capital punishment have gone on long enough. Having once been a...

Editorials From the States

Posted on March 09, 2009
Sunday newspapers brought editorials from Connecticut and Maryland.Connecticut's Norwich Bulletin has, "Death penalty must be tossed."In a Sunday editorial published in the fall of 2007, we called for the repeal of the state?s death penalty. We believed then, and still...

More on Cost and Geographic Disparity From Associated Press

Posted on March 09, 2009
"America has cultural divide on death penalty," is the AP report via the International Herald Tribune.Roe Wilson sounds at peace with the fact that she has handled or supervised 91 executions in the 20 years she has overseen capital case...

In Many States, Cost Is Slowly Killing Death Penalty

Posted on March 09, 2009
That's the title of Steve Mills' article from the Sunday Chicago Tribune. LINKThe case New Mexico Atty. Gen. Gary King was prosecuting seemed made for the death penalty: a murder of a prison guard by inmates who stabbed him two...

Tonight on CBS News' 60 Minutes

Posted on March 08, 2009
There are two segments on tonight's program dealing with eyewitness identification problems and reforms. It's the leading cause of wrongful convictions caught through DNA exonerations.How Accurate Is Visual Memory? and Catching The Right Criminal are the two reports by Leslie...

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