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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

Justice Ginsburg Is Hospitalized with Pancreatic Cancer

Posted on February 05, 2009
That's the breaking news from AP. LINKSupreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had surgery Thursday after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, the court said. Ginsburg, 75, had the surgery at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York...

Montana Legislative Debate

Posted on February 05, 2009
"Death penalty foes try again to change state law," is the AP report via the Billings Gazette. Death penalty opponents are hoping they will be able to push a ban through the Legislature, following several failed attempts in recent years.The...

Eric Holder: Help Save 49 Lives, Please!

Posted on February 05, 2009
That's the title of a post at Huffington Post by Claudia Ricci, who teaches journalism at Georgetown University. LINK Here's an extended excerpt:I have a lawyer friend -- a criminal defense attorney -- who is also a Buddhist. He lives...

North Carolina Indigent Defense News

Posted on February 05, 2009
"NC death legal center gets new executive director," is the AP report via WRAL.The nonprofit law firm that represents North Carolina death row inmates and helps capital defense lawyers has a new executive director. The Durham-based Center for Death Penalty...

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The Tennessean Speaks Out

Posted on February 05, 2009
"Execution still leaves questions," is the editorial in today's newspaper. Here's an extended excerpt:Tennessee executed Steve Henley early Wednesday for the 1985 killings of a couple in Jackson County, applying a final solution to a case that had no final...

Science Found Wanting in Nation?s Crime Labs

Posted on February 05, 2009
That's the title of a news article in today's New York Times written by Solomon Moore. LINK Here's the top of this must-read:Forensic evidence that has helped convict thousands of defendants for nearly a century is often the product of...

Wisconsin Says 'We Told You So'

Posted on February 04, 2009
The state has no death penalty, and that's the subject of the editorial, "Case against death penalty gets stronger," in today's Oshkosh Northwestern.Ione Cyshosz, 62, of Milwaukee was brutally murdered in 1985. She was beaten, stabbed and bitten and her...

In Montana

Posted on February 04, 2009
The Montana Senate Judiciay Committee is set to consider SB 236, today. It would replace the state's death penalty with a life without parole sentence."Gov. takes no side on death penalty" is the AP report via Helena's KXMD-TV.Gov. Brian Schweitzer...

Texas Execution

Posted on February 04, 2009
Texas is scheduled to carry out its sixth execution of 2009, tonight in Huntsville. It would be the state's 429th execution since 1982.AP reports that David Martinez has waived his appeals.Martinez asked for permission to waive his appeals and a...

More on the Tim Cole Case

Posted on February 04, 2009
Today's Austin American-Statesman carries the editorial, "Even in death, Cole deserves justice." Here's an extended excerpt:Why bother holding a criminal court hearing for a man who died in prison more than nine years ago? Because it's the only way to...

Texas Execution

Posted on February 04, 2009
Texas carried out its sixth execution of 2009, tonight in Huntsville; the state's 429th execution since 1982.The San Antonio Express-News has this report on the execution of David Martinez, who had waived his appeals.Martinez' execution was the ninth in the...

The Case of Tim Cole

Posted on February 03, 2009
"Seeking justice for convict who died in prison," is Steven Kreytak's report in today's Austin American-Statesman. Here's an extended excerpt:In 1985, Michele Mallin was abducted from a church parking lot near Texas Tech University in Lubbock, driven outside of town...

Verdict Is Still Out on Innocence as Defense

Posted on February 03, 2009
That's the title of Lisa Falkenberg's latest column appearing in today's Houston Chronicle. LINK It continues a theme from an earlier column of the case of Larry Swearingen, noted in this post.Does innocence matter? When I posed that question in...

The Executioner's Hour

Posted on February 03, 2009
"States shift away from holding midnight executions," is the AP report via Google News.Sleepy judges answering last-minute appeals by phone. Bleary-eyed family members shuffling into witness rooms. Protesters' faces illuminated by candles outside prison fences...

The Tide Shifting Against the Death Penalty

Posted on February 03, 2009
That's the title of a Time report by Richard Lacayo. LINK Here's an extended excerpt from the beginning of the article.If there were such a thing as a golden age of capital punishment in America, it peaked in 1999. There...

Examining Human Error in Wrongful Convictions

Posted on February 03, 2009
That's the title of an article in the New York Times by Manny Fernandez. LINKA new examination of wrongful convictions in New York City and around the state found that a number of them stemmed not from DNA evidence being...

Convicting the Innocent

Posted on February 03, 2009
That's the title of new scholarship by Sam Gross of the University of Michigan School of Law, a leading scholar examining wrongful convictions. A news release is titled, "Exonerations correct only a small fraction of wrongful convictions."Criminal justice scholars often...

Police Perjury

Posted on February 03, 2009
"Legal System Struggles With How to React When Police Officers Lie," is the Wall Street Journal report by Amir Efrati. It appeared in the Thursday Journal.It's one of the most common accusations by defendants and defense attorneys -- that police...

President Obama and the Death Penalty

Posted on February 03, 2009
"Anti-death penalty lobby hopes for discreet Obama support," is the AFP report via Google News.In a country that has almost two-thirds support for the death penalty, US President Barack Obama will likely shy away from addressing the issue head on...

Commentary from Virginia

Posted on February 03, 2009
"Expanding the Death Penalty Is Fiscally Irresponsible," is John Whitehead's commentary from the Rutherford Institute.The Commonwealth of Virginia is in the throes of a massive budgetary crisis, with a current shortfall of just under $3 billion. As a result, a...

State Legislative Roundup

Posted on February 03, 2009
As the Time report details, states are actively evaluating their capital punishment laws. It's also apparent from the local news coverage."Senator suggests deal on death penalty measure, is today's Baltimore Sun report by Laura Smitherman.A new wrinkle in the death...

As Certain as Death, Taxes and Secession

Posted on February 02, 2009
That's the headline from Georgia's Sunday Paper. The article is subtitled, "State legislature hits old standbys: guns, executions, property taxes and breaking away."The Georgia Legislature has been in session for a few weeks now and, thus far, the bills promising...

Death Penalty Debate Reignites

Posted on February 02, 2009
That's the title of a news article in today's Frederick New-Post in Maryland. LINKAs Gov. Martin O'Malley stood before lawmakers last Thursday to deliver the annual State of the State address, he urged them to abolish the "outdated, expensive and...

In Colorado

Posted on February 02, 2009
The Boulder Daily Camera reports, "Bill would trade Colorado's death penalty for cold cases."There are many questions that Charles Alvin Johnson may never see answered about the death of his daughter Regina, who was strangled in 2006. What raced through...

The Nebraska Death Penalty Debate

Posted on February 02, 2009
"Judge put execution views aside," is the title of Paul Hammel's report in today's Omaha World-Herald.Sarpy County District Judge Ronald Reagan was among the three judges who, in 1984, sentenced child-killer John Joubert to die in Nebraska's electric chair...

In Montana

Posted on February 02, 2009
"Montana can't afford the death penalty," is the title of an OpEd in today's Helena Independent Record. It's by Jim Oppedahl of Helena.The economic crisis across our country is forcing states to look carefully at every public expenditure as they...

The Road to Peace and Justice

Posted on February 02, 2009
That's the title of a speech delivered by New Jersey State Senator Raymond Lesniak, posted today at NJ.com. LINKOn December 17, 2007, New Jersey became the first state in the Union to abolish the death penalty since the U.S. Supreme...

At DoJ

Posted on February 02, 2009
"Justice Dept. Under Obama Is Preparing for Doctrinal Shift in Policies of Bush Years," is Neil Lewis' report in today's New York Times.The Justice Department, probably more than any other agency here, is bracing for a broad doctrinal shift in...

To Nudge, Shift or Shove the Supreme Court Left

Posted on February 02, 2009
That's the title of Adam Liptak's article in the Sunday New York Times. LINKJustice John Paul Stevens, the leader of the Supreme Court?s liberal wing, likes to say that he has not moved to the left since he was appointed...

In the Interest of Jurors?

Posted on February 02, 2009
That's the title of an article from the Sunday Corpus Christi Caller-Times concerning supporters of Hannah Overton. It's written by Denise Malan. LINKPastor Rod Carver of Calvary Chapel of the Coastlands became acquainted with the legal system as a spectator...

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