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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

Sister Helen Prejean, the Death Penalty, and the DNCC

Posted on August 20, 2008
That's the title of a BeliefNet post reporting that Sr. Helen will be in Denver next week at the Democratic National Convention. LINK Here's an extended excerpt: Advance applause goes to the Democratic National Convention Committee for its decision to...

Diane Jennings on the Charles Dean Hood Case

Posted on August 20, 2008
Her report in today's Dallas Morning News is titled,"Texas death row inmate's defense hopes to prove romantic link between Collin County ex-prosecutor, retired judge." Rumors of an alleged affair between the judge and prosecutor in the trial of death row...

Latest on Wood Case

Posted on August 20, 2008
AP's Mike Graczyk has, "Lawyers try to block execution set for Thursday." Lawyers for condemned prisoner Jeffery Wood say his mental problems led him to get involved in a robbery scheme that left a Texas Hill Country store clerk murdered...

Maryland Study Commission Meets

Posted on August 20, 2008
In today's Baltimore Sun, Jennifer McMenamin reports the article, "Voices against death penalty." A group of relatives of murder victims called on state lawmakers yesterday to repeal the death penalty, complaining that the long appeals process that accompanies capital murder...

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The Jeff Wood Case

Posted on August 20, 2008
Today's New York Times reports, "Texas Panel Rejects Plea to Halt Execution of Accomplice in 1996 Murder." Jeffrey Lee Wood is sentenced to die this week for the murder of a store clerk during a robbery, even though he was...

Tx BPP Rejects Wood Clemency Bid - Updated

Posted on August 19, 2008
The Board of Pardons and Paroles has rejected Jeff Wood's clemency petition. All seven members of the Board voting against recommending that the governor commute Wood's death sentence. As I noted earlier, a Texas governor may only commute a death...

The Charles Hood Case

Posted on August 19, 2008
Charles Hood's case came to a near-boil in June when his June 17 scheduled execution was halted because the death warrant expired before TDCJ could carry out the lethal injunction. It was the end of a night of frantic legal...

In Alabama

Posted on August 19, 2008
The Tuscaloosa News reports, "Keeping evidence safe," written by Stephanie Taylor. DNA evidence could play a part in determining whether a man sitting on death row lives or dies by lethal injection. If the state can find it. Tommy Arthur...

Non-Triggerman Accomplice Faces Execution in Missouri

Posted on August 19, 2008
The Missouri case of Richard Skillicorn is getting attention, as well. In the Springfield News-Leader, Donna Walmsley has the OpEd, "Execution of Dennis Skillicorn will end good works." After nearly three years of quiet in the state's death chambers, Missouri...

More Focus on the Jeff Wood Case

Posted on August 19, 2008
The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles is expected to announce its recommendation in the Jeff Wood case today. The Texas governor is not bound by a recommendation, but a Texas governor may only commute a death sentence upon a...

Stay Issued in Denard Manns' Case

Posted on August 18, 2008
The Killeen Daily Herald reported Friday, "Killeen inmate set to die receives stay of execution." For the second time this year, a condemned Killeen killer received good news. Denard Manns, 43, was scheduled to die Aug. 20, but a U.S....

More on the Jeff Wood Case

Posted on August 18, 2008
Bob Ray Sanders' latest column in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram is, "Another execution is scheduled under flawed law-of-parties provision." Make a note of this name: Jeffery Lee Wood. And this date: Thursday, Aug. 21, 2008. That?s Wood?s scheduled date of...

AP Interview with Dr. Alan Doerhoff

Posted on August 15, 2008
Cheryl Wittenauer's report is titled, "AP Interview: Doctor behind executions speaks out." He owns three Harleys, is a self-described staunch Roman Catholic ? and has helped kill dozens of men. Dr. Alan Doerhoff calls himself the "world's authority on lethal...

Death and Texas

Posted on August 15, 2008
That's the title of Maura Kelly's column in The Guardian. It's subtitled, "Governor Rick Perry and his state's flawed judicial system are now executing convicts for crimes they did not commit." Texans - or at least governor Rick Perry and...

Weil Gotshal Pro Bono Project

Posted on August 15, 2008
Marcia Coyle reports, "Weil Gotshal attorneys monitor international criminal court in pro bono project," in National Law Journal. Attorneys at New York's Weil Gotshal & Manges are leading an international pro bono project for Human Rights Watch in which they...

Lazarus on Medellin Execution

Posted on August 15, 2008
Edward Lazarus' latest column at FindLaw.com is, "Texas Executes a Mexican Citizen Despite a Breach of the Vienna Convention: A Decision that Undermines America's International Standing and Commitment to the Rule of Law." Last week, the State of Texas executed...

Texas Execution

Posted on August 15, 2008
Texas executed Michael Rodriguez last night in Huntsville. The Huntsville Item reports, "'First Member of 'Texas Seven' Executed." It was the eighth execution in Texas in 2008; the state's 413th execution since 1982. It was the 20th execution of 2008...

The Executioners

Posted on August 14, 2008
That's the title of Eric Lyttle's lengthy report in the Columbus Ohio's The Other Paper. LINK On Oct. 14, the state of Ohio is scheduled to execute Death Row inmate Richard Cooey by injecting a lethal three-drug combination through several...

Scheduled Execution in Texas

Posted on August 14, 2008
Texas is scheduled to execute Michael Rodriguez shortly after 6:00 p.m., tonight in Huntsville. AP reports, "'Texas 7' fugitive volunteering to die Thursday," via the San Antonio Express-News. It will be the eighth execution in Texas in 2008; the state's...

Another Take on the Criminal Justice Integrity Unit Meeting

Posted on August 14, 2008
Jordan Smith also has, "Integrity Unit Members Hunker Down," in the Austin Chronicle. Although the members of the new Texas Criminal Justice Integrity Unit met for the first time Aug. 6, Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Barbara Hervey, who created...

The Jeff Wood Case

Posted on August 14, 2008
The Austin Chronicle's Jordan Smith reports, "Defense Lawyers Try to Halt Execution," in the current issue. Since Texas reinstated the death penalty in 1976, only six people have been executed for a murder in which they did not directly participate,....

Lubbock Examines Private Defender for Mental Health Docket

Posted on August 13, 2008
Mary Alice Robbins reports, "First and Goal: LCDLA Close to Creating Nonprofit to Run Private Defender's Office," in the current Texas Lawyer Concerned that mentally impaired indigents too often languish in their jail, Lubbock County officials are trying a new...

Jindal's Cause Macabre

Posted on August 13, 2008
That's the title of James Gill's column in today's New Orleans Times-Picayune. LINK You never know, when Gov. Bobby Jindal gets a bee in his bonnet, whether he is acting out of conviction or a desire to burnish his credentials...

The Case of Raymond Riles

Posted on August 13, 2008
Houston's KPRC-TV reported last night on Raymond Riles, a severely mentally ill Texas death row inmate who is incompetent to be executed. "Is 30 Years Too Long On Texas Death Row?" His case has sparked a debate of what to...

Should Murder Accomplices Face Execution?

Posted on August 13, 2008
That's the title of John Gramlich's report at Stateline. LINK An execution last month in Mississippi and another scheduled for this month in Texas have reignited a debate over whether the death penalty should be given to those who participate...

Texas Execution

Posted on August 13, 2008
Texas executed Leon Dorsey last night in Huntsville. The Huntsville Item reports, "Dorsey executed for 1994 Blockbuster murders." It was the seventh execution in Texas in 2008; the state's 412th execution since 1982. It was the 19th execution of 2008...

Scheduled Execution

Posted on August 12, 2008
Texas is scheduled to carry out its seventh execution of 2008, tonight in Huntsville. The Dallas Morning News has this report on Leon Dorsey. It would be the 19th execution of 2008 in America; the 1,118th execution since 1977. It...

Federal Judge Wants Fewer Capital Cases

Posted on August 12, 2008
That's the title of an article in today's New York Sun. LINK A sitting federal judge who is working on a book is calling on the Justice Department to ease off in pursuing the federal death penalty in New York...

Judge: Prosecutors Drove Costs of Ga. Capital Case

Posted on August 11, 2008
That's the title of an AP dispatch filed from the ABA Annual Meeting. LINK It appears via the Fulton County Daily Report. The retired judge who stepped down from the Atlanta courthouse killings case said Saturday that prosecutors share the...

A Round-Up of Kennedy v. Louisiana Items

Posted on August 11, 2008
"Jindal urging death penalty for child rapists," is the title of a Sunday article in the New Orleans Times-Picayune. Gov. Bobby Jindal said Saturday his administration is working with prosecutors on a bill that would reinstate the death penalty for...

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