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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

Death Penalty: It's Inaccurate, Unfair, Ineffective

Posted on May 02, 2008
That the title of an OpEd in today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution by Georgia State University law prof Anne Emanuel. LINK Georgia is home to many firsts. We were the first state to implement electronic voting statewide, the first to lower the...

Missouri Death Penalty Study

Posted on May 01, 2008
The study, "Life and Death Decisions: Prosecutorial Discretion and Capital Punishment in Missouri," is available at SSRN. KTVI-TV of St. Louis reports, "Local Death Penalty Study Say Mo Should Suspend Executions." A new study concludes Missouri should suspend all executions...

Judge OKs Georgia LI Method

Posted on May 01, 2008
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports, "Federal judge says Ga. lethal injection method OK." A federal judge in Atlanta on Wednesday rejected arguments that Georgia's method of execution by lethal injection is unconstitutional. Ruling from the bench after 90 minutes of arguments,...

Houston Chronicle Coverage of Race Study

Posted on May 01, 2008
On Tuesday, Adam Liptak reported on scholarship, "Racial Disparities in the Capital of Capital Punishment," by Scott Phillips of the University of Denver, noted in this post. Today's Houston Chronicle has a news article and commentary by columnist Lisa Falkenberg...

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Whitehead on Lethal Injection

Posted on April 30, 2008
John W. Whitehead of the Rutherford Institute has posted, "Killing in Secret: Death by Lethal Injection," at Huffington Post. In our post-9/11 world, government secrecy has become an accepted norm, whether the topic is national security, government spending or constitutional...

New Dean at UH Law

Posted on April 30, 2008
National Law Journal reports, "University of Houston Law Center names new dean." The University of Houston Law Center has named Raymond T. Nimmer as dean. Nimmer, whose work focuses on intellectual property, served as interim dean after the resignation of...

James Lee Woodard Update

Posted on April 30, 2008
Jennifer Emily has an updated report in the Dallas Morning News on the exoneration and release of James Lee Woodard, Dallas County's most recent exoneree. The article is, "DNA evidence frees man imprisoned 27 years in Dallas County." James Lee...

Supreme Court Is Rejecting Broad Legal Challenges

Posted on April 30, 2008
That's the title of David Savage's article in today's Los Angeles Times. LINK The Supreme Court's recent rulings upholding Indiana's voter ID law and Kentucky's use of lethal injections reflect a subtle but profoundly important shift in how the justices...

Death and the Chaplain

Posted on April 30, 2008
That's the title of a Q and A with Carroll Pickett, the retired TDCJ Chaplain featured in the documentary At the Death House Door. The interview was conducted by Kiko Martinez. LINK The year after you retired, rules were changed...

Virginia Lethal Injection Challenge

Posted on April 30, 2008
Robert Barnes reports, "State Asks Supreme Court to Allow Execution," in the Washington Post. The U.S. Supreme Court will consider next month whether to allow Virginia to set an execution date for a death row inmate who contends that the...

Colb on Kennedy v. Louisiana

Posted on April 30, 2008
FindLaw.com columnist Sherry Colb writes, "Kennedy v. Louisiana and the Lessons of a Supreme Court Oral Argument." As I discussed in an earlier column, this will not be the first time that the Supreme Court has considered whether to classify...

Making Your Case

Posted on April 29, 2008
ABA Journal has a number of excerpts, here, from Making Your Case: The Art of Persuading Judges by Justice Antonin Scalia and legal writing maven Bryan Garner. Here's one: To say that your writing must be clear and brief is...

New U.S. Pardon Attorney Named

Posted on April 29, 2008
National Law Journal reports, "AG appoints justice department veteran as U.S. Pardon Attorney." Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey has appointed veteran Department of Justice attorney Ronald L. Rodgers to serve as the U.S. Pardon Attorney. Rodgers will oversee the Office...

Chicago Public Defender Faces Dismissal

Posted on April 29, 2008
That's the title of Lynne Marek's report for the next issue of National Law Journal. LINK Officials for Cook County, Ill., which includes the Chicago metropolitan area, will soon decide whether to fire for the first time ever the county's...

State Senator Rodney Ellis to Hold Summit on Wrongful Convictions

Posted on April 29, 2008
In the wake of the most recent Dallas County exoneration, State Senator Rodney Ellis has announced that he will hold a summit on wrongful convictions next week at the Texas State Capitol. It will be held in the Senate Chamber,...

Another Dallas County Exoneration

Posted on April 29, 2008
Jennifer Emily reports on Dallas County's 17th exoneration, "DNA evidence frees man imprisoned 27 years in Dallas County," in the Dallas Morning News. Illegally withheld evidence probably caused a man exonerated today to spend more time behind bars than anyone...

Missouri Legislation - UPDATED

Posted on April 29, 2008
Today's St. Louis Post-Dispatch carries an OpEd by Tammy Gwaltney, executive director of the Southeast Missouri Network Against Sexual Violence, "Proposed bill would hurt abused children even more." The Missouri Legislature is considering a bill, SB 1194, which would allow...

A New Look at Race When Death Is Sought

Posted on April 29, 2008
That's the title of Adam Liptak's latest Sidebar column in today's New York Times. LINK Liptak reports on a study to be published in the Houston Law Review, "Racial Disparities in the Capital of Capital Punishment," by Scott Phillips of...

An Update on Georgia Judge Marvin Arrington

Posted on April 28, 2008
Earlier this month I posted an article about Judge Marvin Arrington's fireside chat in his Atlanta courtroom. The current Fulton County Daily Report gives us an update, "Bill Cosby Teams Up With Ga. Judge to Decry Culture That Accepts 'Uncivilized'...

Exonerated Ex-Inmates Struggle to Shed Stigma

Posted on April 28, 2008
That's the title of an article in today's Washington Post reported by Peter Slevin and Kari Lydersen. LINK Pollock's predicament is becoming more common across the country as more people are exonerated. The New York-based Innocence Project has tallied 215...

Dallas County's Review of Integrity of Convictions

Posted on April 28, 2008
"Dallas district attorney steps up scrutiny of cases where DNA can't prove innocence," is the title of a report by Jennifer Emily and Steve McGonigle in the Sunday Dallas Morning News. For 16 wrongly convicted defendants in Dallas County, DNA...

More Baze Commentary

Posted on April 28, 2008
In North Carolina, the Charlotte Observer carries an OpEd today, "Reassess the death penalty." It's written by Cynthia Adcock a law prof at Charlotte School of Law. There are things we now know about the death penalty that give most...

Alabama Sentencing

Posted on April 28, 2008
The Birmingham New carried the editorial, "Alabama jurors' recommendations about whether a criminal defendant ought to be sentenced to death should mean something. But judges get to make the decision," on Saturday. The jury's 10-2 vote for a sentence of...

Missouri Legislation

Posted on April 28, 2008
The Springfield News-Leader carries an editorial, "Execution of child rapists will not protect our children." Greene County Prosecutor Darrell Moore cited some of the concerns listed above as he offered his opinions on the proposed law. He added he cannot...

More News on the Lethal Injection Front

Posted on April 28, 2008
The Akron Beacon Journal carries an AP dispatch, "Ohio not fast as some in scheduling executions." Ohio officials have been less swift and less aggressive than leaders from some other states at moving to restart executions after a U.S. Supreme...

Unusual Nonesense

Posted on April 28, 2008
That's the title of an article by Benjamin Wittes at the New Republic. LINK Here's an extended excerpt: The simple fact is that more than two centuries after the Eighth Amendment's adoption into the Constitution, the justices still can't agree...

The Tennessean on the State of Lethal Injection

Posted on April 28, 2008
Sunday's Tennessean carries an editorial and two OpEds. The editorial is, "Pursue drug-method appeals and elevate death debate." The drug cocktail is the chief concern of the moment because of the Florida and Ohio cases, which have led opponents to...

More Columnists & OpEd

Posted on April 25, 2008
Dallas Morning News columnist Jacquielynn Floyd's latest is, "Death-row inmates don't need pity, fame." Fresh examination of those 10-year-old details lends emotional urgency to the argument in favor of capital punishment: How can lethal injection be too "cruel" for a...

Editorial Round-Up

Posted on April 25, 2008
Today's Philadelphia Inquirer has the must-read editorial, "A rush to kill." Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has signaled its support for the death penalty, several states are rushing to schedule executions. It's as if the court's approval of lethal....

Racial Bias

Posted on April 25, 2008
ACLU Capital Punishment Project state strategies coordinator Christopher Hill writes, "Racial Bias Highlights Rampant Problems in Death Penalty System," at Daily Kos. Here's the introduction: This year marks the 40th anniversary of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, which...

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