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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

Senseless Imprisonment

Posted on February 27, 2008
That's the title of an editorial in today's Dallas Morning News, a follow-up on Diane Jennings revisiting of the Chris Ochoa & Richard Danziger exonerations. LINK The Christopher Ochoa case should be required reading for state lawmakers ? and for...

Race, Justice, and Texas

Posted on February 27, 2008
That's the title of a web-exclusive Newsweek article on the Houston's Rosenthal affair. LINK In his 30-plus-year legal career in Harris County, Texas, Chuck Rosenthal has been no stranger to controversy. As a prosecutor he lit firecrackers in the stairwell...

Justice Thomas' Silence

Posted on February 26, 2008
AP Washington writer Mark Sherman has, "Justice Thomas Silent Through More Than Two Years of Supreme Court Arguments," via Law.com. Two years and 142 cases have passed since Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas last spoke up at oral arguments. It...

Legislation in Virginia

Posted on February 26, 2008
The Virginian Pilot has, "Senate would make murder accomplices eligible for death penalty." For the second year in a row, the Virginia Senate passed legislation Monday that would make accessories to murder eligible for the death penalty. In a 24-19...

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In South Dakota

Posted on February 26, 2008
KXMC-TV of Minot, South Dakota carries an AP dispatch, "House approves death penalty changes." Changes in state laws dealing with death-row inmates have been approved by the South Dakota House. SB53, which awaits a final vote in the state Senate,...

A Jessica's Law Proposal in Colorado

Posted on February 26, 2008
Vincent Carroll, the editorial page editor of the Rocky Mountain News has a column, "Death penalty folly." Under the principle, "One unenforced law deserves another," Republican state Sen. Steve Ward is sponsoring a bill to extend the death penalty in...

Supreme Court Sends Texas Case Back to CCA

Posted on February 26, 2008
Texas AP writer Mike Graczyk has, "Dallas County death row inmate's case sent back to state court," via the San Antonio Express-News. The U.S. Supreme Court threw a lifeline Monday to a Texas death row inmate condemned for a robbery...

Amicus Briefs

Posted on February 25, 2008
That's the title of commentary in the current National Law Journal of "friend of the court" briefs. It's written by appellate specialist Aaron Bayer. LINK Amicus curiae briefs have become a prominent feature of virtually every U.S. Supreme Court case...

Faulty Bullet-Test Cases Finding Way to Court

Posted on February 25, 2008
That;'s the title of an article in the current issue of the National Law Journal dealing with the now reputed bullet lead analysis, another one-time mainstay of forensic analysis now relegated to junk science status. LINK Martin Mcclain, a defense...

In Nebraska

Posted on February 25, 2008
The Omaha World-Herald has, "Lawmakers name their priority bills for this session." Death penalty repeal, fluoridation of drinking water and an electronics recycling program are among the topics expected to occupy Nebraska lawmakers during the second half of the 2008...

In New Hampshire

Posted on February 25, 2008
The Nashua Telegraph carries a guest editorial -- it originally appeared in the Keene Sentinel -- "Death penalty still popular, in theory." Yet, despite the high-level affection for state-sanctioned killings, the people of New Hampshire have turned away from them...

Revisiting Chris Ochoa

Posted on February 25, 2008
Diane Jennings revisits the people at the center of a Travis County case -- a non-capital case -- that ended in the exoneration of two men, and changed the life of a crime victim's surviving mother. Both articles appeared in...

In California

Posted on February 25, 2008
Henry Weinstein reported, "Chief justice drops bid to speed up death penalty appeals," in the Sunday Los Angeles Times. Chief Justice Ronald M. George has told the state Judicial Council that because of California's fiscal problems, he is withdrawing a...

More on the California Commission Meeting

Posted on February 22, 2008
Henry Weinstein reported "Lawyers divided on death penalty system," in yesterday's Los Angeles Times. Defense lawyers and prosecutors agreed Wednesday that California's death penalty system was deeply troubled but split over the causes and solutions. During a hearing in Los...

California State Senator Gloria Romero

Posted on February 22, 2008
Senator Romero has been one of the leaders in the fight for criminal justice reforms to prevent wrongful convictions in California. She has an OpEd in the Spanish-language La Opinion, "CALIFORNIA: Cuestionar la pena de muerte." En los �ltimos dos...

Death Penalty Focus

Posted on February 22, 2008
Stefanie Faucher informs me that Death Penalty Focus has just completed a major website upgrade, so I'd like to put a focus on the California organization and its regular calendar of events. DPF appears in the left-column webroll.

Kennedy Defends Foreign Law Citations

Posted on February 22, 2008
That's the title of an AP dispatch by Mark Sherman, via the Washington Post. LINK Just who was Justice Anthony Kennedy calling out when he fired back at critics of the Supreme Court's use of international law in its opinions?...

You've Got Mail

Posted on February 22, 2008
That's the title of an epilogue on Chuck Rosenthal's resignation in Harris County in the Economist. LINK HARRIS COUNTY, which encompasses Houston, is the most populous in Texas. Its district attorney is among the most powerful prosecutors in America. During...

New Hampshire Senate Rejects Death Penalty Expansion

Posted on February 22, 2008
The Nashua Telegraph has, "Senate rejects death penalty legislation." The state Senate shot down a likely Republican candidate for governor's bid to expand the death penalty. Sen. Joseph Kenney, R- Wakefield, wanted to impose the death penalty on those guilty...

More on Danforth

Posted on February 21, 2008
Linda Greenhouse reports, "Justices Rule on Retroactivity of Decisions," in the New York Times. In a new pro-defendant twist on federalism, the Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that state courts are free to give criminal defendants the benefit of new...

Mumia Abu-Jamal

Posted on February 20, 2008
The Philadelphia Inquirer has, "Pa. court rebuffs Abu-Jamal on bid for perjury hearing." Mumia Abu-Jamal, who is on death row for the 1981 murder of Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner, lost another round in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court yesterday even...

In Nebraska

Posted on February 20, 2008
The Omaha World-News reports, "Nebraska attorney general asks court to reconsider ban on electric chair." Labeling it a "long shot," Attorney Gen. Jon Bruning is asking the Nebraska Supreme Court to reconsider its ruling banning electrocution as cruel and unusual...

Danforth v. Minnesota

Posted on February 20, 2008
Lyle Denniston at SCOTUS Blog has, "States allowed to expand criminal rights." The opinion is here. Dividing 7-2, the Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that states, under their own laws or constitutions, may give state prisoners the retroactive benefit of Supreme...

Indigent Defense in Georgia

Posted on February 20, 2008
The Macon Telegraph carries an AP dispatch, "Georgia Senate slashes money for public defenders." The funding roller coaster continued for Georgia's public defenders Tuesday as a key Senate committee slashed their budget to just a fraction of what they had...

District Attorneys in California

Posted on February 20, 2008
Henry Weinstein reports, "Most state D.A.'s silent on death penalty reasoning," in today's Los Angeles Times. Three-quarters of California's elected district attorneys refused to disclose how they choose defendants to face the death penalty, according to a report slated for...

Avoiding Overkill

Posted on February 20, 2008
That's the title of an editorial in today's Dallas Morning News concerning the case of Johnny Paul Penry. LINK The Penry legal marathon parallels a shift toward more civilized legal practices. In its first review of his case, in 1989,...

Thursday

Posted on February 20, 2008
I will be traveling Thursday. Posts will resume in the evening. Be sure to link to the Daily Must Reads and others in the left column webroll.

Capital Doubts

Posted on February 19, 2008
That's the title of an article at Christianity Today. LINK The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments against Kentucky's lethal injection procedure in January, as attorneys for two death row inmates contended that when done incorrectly, the procedure?which involves three shots...

Lawyer: State Offer Triggered Rosenthal's Exit

Posted on February 19, 2008
That the headline of a report in today's Houston Chronicle written by Brian Rogers. LINK Chuck Rosenthal's resignation last week came in response to a straightforward offer from the Texas Attorney General's Office, his lawyer said Monday: Step down, and...

More on the Johnny Paul Penry Life Sentence

Posted on February 15, 2008
AP has the report, "State won't seek death penalty against convicted killer," via the San Antonio Express-News. The state will not seek the death penalty against convicted killer Johnny Paul Penry in an agreement that will require Penry to serve...

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