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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.
Post Frequency: 49.3/day Last Entry: April 01, 2011 at 14:21:29 Recent Entries: 3649
By StandDown Texas Project
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In South Dakota
Posted on January 18, 2008The Argus Leader reports, "Measure to clean up death penalty clears." A bill that corrections department officials say will clean-up capital punishment laws passed the Senate State Affairs Committee 9-0 Wednesday. The bill revises old laws dealing with competency hearings...
New Controversy for Harris County DA Rosenthal
Posted on January 18, 2008The Harris County District Attorney is already under investigation by the Texas Attorney General for highly questionable e-mails and the use of county computers to send campaign-related e-mails. Now, Chuck Rosenthal seems to have a runaway grand jury on his...
Mexico and the Death Penalty in America
Posted on January 18, 2008AP has a dispatch, "Fleeing to Mexico Thwarts Death Penalty." It's reported by Michelle Roberts with contributions from other AP staffers. A methamphetamine dealer who gunned down a deputy during a traffic stop in Southern California. A man in Arizona...
High Court Divide Threatens to Deepen
Posted on January 18, 2008That's the title of a fascinating article in today's USA Today by Supreme Court reporter Joan Biskupic. LINK The Supreme Court began its current term in October with a high-profile caseload certain to help reveal the direction of the emerging...
We Should Be Devoted to Ending Injustice, Not Ending More Lives
Posted on January 18, 2008That's the title of an OpEd in today's San Jose Mercury News by Naomi White and Derrel Myers, whose son was a murder victim. LINK Twelve years ago, our 23-year-old son was murdered. Today, we are attending a national gathering...
'Buyer's Remorse' Sets In Over Capital Punishment
Posted on January 18, 2008That's the title of an OpEd in today's Austin American-Statesman by Bob Van Steenburg, the Vice-President of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. LINK The U.S. Supreme Court recently took up the argument of whether or not a...
Victory for Daryl Atkins
Posted on January 18, 2008In 2002, the Supreme Court ruled the death penalty unconstitutional for offenders with mental retardation in the case Atkins v. Virginia. That decision has resulted in numerous stays of execution in Texas and 11 death sentences being overturned in the...
Pronouncing Our Own Doom
Posted on January 17, 2008That's the title of Tom Geoghegan's latest column in the American Prospect. LINK One fine day, a candidate for president may say the country's goal should be to have only the world's second-highest prison rate, and let Russia or China...
Wyoming Governor 'Comfortable' With Lethal Injection
Posted on January 17, 2008That't the headline in the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle. LINK The U.S. Supreme Court is entering the realms of science and medicine by taking a case challenging lethal injection as a method of capital punishment. So said Gov. Dave Freudenthal said during...
Sharon Keller is Texas' Judge Dread
Posted on January 17, 2008That's the title of Matt Pulle's lengthy profile in the current issue of the Dallas Observer. LINK Here are several excerpts: Take her off the bench and Sharon Keller is funny, smart and personable, if a little shy. People genuinely...
The Decline of the Death Penalty and the Discovery of Innocence
Posted on January 17, 2008I've received word from Frank Baumgartner that the book is now available. Here's some of the October post announcing the book and its supporting website: That's the title of a new book that is expected to be available at the...
On This Day
Posted on January 17, 2008The New York Times notes in its feature, On This Day: 1977 Convicted murderer Gary Gilmore, 36, was shot by a firing squad at Utah State Prison in the first U.S. execution in a decade. The Gilmore case is one...
More News of the West Texas Capital PD Office
Posted on January 17, 2008In the Midland Reporter-Telegram, Bob Campbell reports, "Lubbock attorneys may help defend man accused in Odessa policemen's deaths." District Judge John G. Hyde said Wednesday that Midland attorneys Woody Leverett and Ray Fivecoat, representing 58-year-old Larry Neil White in the...
Daniel Plata Determined to Have Mental Retardation
Posted on January 17, 2008Yesterday, the Court of Criminal Appeals struck Daniel Plata's death sentence after determining that he has mental retardation. The Plata decision is here. Mike Tolson has, "Texas death row inmate's sentence is reduced to life," in the Houston Chronicle...
The Death Penalty - Unwise for Child Rape
Posted on January 17, 2008That's the title of commentary in the upcoming issue of National Law Journal by Columbia law prof Vivian Berger. LINK On Jan. 4, the U.S. Supreme Court granted Patrick Kennedy's petition to review his capital sentence for raping his eight-year...
Lethal Injection Symposium Reminder
Posted on January 16, 2008Jennifer Woo with the Columbia University Center for Bioethics has just sent me a reminder about next Wednesday's symposium at Columbia University in New York City. Here's the info: THE SUPREME COURT AND THE LEGAL, MEDICAL, AND ETHICAL CHALLENGES TO....
Locking Up Kids for Life
Posted on January 16, 2008That's the title of an editorial in today's Los Angeles Times. LINK California is paying a heavy price for its get-tough-on-crime attitude, with an underfunded and overcrowded prison system, the nation's worst recidivism rate and a rotten international image as...
An Update on Federal District Judge Sam Kent
Posted on January 16, 2008Cindy George reports, "Criminal cases stripped from Kent's docket." Federal judge Samuel Kent, who recently returned to work after a four-month paid leave of absence, has had his docket stripped of all criminal cases. Chief Judge Hayden Head made the...
Blunt's Death Plan Shows Extremism
Posted on January 16, 2008That's the title of an editorial in the Kansas City Sun regarding Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt's call for the death penalty for non-homicidal child rape. LINK Gov. Matt Blunt?s outrageous call for the death penalty for violent sexual predators shows...
Previous
Texas Governor Takes Surprising Stand In Favor Of Immigrants
Texas Governor Rick Perry, normally an ultra-conservative, surpris...
District Judge Upholds Texas' Moment of Silence Law
In 2003, the Texas legislature amended a "moment of silence" law s...
Irving, Texas Losing Students Due To Immigration Crackdown?
The Dallas Morning News had an interesting story Sunday about the ...
Two New USCIS Training Centers To Open In North Texas
The Dallas Morning News reports today that two regional training c...
Comprehensive Explanation of Irving, Texas Immigration Situation
The Dallas Morning News has a very good series of articles today a...
Dumb Texas Laws
Stupid Laws in the Lone Star State
Selection of State Supreme Court Judges
How State Court Judges are Selected
Does failure to provide health insurance benefits at the time promised constitute harm to the employee?
Yes. Failure to provide health insurance benefits is a violation of Labor Law ob...
Why is there a warrant?
A lot of times the comunication betwen departments is suverly lacking and the co...
How to tell if I have been subject to gender discrimination in hiring practices?
You didn't apply for the job. so that's a tough one. Seemingly your Bo...
What are my rights to privacy under a cohabitation agreement?
Change the locks on your door and offer her a key in exchange for the agreement....
Every since president bush passed the patriot act wich lifted the 7 yr. credit protection my father has'nt been able to land a job since! what in the hell do these people expect ex-offenders to do if they can't even work
If I understand you right. Your father's 20 year sex offender conviction wi...

Does failure to provide health insurance benefits at the time promised constitute harm to the employee?
Yes. Failure to provide health insurance benefits is a violation of Labor Law ob...
Why is there a warrant?
A lot of times the comunication betwen departments is suverly lacking and the co...
How to tell if I have been subject to gender discrimination in hiring practices?
You didn't apply for the job. so that's a tough one. Seemingly your Bo...
What are my rights to privacy under a cohabitation agreement?
Change the locks on your door and offer her a key in exchange for the agreement....
Every since president bush passed the patriot act wich lifted the 7 yr. credit protection my father has'nt been able to land a job since! what in the hell do these people expect ex-offenders to do if they can't even work
If I understand you right. Your father's 20 year sex offender conviction wi...








