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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

More Copmmentary Supporting DNA Testing for Hank Skinner

Posted on October 25, 2010
Sunday's San Antonio Express-News carried the editorial, "Confirm guilt beyond doubt by DNA testing." In Texas, a person convicted of a crime must be found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. By any sensible standard, the elimination of reasonable doubt should...

Sodium Thiopental, Texas, and the State's Desire for Secrecy

Posted on October 22, 2010
Mike Ward has just posted, "Details on execution drugs should remain secret, prison officials say," at the Austin American-Statesman. The print article will appear in tomorrow's newspaper. It's a must-read: In a new push to keep confidential details about the...

Jeffrey Landigan Case Active on Several Fronts in Arizona

Posted on October 22, 2010
"Judge asks Arizona for execution-drug source," is the title of Michael Kiefer's report in today's Arizona Republic. A federal judge has asked the Arizona Department of Corrections to voluntarily disclose where a drug was obtained that is needed for Tuesday's...

Texas Execution

Posted on October 22, 2010
Texas carried out its 17th execution of the year, last night in Huntsville. It was the state's 464th execution since 1982; the 225th in the administration of Governor Rick Perry. Texas has far and away the most active death chamber...

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Why the Death Penalty Still Exists in the US

Posted on October 22, 2010
That's the title of a book review of Peculiar Institution: America?s Death Penalty in an Age of Abolition by David Garland, in today's Boston Globe. The review is subtitled, "Author ties the practice to slavery, racism," and is written by...

CCA Rules Former Inmate Innocent

Posted on October 21, 2010
"Court: Texas man freed after 27 years is innocent," is Juan Lozano's AP report, via the Washington Post. Texas' highest criminal court formally ruled Wednesday that a Houston man who was freed earlier this year after spending 27 years in...

Mission Impossible?

Posted on October 21, 2010
That's the title of Jordan Smith's look at the Court of Criminal Appeals and the upcoming general election in the current Austin Chronicle. It's subtitled, "Hampton seeks to break GOP lock on Appeals court." Here's the thorny question facing local...

Additional Willingham News Coverage

Posted on October 21, 2010
"Are Fire Marshals Shirking Their Duty?," is Jordan Smith's article in the current issue of the Austin Chronicle. In court testimony last week, two nationally recognized fire-science experts roundly discredited evidence that sent Cameron Todd Willingham to the death chamber...

The Latest Commentary on Todd Willingham

Posted on October 21, 2010
If you missed Tuesday broadcast of the PBS Frontline documentary, "Death by Fire," you can watch the complete episode at the link. "Junk science and the death penalty, a toxic combination," that's the title of an editorial in today's Houston...

Texas Execution

Posted on October 21, 2010
Texas is scheduled to carry out its 17th execution of the year, tonight in Huntsville. It would be the state's 464th execution since 1982; the 225th in the administration of Governor Rick Perry. Texas has far and away the most...

Arizona Supreme Court Rejects Information Request

Posted on October 21, 2010
Today's Arizona Republic reports, "Arizona court won't require info on execution drug." It's written by Michael Kiefer. The Arizona Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to force the Arizona Department of Corrections to disclose where it obtained the drugs needed to...

The Landrigan Case in Arizona

Posted on October 21, 2010
A. Bates Butler III, a former U.S. Attorney for Arizona writes the OpEd, "Man on death row deserves life term; Trial judge never was told of his brain damage," for today's Arizona Republic. Jeffrey Landrigan is scheduled to be executed...

A Notorious Nevada First

Posted on October 20, 2010
Scott Christianson writes, "The United States' first gas-chamber execution occured in Carson City on February 8, 1924," for the November/December issue of Nevada Magazine. Early one chilly Friday morning, February 8, 1924, national attention briefly focused on the hard-rock state...

David Kaczynski on the Journey of Hope

Posted on October 20, 2010
"David Kaczynski: Unabomber's Brother Campaigns Against Death Penalty," is the title of Craig Malisow's post at the Houston Press. Once you become forever known as "The Unabomber's Brother," there are probably two ways you can go: you can do your...

The Eighth Amendment and the Fifth Circuit

Posted on October 20, 2010
"Sotomayor dissents from cert denial in Louisana prisoner rights fight," is the title of Marcia Coyle's post at the National Law Journal Supreme Court Insider. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit took just...

Texas Judge Feels Vindicated

Posted on October 20, 2010
That's the title of the AP report on Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Presiding Judge Sharon Keller. It's via the Washington Post. LINK Texas' top criminal judge said Tuesday she feels vindicated that a special court dismissed a public reprimand...

The Death Penalty and Connecticut Politics

Posted on October 20, 2010
Today's New York Times reports, "Murder Trial Puts Death Penalty in Spotlight in Connecticut Campaigns." It's written by Paul Bass. If Dannel P. Malloy?s gubernatorial campaign had the authority to set Connecticut?s court calendar, it probably would have scheduled the...

Hearing on Arizona LI Drug

Posted on October 20, 2010
"US company not source of Landrigan execution drug," is the AP report posted by Paul Davenport, via the Arizona Capitol Times. A knockout drug that Arizona plans to use in an upcoming execution was not made by the sole U.S....

Reminder - PBS Frontline Tonight

Posted on October 19, 2010
The Frontline episode, "Death by Fire," airs tonight at 8:00 pm (CDT), 9:00 pm (EDT.) Check your local listings, as they say. The New York Times has a review, "Questioning the Guilt of an Executed Father," by Mike Hale. The...

An Update on Troy Davis

Posted on October 19, 2010
"Judge says Troy Davis should appeal directly to U.S. Supreme Court," is the breaking report from the Savannah Morning News. It's by Jan Skutch. Attorneys for Troy Anthony Davis must appeal a denial of a new trial to the U.S....

An Update on the Arizona LI Drug Litigation

Posted on October 19, 2010
"Arizona execution caught in drug supply debate," is the title of Paul Davenport's AP report, via the Arizona Capitol Times. Claims based on politics, untested evidence and an undisclosed source for a drug in short supply will be debated as...

A Challenge to Post-Conviction Indigent Defense in Mississippi

Posted on October 19, 2010
Today's Jackson Clarion-Ledger reports, "State's legal help for death row inmates called failure," by Jimmie E. Gates. Mississippi consistently has appointed unqualified, underfunded and overburdened attorneys to represent death row inmates in their appeals, a petition filed Monday with the...

Judge Keller

Posted on October 19, 2010
Mary Alice Robbins posts, "Judge Sharon Keller Speaks Out About Dismissal of Misconduct Charges," at Texas Lawyer. Here's the opening: Breaking her silence after three years, Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Presiding Judge Sharon Keller says she feels "vindicated" by...

Texas Wants to Execute a Man Without Examining All the Evidence

Posted on October 19, 2010
That's the title of an editorial in today's Washington Post, following up on the Supreme Court oral arguments in Hank Skinner's case. LINK Mr. Skinner, who has consistently maintained his innocence, twice has failed to persuade Texas judges to allow....

Future Dangerousness

Posted on October 19, 2010
"Longtime expert witness unreliable, court says," is the report in today's Austin American-Statesman. It's written by Steven Kreytak. In his decades working as a forensic psychiatrist, Dr. Richard Coons of Austin has testified at dozens of death penalty trials across...

In San Antonio

Posted on October 18, 2010
"Questions raised on death penalty," is the title of Jan Jarboe Russell's latest column in the San Antonio Express-News. Despite the wishes of the family of the murdered Viola Barrios, as much a saint in San Antonio as a restaurateur,...

Perry & White on Capital Punishment

Posted on October 18, 2010
The Texas Tribune has posted interviews conducted by Evan Smith with the two major gubernatorial candidates, Republican Rick Perry and Democrat Bill White. Smith asks both candidates, "Why not issue stays of execution across death row until we can be...

Andrew Cohen on Judge Keller

Posted on October 18, 2010
"A Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very-Bad Week in the Law," is Andrew Cohen's post at the Atlantic. Day after day, drip after drip, came bad tidings. That creaking sound you thought you heard Monday? It was the sound of a thousand...

Radley Balko on Willingham and Skinner

Posted on October 18, 2010
Balko posts, "Texas Officials Continue Coverup of One Possible Wrongful Execution; Fight To Proceed With Another," at his hit & run blog at Reason.com. The striking thing about both cases is that Texas government officials are staking out a position....

Death, DNA and the Supreme Court

Posted on October 18, 2010
That's the title of an editorial in the Sunday New York Times. LINK In an age when DNA technology can help identify the guilty and avoid grave miscarriages of justice, states should not be allowed to block testing of available...

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