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Texas Death Penalty Blog

Death penalty cases and legislation in Texas and elsewhere.
By "Persian Cowboy"

Post Frequency: 3.3/day

Last Entry: July 21, 2016 at 22:00:00

Lynching Then, Lynching Now: The roots of racism and the death penalty in America

Posted on February 09, 2010
A National Speaking Tour of the CEDP. Austin, Texas Saturday Feb. 20 UT in Welch 3.502Workshop with Alan Bean: 4:00 to 5:30Evening Panel Event: 6:30 to 8:00Panelists include:Alan Bean ? Executive Director, Friends of Justice.http://friendsofjustice...

Pending Legal Actions for Hank Skinner

Posted on February 07, 2010
Henry Watkins SkinnerSet to be Executed February 24, 2010Huntsville, Texas Pending Legal ActionsHenry W. Skinner vs. Rick Thaler, Director TDCJ-CIDThis is an appeal from Mr. Skinner's inital federal habeas claimsU.S. Supreme Court, Case No. 09-7784Docket information is available online athttp://origin...

TCASK TCStudent Conference on the Death Penalty

Posted on February 06, 2010
Saturday, February 6, 2010 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. (9:00 a.m. check-in) Middle Tennessee State University Business and Aerospace Building Learn about the death penalty in Tennessee and how you can effect change High school and college students are invited to attend this free conference which includes national speakers and organizers as well as Tennessee activists...

UT Austin Tribunal: Death Penalty Guilty on All Counts

Posted on February 05, 2010
On Tuesday, February 26, 2008, UT students presented a strong evidence against the continued use of the death penalty. The verdict: Capital Punishment was found Guilty on All Counts!

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Help Hank Skinner Get a DNA Testing Before His Execution Day

Posted on February 05, 2010
First of all, thank you to all who are forwarding and promoting the support note for Hank's Clemency Petition; please continue to do so! Both petitions (commutation and reprieve) as well as three statements attached to the petitions can be downloaded in the "legal documents" section of the website...

The David Lee Powell Story

Posted on February 04, 2010
In the early morning hours of May 18, 1978, Austin police officer Ralph Ablanedo pulled over a red Mustang on a minor traffic violation. The car was missing a rear license tag, and the driver, Sheila Meinert, was driving without a license. Ablanedo called to run a check on Meinert and her boyfriend David Lee Powell, the owner of the car, but the computer system was down...

More on How John Bradley Violated Texas Open Meetings Act at TFSC Meeting

Posted on February 03, 2010
Rick Casey of the Houston Chronicle had a column yesterday on how Rick Perry's handpicked puppet/chair of the Texas Forensic Science Commission violated the Texas Open Meetings Act (PDF) at Friday's meeting, which was held in Harlingen. The Dallas Morning News' Trailblazer blog first reported on Bradley's violation of the TOMA...

Breaking News: Gabriel Gonzales's sentence was Commuted to Life with Parol

Posted on February 01, 2010
GREAT NEWS ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Gabriel Gonzales just had his sentence commuted to life with parole. Gabriel had been an activist on death row and a member of the DRIVE organizarion. He's been in San Antonio for a good while hoping for a new trial. Thanks to Lilliana for this news!More updates coming soon...

Report from the Meeting of Texas Forensic Science Commission

Posted on February 01, 2010
Todd Willingham's name was never spoken aloud at the meeting of the Forensic ScienceCommission Friday in Harlingen. Yet his presence was certainly there, loud and clear. Grits For Breakfast live blogged the meeting.Members of the Abolition Movement and the Rio Grande Valley chapter each carried bright yellow foam boards with Todd's picture on them and we added different slogans...

Innocence Project to webcast Texas Forensic Science Commission meeting tomorrow

Posted on January 28, 2010
The Texas Forensic Science Commission is meeting tomorrow for the first timein six months. This is the commission's first meeting since Gov. Rick Perrysuddenly replaced its chair and several of its members while it was in themiddle of an investigation into the case of Cameron Todd Willingham...

Dallas Morning News: "Judge Keller shouldn't get a pass"

Posted on January 26, 2010
Last week, the San Antonio Express-News called for Judge Sharon Keller's removal from office. Now, the Dallas Morning News has become the second newspaper to call for a harsher punishment than was recommended by the special master Judge David Berchelmann, Jr...

San Antonio Express-News: "Remove Sharon Keller from appeals court post"

Posted on January 26, 2010
San Antonio Express-News is the first paper to publish an opinion about case of Judge Sharon Keller after the special master and republican Judge David Berchelmann, Jr issued his findings. The key finding in State District Judge David Berchelmann's report on Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Sharon Keller is that she ?did not violate any written or unwritten rules or laws...

Special Master has issued his Findings of Fact in the case of Judge Sharon Keller

Posted on January 23, 2010
The Special Master has issued his Findings of Fact in the case of Judge Sharon Keller. The special master is Republican Judge David Berchelmann, Jr. Keller is also a Republican. The document can be located on the website of the State Commission on Judicial Conduct at http://www...

Abolition Movement at Houston's 32nd MLK Parade

Posted on January 15, 2010
Fellow Abolitionists and Activists,Here are details for helping the Texas Death Penalty Abolition movement with our outreach activities on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Monday, Jan. 18. Please email abolition.movement@hotmail.com and confirm if you can come and join in the outreach for abolition...

Statesman: "it's time to address state's flawed system"

Posted on January 14, 2010
"Death penalty: With doubts raised, it's time to address state's flawed system," is the title of Austin American-Statesman's last editorial of 2009.Like the overdue family chat about the uncle everybody knows is not quite right, it's time for Texas to talk about something many folks know is not quite right...

Execution Watch: On the execution of Kenneth Mosley

Posted on January 14, 2010
Jan. 7, 2009, Thurs., 6-7 pm CT Listen on KPFT's HD-2 channel, 90.1 FM Houston, or Go to www.executionwatch. org at 6 p.m. CT, click on ?Listen.? SCHEDULED TO BE EXECUTED KENNETH MOSLEY, 51, convicted in the 1997 death of Garland, Texas, Police Officer Michael David Moore, who responded to a call about a bank robbery and was shot during a struggle over Mosley?s weapon...

Terri Been's Phone Call with Sister Helen Prejean

Posted on January 13, 2010
Today, I received the phone call from Sister Helen Prejean that I won from the Texas Moratorium Network raffle. This really was an honor for me, and Sister Helen was as thoughtful and generous as I have heard. When she called, she was actually on her way home from a death row visit in Louisiana...

Death Penalty Action website

Posted on January 13, 2010
Our UK colleague, Simon Shepherd at Death Watch International, has developed a terrific website for all of is. It is unbranded, so that it will be easier for everyone working for abolition of the death penalty to use.The site ? www.deathpenaltyaction...

Sharon Keller said "we close at 5" in Case in Which State's Expert Psychologist Used Junk Science to Evaluate Defendant's Mental Retardation

Posted on January 11, 2010
H/T to Texas Moratorium Network:The Texas Observer is reporting in the article "Cracked", by Ren�e Feltz that the prosecution's expert psychologist used junk science to determine that the defendant in the case in which Sharon Keller slammed shut the doors of her court by saying "we close at 5" did not have mental retardation...

Grits' Biggest Texas criminal justice stories of 2009

Posted on January 03, 2010
At the beginning of the new year, it's worth taking a moment to recall some of the biggest Texas criminal justice stories of 2009. It's a partial list, cut short by babysitting duties this morning, so let me know in the comments what I missed.Sharon Keller on the dock: The Commission on Judicial Conduct ordered a fact finding hearing to determine whether Presiding Judge Sharon Keller deserves to be removed from the bench for rejecting a last-minute death penalty appeal on bureaucratic grounds ("We close at 5") without notifying the duty judge whose job it was to evaluate it...

David Grann's article on Todd Willingham was the "most powerful essay" of 2009

Posted on December 25, 2009
David Brooks of the New York Times says that David Grann's article on Todd Willingham was the "most powerful essay" he read all year and worthy of a Sidney Award. Read his entire article "The Sidney Awards".Every year, I give out Sidney Awards to the best magazine essays of the year...

Book: Angel of Death Row: My Life as a Death Penalty Defense Lawyer (Hardcover)

Posted on December 16, 2009
Angel of Death Row by Andrea Lyon is going to become available in January of 2010. It is a collection of stories that complete her memoirs on a life of service as a death penalty trial attorney. While her book is not meant to be an argumentative piece for or against the death penalty, it is clear that Ms...

Exonerees, lawyers fees and innocence compensation: A personal perspective on an ugly dispute

Posted on December 14, 2009
Last week an article about an exoneree suing his attorneys was printed in several papers. At the time I knew that something was not right, that the whole story was not being printed but I had not caught up with being out of town and responded yet. I know Jeff Blackburn, with the Innocence Project of Texas, and know him to be a very hard-working, extremely dedicated attorney...

Watch "Dead Man Walking" Free Online and Enter Drawing to Win Phone Call from Sister Helen Prejean

Posted on December 04, 2009
Hulu.com is streaming the full movie of "Dead Man Walking" this month, so if you never got a chance to see it, now you can watch it for free online.You can also enter Texas Moratorium Network's free drawing to win a phone conversation with Sister Helen Prejean...

?Holiday Card Signing Party for Death-Row Inmates?

Posted on December 01, 2009
Wednesday, December 3 at 7PMAt UT in Parlin, Room 302Death Row is a horrible place. Prisoners are kept in their cells 23hours of the day without group recreation, education programs, oradequate food. This holiday season, the Campaign to End the DeathPenalty is trying to bring a little bit of joy to an otherwise bleakand miserable place...

Memoir: MOTHER CALIFORNIA: A Story of Redemption Behind Bars

Posted on November 30, 2009
If you are interested in what really happens inside prison or just want to experience a great memoir, MOTHER CALIFORNIA: A Story of Redemption Behind Bars, by Kenneth E. Hartman, is the book to read. Kenneth E. Hartman has served 30 continuous years in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation on a life without the possibility of parole sentence...

Video from Death Row: Possibly Retarded Prisoner Faces Execution

Posted on November 30, 2009
Ren�e Feltz of the Texas Observer has the following article and video interview on the case of mentally retarded death-row inmate Bobby Woods. Woods is scheduled to be executed next Wednesday.When Texas reopens its execution chamber after a Thanksgiving break, the first man set to die may be mentally retarded...

Texas's highest criminal court harrassing anti-death penalty lawyers

Posted on November 28, 2009
By Mary Alice Robbins, Texas LawyerNovember 25, 2009CCA Show Cause Order Directs Lawyers to Explain Untimely Filing Two years ago, David Dow and the Texas Defender Service were embroiled in a controversy after a thwarted last-minute attempt to file pleadings for a death-row inmate...

Saudis Urged to Reverse Death Sentence on ?Witchcraft'

Posted on November 25, 2009
A human-rights organization says the Saudi authorities are arbitrarily executing people for witchcraft.Saudi Arabia is being urged by Human Rights Watch to stop meting out the death penalty for alleged witchcraft.Human Rights Watch (HRW) is calling on Riyadh to cease applying capital punishment, to codify its criminal laws and update the criminal procedure law...

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