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: Capital Defense Weekly

this week’s edition now available

By Karl R. Keys, Esq.

From this week’s edition: Leading off this edition is the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s holding in Commonwealth v. Edward Bracey.  Bracey requested a jury trial in postconviction on his “Atkins claim.”  The trial court, and later the state supreme court, denied that request.  The trial court, however, should have conducted an evidentiary hearing on the “Atkins claim” and not simply made a ruling based on the paper record. The Court, subsequently remands, following a interesting discussion on the intersection of Ring & Atkins, for a testimonial hearing  of the claim In the news Adam Liptak comments in the New York Times on the ALI Capital Punishment Resolution.  NPR reports that “[p]rosecutors sought the death penalty less often in 2009, while judges and juries handed down fewer death sentences, making it the year with the fewest people sent to death row since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976...continue to full post

Full post as published by Capital Defense Weekly on January 05, 2010 (boomark / email).