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Paul House's Life in Limbo

By Tennessee Coalition to Abolish State Killing

Last Thursday, Isaac and I traveled to San Jose, CA for the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (NCADP) conference. The conference was great (as was the weather!), and we will be writing about some of our experiences there. However, in the midst of our conference, I received a phone call from Joyce House informing me that the state had appealed Judge Mattice's ruling which gave the state 180 days to try Paul House or let him go. This move by the state to appeal this ruling to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals (where House's case has already been numerous times) is so utterly disappointing that words are hard to come by. Governor Bredesen has long claimed that he wanted the courts to sort this case out. Well, this appeal by the state demonstrates what defense lawyers have long known, that the state loves to point fingers of blame at defense counsel for filing frivolous appeals in death penalty cases, and often, it is the state's delay tactics that drag these cases on and on...continue to full post

Full post as published by tcask:: on the road (to abolition) on January 21, 2008 (boomark / email).