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Capital Defense Weekly 
Covering Capital Defense
Post Frequency: 17.8/day Last Entry: March 28, 2011 at 23:29:51 Recent Entries: 1052
By Karl R. Keys, Esq.
Go to Capital Defense Weekly, find other Criminal Law blogs, or browse all law blogs.
weekly
Posted on January 19, 2010The weekly email edition is now available: Leading off this edition are four new, or previously unreported, penalty phase “defense wins” from unlikely sources. Florida leads the way. In what some may call a blistering assault on the trial prosecutor, the Florida Supreme Court in Paul Beasley Johnson v...
SCOTUS action
Posted on January 19, 2010In a decision that unlikely surprised many (and predicted here) the Court today in Wellons v. Hall remands. SCOTUSBlog notes: The Court, in a second summary ruling on Tuesday, engaged in a spirited debate ? with a 5-4 result ? over when the Court should wipe out a lower court?s ruling and order it to reconsider...
looking at the next edition
Posted on January 18, 2010Caselaw from the next edition includes: Favorable to the Accused or the Condemned James Aaron Miller v. State, 2010 Ark. LEXIS 3 (Ark 1/7/2010) “We find that reversible error occurred in the penalty phase of the trial, however, when two victim-impact witnesses improperly recommended to the jury that they impose the death penalty...
weekly
Posted on January 13, 2010My sincerest apologies for a delayed edition. Leading off this belated edition is the Supreme Court’s holding in Smith v. Frank Spisak, Jr. The Court in Spisak reverses a Sixth Circuit grant of penalty phase relief. The Court below granted relief on both a jury unanimity instruction (“Mills”) and a claim relating to penalty phase ineffective [...
Smith v. Spisak
Posted on January 12, 2010The Court this morning decided Smith v. Spisak, No. 08-724 (Jan. 12, 2010) (available here). The best thing that may be said about the opinion is that it could have been a whole bunch worse.
weekly
Posted on January 11, 2010I’m in trial. I am unexpectedly going in to the second week of trial on what everyone thought was a quick one day trial scheduled for the end of the month. Still not sure why the case got moved up to the first of the month. I suspect the weekly will run...
this week’s edition now available
Posted on January 05, 2010From 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...
Whole bunch of Pennsylvania Supreme Court cases slowing things down
Posted on January 04, 2010Normally the week between Christmas and New Years Day is a slow week and the weekly doesn’t run. Someone should have told the Pennsylvania Supreme Court who released over a dozen opinions in recent days. Still working through those opinions. The list of new cases after the jump & the weekly should go out Monday [...
Sneak peek at the next edition
Posted on December 28, 2009As usually happens during Christmas week, new postings here and new opinions have been relatively light. ? Zachary Wilson v. Beard, 2009 U.S. App. LEXIS 28244 (3rd Cir 12/23/2009) The prosecution failed to turn over large amounts of impeachment evidence at trial...
weekly
Posted on December 28, 2009This week’s edition is now available: As one might expect this time of year, since the last edition there have been few notable opinions. Most notable is the Third Circuit’s opinion in Zachary Wilson v. Beard that upholds the district court’s grant of relief under Brady...
weekly edition
Posted on December 22, 2009This week’s edition’s intro: The Illinois Supreme Court’s decision in People v. Brian Nelson leads off this edition (and thanks to the loyal read whose tip off lead us to this gem). Nelson repeats a familiar refrain. A hold-out juror decided not to compromise their scruples and tried to hold out for life...
first look at this week’s edition
Posted on December 21, 2009The first draft of case law from this week’s edition is posted below: Defense People v. Brian Nelson, 2009 Ill. LEXIS 2308 (Ill 12/17/2009) Trial court erred in removing deliberating penalty phase juror simply because the juror wouldn’t go along with the majority who sought death...
Whithering on the vine
Posted on December 19, 2009Here is what I wanted to say, fortunately Matt Kelley @ Change.org is much more eloquent than I am: The Death Penalty Information Center released its annual report on the state of capital punishment in the United States today, and while it finds that the number of executions was slightly higher in 2009 than 2008, new [...
The Nation ? GraceLaw
Posted on December 18, 2009The Nation’s ten nonprofits list to donate for Christmas is out: The economist Joel Waldfogel claims Christmas presents are a waste of money because most people don’t really like what you give them. So the heck with them–bake some cookies for the folks on your list, because everyone likes cookies, and give generously to any or [...
This week’s (belated) edition
Posted on December 16, 2009From this week’s edition: Leading off this belated double edition is the Supreme Court’s holding in Beard v. Joseph Kindler. The Court in Kindler remands this habeas case back to the Third Circuit. The Pennsylvania state courts found that the fugitive forfeiture rule would bar relief on Mr...
Ninth Circuit en banc PP relief
Posted on December 10, 2009The Ninth Circuit in Pinholster v. Ayer (available here) has granted penalty phase relief on counsel’s penalty phase performance. The breadth of the majority opinion (incl. several Bush II appointees) suggests the opinion should hold.
More summary capital decisions heading this way?
Posted on December 09, 2009Two, possibly three, capital cases appear to be on the short list for cert or GVR. In the ehree cases the Court has re-listed the case for conference at least once: Robert Bryant Melson v. Allen (11th Cir -relisted six times already), Ryan v. Roger Mark Scott (9th Cir – relisted just once), and , [...
Beard v. Kindler
Posted on December 09, 2009The SCOTUS handed down Beard v. Kindler today. StandDown notes: The Supreme Court has ruled in the unusual Pennsylvania case. The AP reports, “Supreme Court tells lower courts to reconsider death penalty for Kindler,” via the Los Angeles Times...
Ohio kills with one drug
Posted on December 08, 2009Jeff Gamso sums up today’s execution in Ohio better than I ever could: The legal wrangling is over. A last minute delay was resolved. Oh, sure it took them a half hour to get him intubated, but by the standards of Ohio, the state that builds bathroom breaks into executions, thirty minutes is hardly worth mentioning...
weekly to run next week
Posted on December 07, 2009My apologies, due to time commitments elsewhere the weekly will run next week.
So is this the part where I say
Posted on December 07, 2009I think it was 12 years ago today that I emailed out the first “Capital Defense Weekly.”
weekly email edition
Posted on December 07, 2009Cases since the last edition will include: In favor of the Accused or Condemned Charles Ray Crawford v. Epps, 2009 U.S. App. LEXIS 26243 (5th Cir 12/2/2009) (unpublished) ‘[W]e grant Crawford a COA on his claim that he was subjected to a psychiatric evaluation of his competency without the benefit of counsel in violation of the Sixth [...
Texas kills
Posted on December 03, 2009Texas tonight killed Bobby Wayne Woods. The NYT has more: Bobby Wayne Woods was executed Thursday evening in Texas after his lawyers lost a battle to persuade the courts that he was too mentally impaired to qualify for capital punishment.Mr. Woods, 44, was convicted of raping and killing an 11-year-old girl in 1997...
Tennessee kills / Lackey redux
Posted on December 03, 2009Tennessee early this morning killed Cecil Johnson, Jr., In the end Cecil Johnson Jr., convicted in the fatal shooting of three people ? including a 12-year-old boy ? in 1981, was only forgiven by his son who is in prison.. . . During the execution a daughter, DeAngela Johnson, was described as turning her back and covering [...
Mo Supreme Court grants relief
Posted on December 01, 2009The Missouri Supreme Court on Tuesday granted relief in Mark Gill v. State on the failure to adequately investigate. [more]From the headnotes: The circuit court clearly erred in failing to find that the performance of Gill?s counsel was deficient and that, as a result, he suffered prejudice...
weekly’s out
Posted on December 01, 2009weekly’s up. Porter v. McCollum, a decision from the Supreme Court, leads off this edition. The Court this term, through its per curiams, seems to be really emphasizing the bright line tests for ineffectiveness. Counsel failed to adequately investigate his client?s military record and the horrors he had seen in the ugly face of war...
Wowser again
Posted on November 30, 2009Sometimes I miss having a slower practice and the ability to dodge phone calls for a bit and do a post. The per curiam in Porter v. McCollum (08-10537), here, is one of those reasons. The Court this term, through its per curiams, seems to be really emphasizing that a competent investigation, informed decision making, and [...
weekly
Posted on November 30, 2009The case law rough for this week’s edition is here. Most notable are the lethal injection opinions from Kentucky & the Sixth Circuit Thomas Clyde Bowling v. Ky. Dep’t of Corr., 2009 Ky. LEXIS 291 (Ky 11/25/2009) Kentucky’s lethal injection protocol fails as it was not adopted in accordance with the Commonwealth’s Administrative Procedure’s Act...
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It's legal to defend yourself and your family
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My fiance's check is DD into a local credit union. Bank seems to have a pattern of "invisibly holding" charges from the debit card until just HOURS before his DD is processed (and this is after hours, of course). Over th
Have your fiance take the information you've collected and go into the bank...
what are the proper and legal steps to dissolve a partnership in an ongoing farm business?
I would say that the final tax forms are dispersed for that year with the indica...
It is my understanding that the 6th Amendment requires, that if you can't afford a lawyer in a criminal case, the Court must provide a lawyer in your defense at no charge to you. However, in a civil case no such protecti
That is not entirely true, even in the case of criminal cases. The court will pr...
Attorney welt, weinberg & reis co....from pittsburgh are collecting a credit card debt from capital one can they force me to send them a list of my assets for sheriffs sale
No! Only a Judge can make you do that and that is only after you have your day i...
I was called to give a deposition for the defense and the defendant is the person who stole our car, there is a chance that I will be called to satisfy at his trial. How can I get out of this, as my husband is to testify
If you were subpoenaed for the deposition you will need to appear or face prosec...
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