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Criminal Law

Capital Defense Weekly

Covering Capital Defense
By Karl R. Keys, Esq.

Post Frequency: 17.8/day

Last Entry: March 28, 2011 at 23:29:51

email editions are back

Posted on June 07, 2009
The email edition is now available. From the intro: Two SCOTUS cases kick off this edition, as well as follow-up on Daryl Atkins of Atkins v. Virginia fame. The first of the two SCOTUS case is Montejo v. Louisiana. Faegre & Benson’s Supreme Court Update interprets Montejo thusly: in Michigan v...

Conn. repeal dead for now

Posted on June 06, 2009
As expected, Conn.’s governor has vetoed that state’s death penalty repeal bill.

Reginald Clemons stayed

Posted on June 06, 2009
In an unsigned order the Eighth Circuit has stayed the execution of Reginald Clemons which Missouri had scheduled for later this month. The reason(s) for the stay aren’t known as of this posting.

A death in the rust belt

Posted on June 04, 2009
via NYT: A man who burned a woman alive was executed in Ohio?s first death by lethal injection since the state revised its protocol on the procedure. The man, Daniel Wilson, 39, was sentenced to death for the 1991 slaying of Carol Lutz, 24. He locked Ms...

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200 & counting

Posted on June 04, 2009
Scott Cobb has an exceptional wrap-up of the 200th execution under Gov. Rick Perry.

Bobby v. Bies

Posted on June 04, 2009
via SCOTUSBlog: On Monday, the Court released its opinion in Bobby v. Bies, unanimously reversing the Sixth Circuit?s decision in favor of the criminal defendant. At issue in the case was whether double jeopardy barred Ohio from holding a hearing to determine the mental competency of an inmate sentenced to death before Atkins v...

Catching up

Posted on June 04, 2009
Over the course of the next few days I’ll be catching up.� As those who know me (if even only through social networking sites) know, I closed on a house last week and have been busy moving in, etc.� Now that everything is settling down again I’m hoping to catch up with a few pro [...

on holiday

Posted on May 29, 2009
We’re gone until Tuesday, if not longer. The weekly won’t run this week.

weekly email edition

Posted on May 26, 2009
The weekly email edition is now available.� From the intro: Two trial court wins “kick off “this edition. The first win is noted by DPIC. “Daniel Wade Moore was acquitted of all charges by a jury in Alabama on May 14.� Moore was originally found guilty of the murder and sexual assault of Karen Tipton in 2002...

inching towards New England abolition

Posted on May 22, 2009
Conn.’s Senate has voted to abolish the death penalty prospectively at 4:00 am Friday morning by a vote of 19 to 17.

Florida stay

Posted on May 22, 2009
via local media The Florida Supreme Court today stayed the execution of convicted murderer David Eugene Johnston, who was scheduled to die by lethal injection on Wednesday. Gov. Charlie Crist signed the death warrant on April 20, but Johnston appealed a judge’s denial of his motion to have DNA testing on his tennis [...

executions

Posted on May 20, 2009
from the wires: Two death row inmates spent some of their last moments apologizing for their crimes before they were put to death six hours apart in Texas and Missouri, which executed its first convict in four years. In a lengthy, written final statement, Dennis Skillicorn expressed sorrow for the 1994 murder of a Richard Drummond, who [...

weekly update

Posted on May 19, 2009
The weekly email edition is now available.� From the intro: The Fourth Circuit in Justin Wolfe v. Johnson has remanded noting that the Commonwealth’s only witness linking the condemned to murder recanted.� At trial the actual trigger man, Owen Barber, told jurors that Wolfe paid him to kill the decedent, a drug dealer...

Cert grants

Posted on May 18, 2009
The Court today granted cert in Jeffrey Beard v. Kindler &� Holly Wood v. Allen.� The SCOTUSBlog on the Kindler grant notes: Docket: 08-992 Title: Beard v. Kindler Issue:� Is a state procedural rule automatically ?inadequate? under the adequate-state-grounds doctrine - and therefore unenforceable on federal habeas corpus review - because the state rule is discretionary rather than [...

Robert Tennard — update?

Posted on May 17, 2009
Unconfirmed reports over the weekend that Robert Tennard has entered a plea agreement sentencing him to life following remand (and related litigation) in� Tennard v. Dretke.

Clemency denied, Oklahoma prepares to kill

Posted on May 14, 2009
Oklahoma’s Governor has rejected the recommendation of the state’s Pardon and Parole Board that Donald Lee Gilson should be spared.�� Mr. Gilson is now slated to be executed Thursday. Donald Lee Gilson is scheduled to receive a lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester...

RJA moves closer to passage in North Carolina

Posted on May 13, 2009
The Judiciary Committees of both the NC House and NC Senate Tuesday passed the NC Racial Justice Act. The bill goes for a vote in the morning in the full Senate and afternoon in the full House. In the words of Stephen Dear “This is a unique and powerful bill to make the death penalty [...

one step closer to a death penalty free New England

Posted on May 13, 2009
Media accounts note that the Connecticut House of Representatives: voted Wednesday night, the fourth anniversary of the execution of serial killer Michael Ross, to abolish the death penalty in Connecticut and instead impose life in prison without the possibility of release...

All charges dropped against Paul House

Posted on May 12, 2009
Tennessean.com reports prosecutors have dropped charges against Paul House this morning. DPIC should have more shortly.

Anniversary of a notable execution

Posted on May 12, 2009
via Executed Today: On this date in 1993, Leonel Herrera was executed by lethal injection in Huntsville, Texas, for shooting two policemen. Herrera?s last statement averred, Herrera?s sister Norma self-published this book about the case ? keeping a promise to her executed brother...

The Palmetto State kills

Posted on May 09, 2009
via the wires: An Alabama man convicted of killing a police officer has been executed in South Carolina. Thomas Treshawn Ivey was put to death by lethal injection and pronounced dead at 6:15 p.m. Friday in the state’s death chamber in Columbia. The 34-year-old made no final statement...

Colorado - repeal goes down to the wire

Posted on May 06, 2009
From the wires: he fight over a proposal to abolish the death penalty in Colorado is going down to the wire. State lawmakers plan to meet Wednesday morning, the final day of the legislative session, to decide whether to revive a bill that originally would have ended the death penalty and used the savings to fund a [...

one vote shy

Posted on May 06, 2009
In Colorado repeal efforts came within vote of making that state the third to abolish in recent years. Folks on the ground in Colorado appear to have done one heck of a job even if their efforts came up a little short.� This vote wasn’t supposed to be anywhere near this close...

weekly email

Posted on May 04, 2009
The draft of the weekly email is here.� It should be going out in the morning.

kewl new research from DPIC

Posted on May 04, 2009
DPIC has released some great new research on per capita death sentences & executions.� Texas isn’t necessarily in first. DPIC has two new resources for comparing the use of the death penalty in the various states.� The first is a chart� listing the states in order of their total death sentences as a fraction [...

Colorado: not quite yet

Posted on May 04, 2009
The Colorado Senate tonight has decided to put off, for now, a decision on abolition.

Court watch: Justice Souter to step down

Posted on May 01, 2009
The NYT reports Justice David Souter is likely to resign in the coming months.

Texas kills

Posted on April 30, 2009
Derrick Lamone Johnson was killed by Texas Thursday night.� The AP notes: A Texas man was executed Thursday for the rape and slaying of a woman abducted while she was trying to make a call at a pay phone 10 years ago. Derrick Lamone Johnson, 28, was the 14th Texas prisoner executed this year in the nation’s [...

Georgia kills

Posted on April 30, 2009
Georgia has killed William Mark Mize. Local media notes: William Mark Mize said he was ready to die Wednesday evening, moments before the state executed the 52-year-old white supremacist for a 1994 murder in Oconee County. His last appeals denied Wednesday by state and federal courts, Mize was put to death by lethal injection at the [...

Georgia stay (at least for now)

Posted on April 29, 2009
The scheduled execution of William Mark Mize has been stayed in Georgia, at least for now. A technical legal matter pushed back Tuesday’s planned execution of Georgia death row inmate William Mark Mize for at least one day, officials said. The Georgia Supreme Court granted a stay of execution to give Oconee County Superior Court Judge Lawton [...

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