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Criminal Law

StandDown Texas Project

Texas-centric examination of conditions, reform initiatives, and emerging issues related to best practices in the indigent criminal justice system with particular attention to issues involving capital punishment and the administration of the death penalty.
By StandDown Texas Project

Post Frequency: 49.3/day

Last Entry: April 01, 2011 at 14:21:29

More on Kevin Keith in Ohio

Posted on July 13, 2009
The Saturday edition of the Columbus Dispatch carried Mark Godsey's OpEd, "Death Row case warrants another look to ensure that justice is done." Godsey is director of the Ohio Innocence Project, based in Cincinnati. Here's an extended excerpt: If Ohio...

State Court Approves Washington State's Lethal Injection Procedure

Posted on July 13, 2009
Saturday's Tacoma News Tribune carried the AP report, "Superior Court upholds state death penalty," by Rachel LaCorte. A judge has affirmed Washington state?s procedures for executing prisoners by lethal injection, turning aside complaints that condemned inmates could be partially conscious...

Justice Ginsburg

Posted on July 10, 2009
This Sunday's New York Times Magazine features an interview with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, "The Place of Women on the Court," conducted by Emily Bazelon. This is from the introduction: In late February, three weeks after she had an operation...

A Sotomayor Roundup

Posted on July 10, 2009
Monday, the Senate Judiciary Committee begins it's confirmation hearing on Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor. The Committee has additional information here. The Washington Post and the Brennan Center for Justice have both issued extensive reports examining Judge Sotomayor's judidical opinions...

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A Judge Reflects and Acts

Posted on July 10, 2009
For all the clarity we seek through the judicial process, sometimes events remain unclear and facts uncertain. Ohio's Toledo Blade reports, "Man may win parole, thanks to Skow letter: Judge came to feel he erred in '97 case," written by...

AG Eric Holder Speaks at Vera Institute

Posted on July 10, 2009
The Department of Justice has released the Attorney General's prepared comments. LINK Here's an excerpt from this must-read: The Vera Institute of Justice has been an extraordinary partner to government in the administration of justice. I thank you in particular...

An Update on Pittsburgh's Exoneration Art

Posted on July 10, 2009
The artist Dan Bolick has posted, "Painting the Exonerated," at the Innocence Project's Innocence Blog. His exhibit at the Westmoreland Museum of American Artis noted here. An excerpt: I taught art for the inner-city Pittsburgh Public Schools for many years,...

Indigent Defense in Nevada

Posted on July 09, 2009
Today's Las Vegas Sun carries the AP report, "Report: Nev. public defenders need lighter loads." Public defenders in the Las Vegas and Reno areas face overwhelming caseloads that result in a lack of "competent and diligent" assistance to poor people....

John Holdridge on Geographic Disparity of the Death Penalty

Posted on July 09, 2009
The director of the ACLU Capital Punishment Project writes, "Sentenced To Death Because Of Where You Live: The Death Penalty?s Geographic Bias," at the ACLU Blog of Rights. Americans have become increasingly troubled by the profound flaws in our capital...

Pennsylvania Legislation Calls for Pre-Trial Mental Retardation Determination

Posted on July 09, 2009
The AP report, "News from the Pennsylvania General Assembly," via Philly.com, contains: The Senate voted 45-2 to approve a bill that would establish a pretrial process to determine whether a defendant potentially facing the death penalty is mentally retarded...

Judicial Conference to Review Prosecution Disclosure Obligations

Posted on July 09, 2009
That's the title of a post at The BLT by Mike Scarcella. LINK Amending the rules of criminal procedure to require prosecutors to disclose any exculpatory information to the defense will be considered during the October meeting of the Judicial...

David Lee Powell

Posted on July 09, 2009
"Austin officer's killer files new claim," is the title of Tony Plohetski's report in today's Austin American-Statesman. The day before a judge was to begin considering the execution date of a man convicted of killing an Austin police officer, his...

Today's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Posted on July 08, 2009
Today's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has, "Exonerated prisoners' stories are depicted in artist's project," written by Mary Thomas. Daniel Bolick never expected to meet his Muse in the darkness he was navigating through. But out of torment came purpose and a clarity...

The Latest From Gallup

Posted on July 08, 2009
"Special Report: Ideologically, Where Is the U.S. Moving?" is by Linda Saad of Gallup. This polling covers a wide array of issues and broad themes examining differences between 2004 polling and polling conducted in 2008/2009. The executive summary could be:...

When Governments Kill

Posted on July 08, 2009
That's the title of commentary by conservative political guru Richard Viguerie in the July issue of Sojourners magazine. It's subtitled, "A conservative argues for abolishing the death penalty." On most public policy matters, Jim Wallis and I disagree...

More on the Hounds of Fort Bend County

Posted on July 07, 2009
Rick Casey, the Houston Chronicle award-winning columnist, writes, "Dog?s nose fallible as a crime lab." DNA has shown conclusively that people are unreliable. Eyewitness identification is often misidentification. Hair matches? Too often they match too many heads...

The Trover Shop on Pennsylvania, SE

Posted on July 07, 2009
It's just across the street from the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. For years, it's been on my short list of one of the best non-fiction book stores in the nation. Today's Washington Post reports, "After Half-Century on the...

Rodricks on Exonerations

Posted on July 07, 2009
The Baltimore Sun columnist and blogger Dan Rodricks latest is, "Death penalty 'exonerations'." Here's an extended excerpt, but doubters should read the entire post. Recently, I made another reference to the number of Death Row inmates across the country who...

ABA: Sotomayor Well Qualified

Posted on July 07, 2009
"American Bar Association gives Sotomayor top rating," is the Reuters report via the Washington Post. The American Bar Association on Tuesday gave U.S. Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor its top rating, boosting her anticipated confirmation as the first Hispanic justice...

Guilty by a 10-2 Vote: Efficient or Unconstitutional?

Posted on July 07, 2009
That's the title of Adam Liptak's latest Sidebar column in today's New York Times. LINK Here's an extended excerpt: ?Twelve Angry Men? might have been a much shorter movie had it been set in Oregon. Instead of letting Juror No....

New Lethal Injection Scholarship

Posted on July 06, 2009
Ty Alper's, "The Truth about Physician Participation in Lethal Injection Executions," is at SSRN and soon to be published in the North Carolina Law Review. Alper is associate director of UC Berkeley Law School's Death Penalty Clinic. Here's the abstract:...

Most Texas Prisons Lack A/C

Posted on July 06, 2009
That's the title of an AP report carried in today's Austin American-Statesman. LINK Only 19 of 112 Texas state prisons are air-conditioned, leaving most of the state's 155,000 prisoners and those who guard them to face the summer heat with...

More News From California's Lethal Injection Public Hearing

Posted on July 06, 2009
Last week's hearing for public comment on the state's proposed lethal injection protocol concuded Tuesday afternoon, but is still making news. "Morales suffered physical, psychological attack on day of execution, attorneys say," is the title of Scott Smith's report in...

Capital Prosecutions in One Louisiana Parish

Posted on July 06, 2009
Today's New Orleans Times-Picayune carries the report, "Surge in death penalty prosecutions slows in Jefferson Parish," written by Paul Purpura. Here are two excerpts from the lengthy article: After Louisiana reinstated the death penalty in 1975, Jefferson Parish juries sent...

Double Tragedies

Posted on July 06, 2009
That's the title of a new report issued by the National Alliance on Mental Illness, available here. The news release, "Death Penalty and Mental Illness: Families of Victims Speak Out at National Convention; 'Double Tragedies' Report Released," is by Susannah...

Art in London

Posted on July 03, 2009
"Face-to-face with death row inmates at London show," is the title of Julie Mollins' Reuters report. Death row inmates depicted in oil paintings by British artist Claire Phillips, on view in London's South Bank gallery@oxo, have one thing in common.....

The Death Penalty in New Mexico

Posted on July 03, 2009
Albuquerque Journal writer Leslie Linthicum writes "Closing the N.M. Death Penalty Door." The death penalty has been repealed, but two capital trials may yet take place for crimes committed before the new law took effect. Linthicum's column appeared in the...

California Counties Diverge on Death Penalty

Posted on July 03, 2009
That's the title of Phillip Reece's article in today's Sacramento Bee. LINK Murderers are more likely to be sentenced to death in conservative California counties, particularly in the southern part of the state, according to a Bee analysis of recent....

Cultural Background Gains Traction as a Legal Defense

Posted on July 02, 2009
That's the title of an article in today's Wall Street Journal written by Amir Efrati. LINK The old saw among law enforcement is that ignorance of the law is no defense. But some think it should be, at least in...

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