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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

Charles Lane on the Lethal Injection Drug Shortage

Posted on February 02, 2011
The Washington Post writer posts, "Europe's dangerous death penalty gesture," to the Post's PostPartisan blog. According to political stereotypes, Europeans are worldly, realistic moral relativists while Americans, with our "exceptionalism" and periodic crusades to democratize the world, are comparatively idealistic...

George Ryan Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

Posted on February 02, 2011
Today's ABA Journal carries, "Law Prof Nominates Imprisoned Gov. for Nobel Peace Prize, Sees Message in No. 167," by Debra Cassens Weiss. Imprisoned former Illinois Gov. George Ryan deserves the Nobel Peace Prize for halting executions in the state, according...

More on the FDA Suit

Posted on February 02, 2011
Nathan Koppel posts, "FDA Dragged Into Execution-Drug Controversy," at the Wall Street Journal Law Blog. Last month, the FDA announced that it would permit prison officials to import thiopental to their hearts? content. But the agency said it also would...

A New Push on Federal Judicial Nominees

Posted on February 02, 2011
The BLT reports, "Obama's Lawyer Previews New Push to Confirm Judges." It's posted by David Ingram. In a rare public appearance, White House Counsel Robert Bauer pleaded today for senators to allow confirmation votes on more of President Barack Obama's...

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Lawsuit Filed Against FDA Over Imported Sodium Thiopental

Posted on February 02, 2011
"Lawsuit Filed Against FDA To Prohibit The Importation And Use Of Unapproved Sodium Thiopental In Lethal Injections," is the news release issued by attorneys for the inmate plaintiffs. The civil lawsuit, Beaty, et al. v. FDA, is available in Adobe...

New Hampshire Legislative Committee to Hear Expansion Bills

Posted on February 01, 2011
"Bills to expand death penalty to be heard today," is the title of Tom Fahey's article in the New Hampshire Union Leader. Two bills to expand the use of the death penalty in New Hampshire come before the House Criminal...

Wrong Direction for Death Penalty

Posted on February 01, 2011
That's the title of an editorial in today's Virginian Pilot. Sen. Mark Obenshain is once again pushing a proposal to expand Virginia's use of capital punishment by doing away with the so-called "triggerman rule." The move comes despite the state's...

Lawyers Seek to Question Former California Governor

Posted on February 01, 2011
Today's Silicon Valley Mercury News reports, "Lawyers for death row inmates seek to question Schwarzenegger on execution procedures." It's by Howard Mintz. Lawyers for death row inmates are trying to question former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and other top state officials...

More Acclaim for David Dow's Book

Posted on February 01, 2011
David Dow's The Autobiography of an Execution, is one of three finalists for a nonfiction book award by Barnes & Noble. The announcement was made earlier today in a press release. The winners will be announced on Wednesday, March 2,...

Tonight on PBS

Posted on February 01, 2011
"Post Mortem: Death Investigation in America," is the title of a Frontline documentary that airs tonight on PBS. Check your local PBS station for time. The New York Times review, "Bumbling in the Morgue: Blind, Drunk or Merely Incompetent Coroners,"....

Graves Ex-Prosecutor Underscores Death Penalty Distrust

Posted on January 31, 2011
That's the title of a Dallas Morning News editorial looking at issues raised by Anthony Graves' exoneration last year. It appeared in the Saturday edition. It?s natural to be defensive when one?s professional stature and integrity are on the line....

The Latest News From Illinois

Posted on January 31, 2011
Today's Chicago Sun-Times carries the OpEd, "The case against capital punishment." It's by Thomas R. Sullivan, Chairman of Illinois Capital Punishment Reform Study Commission. He's a former U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. During the past 10, much...

An Editorial Roundup From Maryland, Ohio

Posted on January 31, 2011
The Sunday Baltimore Sun editorial was titled, "Inherently inhumane: Gov. O'Malley should take advantage of changes in Annapolis and a temporary shortage of a key lethal injection drug to work toward abolishing Maryland's death penalty law." An unexpected confluence of...

Texans for Public Justice on the Texas Drug Connection

Posted on January 28, 2011
The latest issue of Lobby Watch, the publication of the campaign finance reforem advocate Texans for Public Justice, spotlights Texas connections to the maker and a seller of sodium thiopental. It's titled, "Who Sells Execution Solutions? Global Supply Chain Strains...

Drugmaker Requests Pentobarbital Not Be Used for Executions

Posted on January 28, 2011
Today's Columbus Dispatch reports, "Drugmaker objects to Ohio's new execution plan." It's written by Alan Johnson. With two convicted murderers scheduled to be executed, and 13 others awaiting death dates, Ohio officials plan to use a new lethal-injection drug over...

Editorial Commentary on Lethal Injection

Posted on January 28, 2011
Today's New York Times carries the editorial, "Lethal Injection and the F.D.A." Sodium thiopental is at the heart of this story. A fast- and short-acting general anesthetic, it has been used to put convicts under and make executions methodical. For...

Death Row Drug Dilemma

Posted on January 28, 2011
That's the title of a post at Nature, written by Emma Marris. It's subtitled, "Lack of anaesthetic used in lethal injection exposes ethics gaps in the supply chain." The situation demonstrates that although pharmaceutical supply chains are global, the morals...

North Carolina RJA to the Test

Posted on January 28, 2011
"Forsyth cases test Racial Justice Act," is the title of Anne Blythe's report in today's News & Observer of Raleigh, North Carolina. The cases of two death row inmates who are seeking to have death sentences converted to life prison...

Untested DNA Sitting on the Shelf

Posted on January 28, 2011
Brandi Grissom posts, "Thousands of Texas Rape Kits Never Tested," for today's Texas Tribune. In police departments across Texas, tens of thousands of rape kits have been sitting on the shelves of property storage rooms for years, the result of...

Continued Illinois Coverage

Posted on January 28, 2011
Today's Rockford Register Star carries the editorial, "Our View: Moral, practical reasons to end death penalty in Illinois." Gov. Pat Quinn says he would like to hear from the people of Illinois before he decides whether to sign a law...

Legislation in the States

Posted on January 27, 2011
In New Jersey, the Star-Ledger reports, "N.J. lawmaker introduces bill reinstating the death penalty." It's written by Megan DeMarco. A New Jersey legislator has introduced legislation that would reinstate the death penalty in New Jersey. The bill, introduced by Sen...

More Lethal Injection News From the States

Posted on January 27, 2011
ABC News reports, "Texas Only Has Enough Lethal Injection Drugs to Execute 2 of 317 Death Row Inmates," It's by Russell Goldman. Texas has 317 convicted murderers on death row, but because of a company's decision last week to stop...

Pentobarbital Maker Asks That Drug Not Be Used for Executions

Posted on January 27, 2011
"Drug maker asks Ohio, Oklahoma not to use sedative for putting inmates to death," is the title of Andrew Welsh-Huggins' widely distributed AP report. The sole U.S. manufacturer of a sedative that Ohio plans to use to execute death row...

An Illinois Sidebar

Posted on January 26, 2011
Jon Burge. For those who have followed developments in Illnois, that name is a major part of the decade-long story of Governor Ryan's moratorium, exonerations, reform initiatives, and the Illinois General Assembly's vote earlier this month to repeal the state's...

Questions Surround British Drug Used in Georgia Execution

Posted on January 26, 2011
Today's New York Times reports, "Murderer Is Executed in Georgia After Losing Stay." It's by Kim Severson and Robbie Brown. A convicted murderer in Georgia whose lawyers argued that the painkilling drugs used to help execute him might be ineffective....

Additional News Coverage of Ohio Drug Switch

Posted on January 26, 2011
The latest version of the AP report is, "Ohio to use assisted-suicide drug in executions," written by Andrew Welsh-Huggins. It's via the Washington Post. States across the country have scrambled to find supplies of sodium thiopental after Hospira Inc...

The Tyrone Williams Case Ends With Resentencing

Posted on January 26, 2011
It started as a high visibility 2006 federal death penalty prosecution, following a horrific 2003 episode in which 19 illegal aliens died after being smuggled into Texas in the back of a tractor trailer. "Texas: New Sentence in Smuggling," is...

Lethal Injection Rumblings From Other States

Posted on January 26, 2011
In Florida, the Orlando Sentinel reports, "Lack of lethal-injection drug means Florida must develop new execution procedure." It's by Anthony Colarossi. The article notes that the state currently has no scheduled exeuctions. On Friday, Lake Forest, Ill...

Justice System Can Be Improved by Removing Ultimate Penalty

Posted on January 25, 2011
That's the title of an OpEd by Terry Collins in today's Columbus Dispatch. He's the retired director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. Here are extended excerpts from this must-read: For more than 32 years I had the...

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