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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

In ?98, Hints From Sotomayor on Death Penalty

Posted on June 25, 2009
That's the title of a report in today's New York Times on Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor. It's written by Benjamin Weiser. LINK Here's an excerpt from the beginning: As a drug kingpin and his bodyguard, both black, faced the...

The Pace of Executive Clemency in Maryland

Posted on June 24, 2009
Today's Baltimore Sun carries a column by Dan Rodricks, "Justice reform not an O'Malley priority." According to The Washington Post, Gov. Martin O'Malley is about to issue his first pardons since taking office in January 2007, and there are no...

Missouri Executions on Hold Because of Federal Review

Posted on June 24, 2009
That's the title of the AP report via today's Joplin Globe. LINK Executions effectively are on hold again in Missouri. Incoming Chief Justice William Ray Price Jr. said Tuesday that it?s unlikely the state Supreme Court will schedule any additional...

More Opinion From California

Posted on June 23, 2009
"Time for Californians to end death penalty," is the title of Janis Gay's OpEd in today's Napa Valley Register. John Van de Kamp?s commentary in the June 12 edition of the Register calling for the end of the death penalty...

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John Berendt on the Troy Davis Case

Posted on June 23, 2009
Berendt, the author of the monster best-selling book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, set in Savannah, writes the OpEd, "Why the rush to execute Davis?" It appears in today's edition of the Savannah Morning News. Time is...

Washington State & Lethal Injection

Posted on June 23, 2009
"State's top prisons doctor quit over execution policy," is the title of a report in today's Seattle Times. About two years ago, Dr. Marc Stern tripped over a jarring line in Washington's death-penalty policy: As head doctor for the state's...

Failing the Test

Posted on June 23, 2009
That's the title of an editorial in today's Houston Chronicle regarding the Supreme Court's Osborne ruling. The editorial is subtitled, "Court ruling denies inmates the right to DNA evidence." Texas is not known as a liberal state when it comes...

More Coverage of the Sotomayor Nomination

Posted on June 22, 2009
Pennsylvania's Harrisburg Patriot-News carries an OpEd, "Obama's Supreme Court nominee raises concerns." It's written by Bruce Castor, a former district attorney. Having served in law enforcement for 22 years, experience has afforded me the opportunity to observe (sometimes close-up and...

Mississippi Death Penalty Under Scrutiny

Posted on June 22, 2009
That's the title of an AP report written by Jack Elliott, via today's Memphis Commercial Appeal. The subtitle is, "Case before Court of Appeals challenges law's constitutionality." Gerald James Holland's attack on the constitutionality of Mississippi's death penalty law appears...

Lethal Injection Challenge in Nebraska Dismissed

Posted on June 22, 2009
"Nebraska Supreme Court dismisses lethal-injection appeal," is the title of the article from the Saturday Lincoln Journal Star, written by JoAnne Young. The Nebraska Supreme Court has dismissed a challenge to Nebraska?s new lethal injection law filed earlier this month...

A Life & Death Matter

Posted on June 22, 2009
That's the title of an article from the Saturday edition of the Odessa American. It's written by Matthew McGowan. LINK Here's an extended exceprt: Two days after Christmas about 13 years ago in a house on Drury Lane, Emma Fabela's...

Linda White Responds to Lubbock Editorial

Posted on June 22, 2009
Linda White, a member of Murder Victims' Families for Reconciliation, writes the OpEd, "Be careful when you're 'assuming'," for the Amarillo Globe-News. It appeared in the Sunday edition. Your recent editorial regarding the death penalty mentioned that one particular number...

Death Penalty Decisions Loom

Posted on June 22, 2009
That's the title of a lengthy Politico report by Josh Gerstein. LINK Here's an extended excerpt from the beginning of the article: For the first time in his career, President Barack Obama may soon confront one of the most weighty...

Kent Impeached

Posted on June 19, 2009
"U.S. House impeaches Kent," is Stewart Powell's report for the Houston Chronicle. The House today impeached imprisoned U.S. District Court Judge Samuel B. Kent and sent his case to the Senate for trial. The Senate is expected to quickly convene...

More News Coverage of the Osborne Ruling

Posted on June 19, 2009
"Justices Reject Inmate Right to DNA Tests," is Adam Liptak's report in today's New York Times. Prisoners have no constitutional right to DNA testing that might prove their innocence, the Supreme Courtruled on Thursday in a 5-to-4 decision. The court...

Continued Coverage of Radelet & Lacock Study

Posted on June 19, 2009
Opposing Views carries, "States Without Death Penalty Have Lower Murder Rates," by Amnesty International. Scientists agree, by an overwhelming majority, that the death penalty has no deterrent effect. They felt the same way over ten years ago, and nothing has...

Ellis Close on the Troy Davis Case

Posted on June 19, 2009
The Newsweek contributing editor writes, "Actual Innocence: A death-row case tests whether swift justice can also be certain," for the June 29 issue. Here's the beginning: For nearly two decades, Troy Davis has sat on death row, during which time...

Keller Trial Moved to San Antonio

Posted on June 19, 2009
"Keller trial moved from Austin to San Antonio," is Chuck Lindell's post at the Austin American-Statesman Focal Point blog. The special trial into misconduct charges against Sharon Keller, presiding judge of the state?s top criminal court, will be in San...

More on the Radelet & Lacock Deterrence Study

Posted on June 18, 2009
Virginia Blogger Tamar Abrams has, "Experts Agree: Death Penalty Not a Deterrent," fresh at Huffington Post. Like many Americans, I have long had an uneasy sense of the death penalty in this country. In order to fully support it, you...

An Update on Oliver Diaz

Posted on June 18, 2009
The former Mississippi State Supreme Court justice is still making news. KAPT-TV reports, "Diaz Changes Stance On Death Penalty." You can watch streaming video at the link. Former State Supreme Court Justice Oliver Diaz said his first vote on the...

Supreme Court Rules No Right to Post-Conviction DNA Testing

Posted on June 18, 2009
The ruling in District Attorney?s Office v. Osborne (08-6) is here, in Adobe .pdf format. The Scotus Wiki page is here, with complete briefing. At SCOTUS Blog, Lyle Denniston files, "Court rejects DNA access claim." Splitting 5-4, the Supreme Court...

A Response to 'Justice Served'

Posted on June 18, 2009
E.A Stine, producer of KPFT's Execution Watch, has an OpEd letter in today's Amarillo Globe News. "Capital punishment is wrong." It's a response to the newspaper's editorial earlier this month, "Justice Served," and noted here. The June 9 editorial, "Justice...

Brewer Sentencing Trial

Posted on June 18, 2009
The Amarillo Globe-News reports, "A matter of life or death - Man awaits second sentencing for murder committed in 1990," by Chris Ramirez. No one disputes that Brent Ray Brewer killed Robert Laminack almost 20 years ago. At issue for...

More on the North Carolina Racial Justice Act Legislation

Posted on June 18, 2009
Today's Duke Chronicle carries the report, "McKissick, state legislators debate racial justice act," written by Julius Jones. The North Carolina Racial Justice Act may soon allow death row inmates who believe their sentences were motivated by race to challenge their...

Experts Say Death Penalty Doesn't Deter Murder

Posted on June 18, 2009
There's more coverage today of the Radelet & Lacock deterrence study. That is the headline of an AFP report via Google News. LINK The death penalty fails to deter crime or lower murder rates, according to an overwhelming majority of...

Behind Bars ... Sort Of

Posted on June 17, 2009
That's the title of an article written by Jim Lewis in the June 14 issue of the New York Times Sunday Magazine. LINK Here's an excerpt from the beginning of this article: Go ahead and say it; everyone does. Certainly...

A Rare Non-Capital Clemency in Pennsylvania

Posted on June 17, 2009
The Philadelphia Inquirer has an interesting article, "In a rarity, Rendell commutes a life sentence," because it examines the changed landscape of clemency. Though the article focuses on Pennsylvania, clemency in most states is rarely used in ways that the...

The Racial Justice Act in North Carolina

Posted on June 17, 2009
"Group urges legislators to pass race bill," is the title of a news article in today's Winston-Salem Journal written by Michael Hewlett. A group of pastors urged state legislators to pass a bill that would allow defendants to challenge the...

Initial News Coverage of Radelet & Lacock Deterrence Study

Posted on June 17, 2009
The Boulder Daily Camera reports, "Criminologists: Death penalty doesn't deter murder." It's written by Elizabeth Miller. Here's an extended excerpt: Eighty-eight percent of criminologists do not believe the death penalty deters murder, according to a study by University of Colorado...

The Latest on Deterrence

Posted on June 16, 2009
Mike Radelet and Traci Lacock have just published, "Do Executions Lower Homicide Rates?: The Views of Leading Criminologists," in The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology. You can read the article here, in Adobe .pdf format, thanks to the Death...

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