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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 Tennessee

Posted on December 09, 2008
Nashville's Tennessean carries the AP report, "Committee offers plan to improve death penalty system."A legislative committee studying the death penalty in Tennessee has recommended the creation of an authority to help make sure cases are handled fairly and efficiently...

Jury Deliberation Begins in Nichols Case in Georgia

Posted on December 09, 2008
"Nichols' lawyers fight to the end," is the report in today's Fulton County Daily Report. It's written by Greg Land and Andy Peters.Judge James G. Bodiford on Monday afternoon rejected a request by Brian G. Nichols' defense lawyers to postpone...

Executions in 2008

Posted on December 08, 2008
South Carolina carried out the final execution of 2008, on Friday evening. AFP had this report on the execution of Joseph Gardner.It was the 37th execution of 2008; the 1,136th since 1977.Texas carried out 18 executions in 2008, nearly half...

Troy Davis Hearing Tuesday

Posted on December 08, 2008
"Appeals Court to hear Troy Davis request Tuesday," is reported by Rhonda Cook and Bill Rankin in today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution.Those involved in the case of convicted killer Troy Anthony Davis and those who hold the memory of slain Savannah police...

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In Alabama

Posted on December 08, 2008
"Executions should be studied instead of enacted this year," is the title of an editorial in today's Tuscaloosa News. Although the death penalty has never been proved as a deterrent to crime, the Alabama Supreme Court has scheduled five capital...

Harris Sends Nobody to Death Row

Posted on December 08, 2008
That's the title of Rick Casey's latest Houston Chronicle column. LINK Here's an extended excerpt:First I learn that Houston's air is getting cleaner. Now I learn that we haven't sentenced a single scumbag murderer to death this entire year. This...

Death Penalty Will Always Put Innocent Lives at Risk

Posted on December 05, 2008
That's the title of an OpEd in Annapolis's The Capital by Sam Millsap. LINK Here's the beginning of this must-read:In recommending an end to the state's death penalty, the Maryland Commission on Capital Punishment overwhelmingly supported a critical finding: Maryland's...

News Coverage of TCADP Report

Posted on December 05, 2008
Today's New York Times carries part of the AP filing in the National Briefing section, "Texas:Death Sentences Drop."A group that opposes the death penalty said Texas juries this year sentenced the fewest number of inmates to death row since the...

Texas Politics

Posted on December 04, 2008
The late Texas Senator Lloyd Bentsen famously called Texas politics a contact sport. Texas' senior Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison has long considered running for governor. Today, she took a step in that direction.Gardner Selby of the Austin American-Statesman files, "Hutchison...

The High Cost of the Death Penalty in New Hampshire

Posted on December 04, 2008
That's the title of an OpEd in Foster's Daily Democrat, by Dover resident Anthony McManus. LINKEven though there has been a death penalty law on the books there hasn't been an execution in New Hampshire for more than 50 years....

In Mexico

Posted on December 04, 2008
AFP reports, "Mexican state wants death sentence for kidnappers," via Google News.Coahuila state lawmakers have proposed the death penalty be reinstated for kidnappings that end in murder, a crime Coahuila's governor said should be punished by firing squad, hanging or...

TCADP Issues Report Examining Capital Issues in 2008

Posted on December 04, 2008
Texas Death Penalty Developments in 2008 is the title of the report issued by the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. It's available in Adobe .pdf format. This excerpt is from the news release: Today the Texas Coalition to...

At the Death House Door an Oscar Contender

Posted on December 04, 2008
The Hollywood Reporter and Variety, entertainment industry journals, are reporting today that the acclaimed IFC documentary is on the short list of documentaries that will be considered for an Academy Award. "Oscar Watch: Documentary, " is THR's report...

DNA Testing in Pennsylvania

Posted on December 04, 2008
"Voluntary confession should not bar DNA testing in murder appeal, psychologists' group asserts," is the title of Vesna Jaksic's National Law Journal web report.In a friend-of-the-court brief filed with the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, the American Psychological Association has asserted...

An Absolute: Doctors Don't Kill

Posted on December 04, 2008
That's the title of an OpEd in today's Raleigh News & Observer, written by Charles van der Horst, a professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. LINK Here's an excerpt:Since 1977, when the U.S. Supreme...

Military Execution Stayed

Posted on December 03, 2008
AP's John Milburn reports, "Kansas judge blocks soldier's execution," via the Denver Post.A federal judge in Kansas has blocked what would be the military's first execution since 1961, giving the condemned prisoner more time to appeal his conviction and sentence...

Time to End the Death Penalty in Maryland

Posted on December 02, 2008
That's the title of an OpEd in the Baltimore Examiner by Michael May, an attorney and former Baltimore police officer. LINKI spent 10 years as a law enforcement officer, including seven in the Baltimore Police Department. So I am no...

Revisiting TJP's Texas Survey of Eyewitness ID Procedures

Posted on December 01, 2008
"APD Scores Low on Police Lineup Procedures," is Jordan Smith's report in the current Austin Chronicle. Here's an excerpt:According to a new report released by the Justice Project, the Austin Police Depart�ment "meets the minimum legal requirements" for administrating live...

The Life Penalty

Posted on December 01, 2008
That's the title of John Moritz' examination of the impact of the life without parole sentencing option in capital cases in the current Texas Observer. LINK Here's an extended excerpt from the beginning of this must-read article:Juan Leonardo Quintero was...

Will New Mexico Abolish in 2009

Posted on December 01, 2008
"Legislature 2009: Political shift could spell end to death penalty, Steve Tyrell's report from the Santa Fe New Mexican.Abolishing the death penalty is one of those "perennial" bills that pops up in the state Legislature every 60-day session, getting much...

In Maryland

Posted on December 01, 2008
"Simonaire entering session with open mind on death penalty," is the report in Annapolis' newspaper, The Capital.An Anne Arundel County state senator who sits on the committee that could decide the fate of the death penalty this session is pledging...

The Lethal Injection Impasse in North Carolina

Posted on December 01, 2008
North Carolina's Independent Weekly has, "Resume executions or keep the ban?" It's reported by Bob Geary.Now that the legal battle over a doctor's role in death row executions is nearing a conclusion, the issue of capital punishment in North Carolina...

In Washington State

Posted on November 26, 2008
"Judges stay Dec. 3 execution of Washington inmate," is the AP report via the Seattle Times.Federal and state judges have indefinitely delayed the scheduled Dec. 3 execution of Darold Stenson for the 1993 shooting deaths of his wife and a...

A Texas Pilgrimage

Posted on November 26, 2008
"Texas pilgrimage promotes church efforts to defend life at all stages," is Eric Noriega's report for Catholic News Service via the Catholic Courier.With nothing more to protect them from the elements than the "umbrella of life," more than 800 Catholics...

In Ohio

Posted on November 26, 2008
"Ohio court weighs 4 execution date requests," is the AP report via the Toledo Free Press.The pending request is among four before the state Supreme Court and one of several expected to come in the next few months. Ohio has...

Mississippi Lethal-Injection Lawsuit Not Ffiled in Time

Posted on November 26, 2008
That's the title of an AP report via the Picayune Item of Mississippi. LINK Three Mississippi death row inmates waited too long to file a lawsuit challenging the state?s lethal-injection method, a federal appeals panel said Monday in upholding a...

An Interview With Margaret Colgate Love

Posted on November 26, 2008
The former U.S. Pardon Attorney in the Department of Justice has this interview with Marcia Coyle at the National Journal website. Here are a few excerpts of this must-read interview:In the wake of President Bush's most recent pardons, The National...

New California Lethal Injection Procedures Struck

Posted on November 24, 2008
"New death penalty rules rejected by California court," is the Saturday Los Angeles Times report by Carol Williams.Death penalty opponents and the attorneys for two condemned men at San Quentin won another round in their quest to delay executions in....

Capital-Defense Office Growing

Posted on November 24, 2008
That's the headline in today's Amarillo Globe-News about the West Texas Regional Capital PD's office. LINKTwo years ago, the office of the West Texas Regional Public Defender for Capital Cases was nothing but a dream. Now, a year after Lubbock...

Mattox Funeral Arrangements Set

Posted on November 22, 2008
That's the title of this brief in this morning's Austin American-Statesman.Jim Mattox, the former Texas attorney general who died overnight Wednesday, will lie in state in the Texas House chamber from 3 to 7 p.m. Monday, his former spokesman Kelly...

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