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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

The Lawyers Who May Run America

Posted on November 05, 2008
The current ABA Journal has two covers, one on each side of the magazine, profiling the potential senior legal appointees of the next administration. One cover has Senator Obama; the other, Senator McCain. We now know that it will be...

No Election Changes for CCA

Posted on November 05, 2008
This chart is from the Texas Secretary of State's statewide races tally. The first columns of numbers are early votes cast; the second set, total votes cast.----------------------------------------RACENAMEJudge, Court of Criminal Appeals Place 3Tom Price - IncumbentREP2,599,94451...

Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Criticizes Predictions of Future Dangerousness

Posted on November 05, 2008
AP reports, "Condemned Texas killers lose appeals," on two rulings handed down by the CCA today, via the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. It strikes me that the news comes in the case of Noah Espada.Judge Paul Womack, joined by Judge Cheryl...

Pat Lykos Narrowly Elected DA in Harris County

Posted on November 05, 2008
"Lykos wins Harris DA as Bradford's early lead vanishes," is the Houston Chronicle report by Brian Rogers and Roma Khanna.After a roller coaster night of watching and waiting, Republican Pat Lykos appeared to edge out Democrat C.O. "Brad" Bradford by...

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San Quentin

Posted on November 04, 2008
"Take a virtual tour of San Quentin's lethal injection facility," is the title of a post at the Sacramento Bee's State Worker blog. The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has posted a virtual tour of the Lethal Injection Facility at...

News Coverage of Witness to Innocence News Conference

Posted on November 03, 2008
"Exonerated inmates ask Texas to halt executions," is Chuck Lindell's report in the Saturday Austin American-Statesman. Here's an extended excerpt:Twenty wrongly convicted men, freed from death rows across the country, stood in the state Capitol on Friday to ask Texas...

Witness to Innocence News Conference Today

Posted on October 31, 2008
Witness to Innocence, an organization composed of exonerees who had been wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death, is holding its annual meeting in Austin this weekend, as noted in this post.Members of the organization will hold a news conference in...

Texas Execution

Posted on October 31, 2008
Texas carried out its 14th execution of 2008, last night in Huntsville; the 419th in the state since 1982. It was be the fifth execution in Texas this month. Six more executions are scheduled this year, all in November. TDCJ...

Texas Criminal Justice Integrity Unit to Meet

Posted on October 30, 2008
The group will meet Thursday morning in the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals chamber. I'll be there and will post highlights later in the morning as soon as I get to the office. Gary Wells will make a presentation on...

In Delaware

Posted on October 30, 2008
"Killer looses appeal on lethal injection legality," is the AP report via Delaware Online.The Delaware Supreme Court has upheld a lower court's dismissal of a lawsuit that claimed that the state's lethal injection policy was illegally adopted. In a two-page...

Death Penalty Politics

Posted on October 30, 2008
That's the title of a report for the latest Oxford Analytica. LINKCapital punishment is legal in some form in 37 states, but it is embraced nowhere as enthusiastically as in Texas. Despite making up around 8% of the population, Texas...

Scheduled Execution

Posted on October 30, 2008
I'll turn to today's meeting of the Texas Criminal Justice Integrity Unit and other news next, but first let me mention an impending execution. Late this afternoon the U.S. Supreme Court refused to issue a stay in the case of...

The Bush Record on Appeals Court Appointments & Presidential Pardons

Posted on October 29, 2008
Today's New York Times reports, "Appeals Courts Pushed to Right by Bush Choices." It's written by Charlie Savage and contains several graphics. Here's an extended excerpt from the beginning of this lengthy report:After a group of doctors challenged a South...

Shameful Record of Executions

Posted on October 29, 2008
That's the title of Bob Ray Sanders' latest column in today's Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Sanders mentions Witness to Innocence, an organization composed of exonerees from death rows, which will hold its annual meeting in Austin this weekend.Here's an excerpt:Imagine being...

Greg Wright

Posted on October 29, 2008
Texas' next scheduled execution is Thursday evening. Greg Wright had an earlier execution date, which was modified to allow for DNA testing, as noted in this post.Greg's family has this website with information about the case.TDCJ maintains this list of...

Eric Nenno and Texas Clemency

Posted on October 28, 2008
Even in Texas the death penalty is supposed to be reserved for the worst of the worst.One of the unique aspects of Texas criminal law is a reliance on predictions of future behavior in determining whether or not a person...

Scheduled Execution

Posted on October 28, 2008
Texas is scheduled to carry out its 13th execution this year. It would be the 418th Texas execution since 1982.AP has this report on the case of Eric Nenno, via the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.In the unsuccessful clemency petition, Nenno's lawyers...

Texas Execution

Posted on October 28, 2008
Texas carried out its 13th execution of 2008, tonight in Huntsville; the 418th Texas execution since 1982. It was the fourth execution in Texas this month. The state has seven more executions scheduled this year, including a second this week....

The Exonerated

Posted on October 27, 2008
That's the title of Texas Monthly Senior Editor Michael Hall's report in the November TM. The subtitle is, "These 37 men spent 525 years in prison for crimes they didn?t commit. Then came the hard part: freedom."Here's an excerpt from...

More on the Troy Davis Case

Posted on October 27, 2008
Let's begin with two OpEd's dealing with Troy Davis. First, in today's Washington Times, syndicated columnist Nat Hentoff writes, "Where are the Supreme Court liberals in Georgia case." There are occasional campaigns in this country and abroad to protest our...

In Georgia

Posted on October 27, 2008
"Death penalty process blasted; appeals follow," is Bill Rankin's report from the Sunday Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Here's an extended excerpt of this must-read article:When U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens recently criticized the way the Georgia Supreme Court reviews death-penalty...

The Court of Criminal Appeals and Election Day

Posted on October 27, 2008
Janet Elliott reports, "Criminal appeals court race focuses on change," in today's Houston Chronicle.Problems in the criminal justice system, highlighted by a series of exonerations, are the top issue in this year's races for the Court of Criminal Appeals...

The Election's Impact on the Federal Judiciary

Posted on October 24, 2008
National Law Journal has a web-only article, "Election's outcome could have seismic effect on federal courts," reported by Pamela MacLean.Republican Presidents have appointed more than half of the current 179 federal appellate judges, but that could rise dramatically to 74%...

Stay for Troy Davis - UPDATED

Posted on October 24, 2008
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit has just entered a stay of execution for Troy Davis, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.Update - "Court issues stay of execution for Troy Davis," is Bill Rankin and Rhonda Cook's initial...

The Case for Videotaping Interrogations

Posted on October 24, 2008
That's the title of an OpEd in today's Los Angeles Times by Jim Trainum, a police detective. LINKI've been a police officer for 25 years, and I never understood why someone would admit to a crime he or she didn't...

Fifth Circuit Allows Appeal in Gongora Case

Posted on October 24, 2008
"Court allows condemned Fort Worth gang leader to appeal," is the AP report in today's Fort Worth Star-Telegram.A federal appeals court is allowing a former Fort Worth street gang leader to move forward with an appeal that contends prosecutors made...

Stay Issued in Woods Case - UPDATED

Posted on October 23, 2008
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has just issued a stay of execution in the case of Bobby Woods. I'll update as more information becomes available. The Austin American-Statesman Austin Legal blog reports, "Court stays tonight's execution of Woods." Chuck...

The Troy Davis Case

Posted on October 23, 2008
"Lawyers launch new appeal effort," is Bill Rankin's report in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.Lawyers for Troy Anthony Davis, scheduled to be executed Monday, are seeking permission to file a new federal lawsuit based on innocence claims. Davis? attorneys on Wednesday asked...

In Delaware

Posted on October 23, 2008
"Delaware: High court hears execution protocol arguments," is the AP report via the Delmarva Daily Times.Delaware prison officials violated state law by adopting a new lethal injection protocol without allowing for public review or comment, a lawyer representing a condemned...

Scheduled Execution - Mental Retardation at Issue

Posted on October 23, 2008
Texas is scheduled to execute Bobby Woods tonight in Huntsville. It would be the state's 13th execution this year, the 418th Texas execution since 1982. Attorneys for Woods have filed a motion to stay the execution to evaluate whether he...

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