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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

Fresh Air Interview With Carroll Pickett

Posted on May 20, 2008
Yesterday, while I was traveling from Albany, Terry Gross interviewed Carroll Pickett on her WHYY program Fresh Air. You can listen to the interview here. Reverend Carroll Pickett was the death-house chaplain at the Walls prison unit in Huntsville, Texas...

'Backlog' Death-Penalty Rationale Fatally Flawed

Posted on May 20, 2008
That's the title of an OpEd by Catholic University of America Law prof Cara Drinan. It appeared in Thursday's Atlanta Journal-Constiution. LINK On April 16, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of lethal injection. Before the ink on the...

Hazy Future for Ten Men on Nebraska's Death Row

Posted on May 20, 2008
That's the title of an AP dispatch, via Sunday's Fremont Tribune. LINK But it is now uncertain whether Lotter and the nine other men on Nebraska's death row will ever be executed following a ruling by the state Supreme Court....

Child Rape Measure Shelved in Missouri

Posted on May 20, 2008
The Missouri Legislature adjourned Friday evening leaving Gov. Matt Blunt's proposed death penalty for child rapists on the table. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch had, "Lame ducks, term limits, mean slow session." Spending time on side issues marked an election-year session...

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Dumb on Crime Means Broken Lives

Posted on May 20, 2008
That's the title of an editorial in Sunday's Austin American-Statesman. LINK Something is terribly wrong with the Texas justice system, which has sent scores of innocent people to prison for crimes committed by others. It is especially tragic that Texas...

Thursday

Posted on May 15, 2008
I'm about to travel to Albany, New York to attend tomorrow's 157th commencement ceremony for Albany Law School graduates. Ben Riemer receives his J.D. at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, and almost immediately begins studying for the Texas Bar exam...

U.S. Solicitor General to Resign

Posted on May 15, 2008
Tony Mauro reports, "Clement Resigns as Solicitor General," for Legal Times. Solicitor General Paul Clement, who led the courtroom defense of the Bush administration's anti-terror legal policies -- and emerged unscathed -- announced Wednesday he is leaving his job June...

More Coverage of 'At the Death House Door'

Posted on May 15, 2008
At the Washington Post's On God blog, Claire Hoffman interviews Steve James, one of the filmmakers behind the documentary, "The Struggles of a Minister of Death." I had breakfast a few weeks ago with acclaimed documentary filmmaker Steve James whose....

Lethal Injection Review in Fourth Circuit

Posted on May 15, 2008
The Washington Post reports, "Lethal Injection Methods Weighed," by Jerry Markon. A federal appeals court took up an issue Wednesday with broad implications for how executions will be carried out nationwide: whether Virginia's method of lethal injection induces an agonizing...

Mike Farrell in Austin

Posted on May 14, 2008
Mike Farrell's delightful memoir, Just Call Me Mike, is now available in trade paperback. He'll be in Austin on Saturday as part of his national book tour. More info on the Book People event Saturday at 7:00 pm is here....

High Court Caricature

Posted on May 14, 2008
That's the title of the fabulous Ruth Marcus' must-read column in today's Washington Post. LINK Here's the beginning. The court stepped in, summarily overturning laws in 16 states. Tossing aside evidence that the constitutional provision was never intended to apply...

Medellin Execution Violates ICJ Decision in Avena

Posted on May 14, 2008
That's the title of commentary at Jurist by Rick Kirgis, secretary of the American Society of International Law. LINK If the state of Texas goes ahead with the planned execution of Jos� Ernesto Medell�n without allowing him any judicial reconsideration...

Bush Sending Consensus Nominees to Senate

Posted on May 13, 2008
That's the title of a post at BLT and report at NLJ by Pedro Ruz Gutierrez. Reality is setting in. With time dwindling for President George W. Bush to get his nominees through, he's looking for compromise. Glen Conrad is...

A Call for Legal Services Funding

Posted on May 13, 2008
National Law Journal reports, "50 state bar presidents call for increase in legal aid funding." The presidents of the 50 state bar associations are asking congressional leaders to increase legal aid funding for low-income Americans next year by 14%, partly...

More on South Carolina Indigent Defense

Posted on May 13, 2008
The State from Columbia, South Carolina has, "Public defender hopes to aid less fortunate." Being a public defender is not an easy task, but Doug Strickler would have it no other way. ?This is why I went to law school,?...

News Coverage of Bell v. Kelly Cert Grant

Posted on May 13, 2008
The Supreme Court agreed to take the Virginia death penalty case yesterday, as noted in this post. AP reports, "Court will decide case of Va. man on death row," via Google News. The Supreme Court on Monday granted a temporary...

Scholarship

Posted on May 12, 2008
Michael Perlin of the New York Law School has posted, "Insanity is Smashing Up Against My Soul: Panetti v. Quarterman and Questions that Won't Go Away," at SSRN. Here's the abstract: In Panetti v. Quarterman, the US Supreme Court expanded...

Bell v. Kelly (07-1223)

Posted on May 12, 2008
The U.S. Supreme Court granted cert in the above-styled case today. Oral arguments have been completed for this term of the Court; Bell v. Kelly will be heard in the term that begins in October 2008. Lyle Denniston has this...

An Update on Paul House

Posted on May 12, 2008
The Tennessean reports, "With son on death row, House's mom became his crusader," written by Chris Echegaray. In a bedroom of a white ranch-style home, Joyce House, mother of death row inmate Paul Gregory House, has a touch lamp on...

Indigen Defense in South Carolina

Posted on May 12, 2008
Ishmael Tate reports, "Indigent legal defense system to get overhaul," in the Rock Hill Herald. South Carolina's patchwork system that provides attorneys to defendants who can't afford them is undergoing a multimillion-dollar transformation -- one that advocates say is long...

State Legislative Round-Up

Posted on May 12, 2008
In North Carolina, the Charlotte Observer has an AP report, "Lowered expectations for NC legislative session this week." When lawmakers return to work this week at the General Assembly, it'll be for a short session with lowered expectations. After three...

More Court Commentary

Posted on May 12, 2008
In Mississippi's Jackson Clarion Ledger, Marc Harrold writes the OpEd, "Supreme intervention? The Roberts Court and the death penalty." While I am personally against capital punishment, it seems clear that the U.S. Constitution does not deem all state-sponsored executions to...

Supreme Court Commentary

Posted on May 12, 2008
AP writer Mark Sherman has, "Follow year of division, Supreme Court avoids 5-4 splits," via Google News. This could be the Supreme Court term, one court watcher joked recently, that Justice John Paul Stevens remembers he is a Republican. A...

Justice Stevens on Lethal Injection

Posted on May 12, 2008
Monica Mercer of the Chattanooga Free Press Times reports, "Stevens addresses lethal injections." Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens drew a round of applause Friday night in Chattanooga when he suggested that the recently-euthanized Kentucky Derby horse Eight Bells had...

State Needs Innocence Commission

Posted on May 12, 2008
That's the title of an editorial in Sunday's Dallas Morning News. LINK A poignant drama unfolded in the state Capitol last week that should have been witnessed by all Texans. Nine men at a head table in the Senate chamber...

Get Out of Jail

Posted on May 09, 2008
That's the title of an editorial in today's Houston Chronicle, subtitled, "Too many Americans, especially those who reside in Harris County, are behind bars." ACCORDING to data maintained by the International Center for Prison Studies at King's College London, the...

News Coverage of Yesterday's Summit

Posted on May 09, 2008
The AP dispatch, written by Jeff Carlton,"Wrongly convicted gather at Capitol to share stories," via the San Antonio Express-News. One by one, nine wrongly convicted men stood up on the floor of the Texas Senate on Thursday to explain how...

Live Blogging the Summit

Posted on May 08, 2008
I'll be live blogging Senator Rodney Ellis' Summit on Wrongful Convictions. It's just starting with Senator Ellis making introductory comments and recognizing the dozen or so House and Senate members attending the Summit. The Summit is being webcast, here, on...

Linda Campbell on Judges and Policitics

Posted on May 08, 2008
Fort Worth Star-Telegram editorial board member and columnist Linda Campbell has, "McCain's half-truths about judges." John McCain ought to be ashamed of himself. In his most pandering performance since speaking at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University to prove that he could...

Lethal Injection Round-Up

Posted on May 08, 2008
There are news reports on the lethal injection today from Texas, Arkansas, and Nevada. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram carries Mike Graczyk's AP dispatch, "Aug. 14 execution date for Texas 7 member." One of the infamous "Texas 7" convicts who escaped...

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