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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

Rothgery Preview

Posted on March 14, 2008
Rothgery v. Gillespie County (07-440) will be argued Monday in the U.S. Supreme Court. Eliza Presson has a preview at SCOTUS Blog. In Rothgery v. Gillespie County, No. 07-0440, the Court will consider when exactly adversarial proceedings have been initiated...

Death Penalty Is Not the Solution to Senseless Killings

Posted on March 13, 2008
That's the title of a column by Dwight Lewis in the Tennessean. He's a member of the paper's editorial board. LINK While I hope to always be opposed to the death penalty, the crime Dotson is accused of was, indeed,...

New Study Raises Questions on Anesthesia Monitoring System

Posted on March 13, 2008
That's the title of an article at the Washington Post website reported by Rob Stein. LINK Imagine this: You're lying on the operating table, apparently unconscious. The surgeon is cutting. But you're still awake. Not only that, you're paralyzed by...

Return to Georgia

Posted on March 12, 2008
Creative Loafing Atlanta, the city's alt-weekly, has, "The long reach of Brian Nichols and Georgia's deepening death penalty crisis." It's reported by Scott Freeman. Here's an excerpt from this must-read article: Like nearly every other death-penalty case in the state,...

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More on the West Texas Regional Capital PD

Posted on March 12, 2008
The Amarillo Globe-News reports, "Randall joins death penalty team." Randall County is joining up with a task force that provides legal defense to indigents charged with capital murders in which the death penalty is being sought. Commissioners voted Tuesday in...

An Update on Alton Logan

Posted on March 11, 2008
The Chicago Tribune's Mary Owen reports, "Lawyer testifies his ex-client had cleared man still in prison for '82 killing." Edgar Hope tried to do the right thing. Hope, a convicted killer, told his lawyer in 1982 that his co-defendant, Alton...

Colorado Legislation

Posted on March 11, 2008
The Denver Post reports, "Child rapists could face execution." Colorado could put child rapists to death under a bill that won a Senate committee's approval Monday and would put the state on par with just five others that allow the...

A Special Invitation to Screen At the Death House Door

Posted on March 11, 2008
I participated in the planning of last week's Perspectives at the Death House Door held at the Texas State Capitol. IFC, the producer of the documentary, has asked me to let readers know of a special invitation to hold a...

At the Death House Door

Posted on March 11, 2008
The Chicago Sun-Times examines the IFC documentary and the journey of Carroll Pickett in, "Filmmakers follow chaplain's journey on death penalty." It's written by the paper's religion columnist, Cathleen Falsani. Some conversions take a lifetime. For the Rev...

A Death Penalty Appeal to a Higher Authority

Posted on March 10, 2008
That's the title of a brief article in the Sunday Washington Post on a Maryland state senator. LINK Sen. Alex X. Mooney (R-Frederick) was widely seen last year as the swing vote on the Maryland Senate committee that killed a...

Aversion to Death Penalty, but No Lack of Cases

Posted on March 10, 2008
That's the title of an article in today's New York Times reported by Alan Feuer. LINK They are an ignominious bunch: two Bronx heroin dealers who murdered an informant, a father and son who killed three people in a drug...

More on Alton Logan

Posted on March 10, 2008
In January, the Chicago Tribune's Maurice Possley broke the story of Alton Logan's 26 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit, as noted in this post. Yesterday, CBS News' 60 Minutes covered the Logan case in "26 Year...

Group Urges End to Illinois Death Penalty

Posted on March 07, 2008
That's the title of an article in today's Chicago Tribune. LINK Despite modest reforms introduced over the last several years, the Illinois death penalty system remains flawed, too expensive and arbitrarily implemented, says a new report from a state anti-death...

In Maryland

Posted on March 07, 2008
"Panel reconsiders death penalty repeal," is Jennifer McMenamin's article in the Baltimore Sun. A year after opponents of capital punishment were joined by Gov. Martin O'Malley in lobbying for a repeal of Maryland's death penalty law, the activists returned to...

An Update of the Nichols' Case

Posted on March 07, 2008
"Nichols' lawyers, public defender office reach funding agreement," is the AP report via the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer. Lawyers for accused courthouse shooter Brian Nichols and officials with the state public defender's office appear to be making some progress in resolving the...

Legislation in New Hampshire

Posted on March 06, 2008
Renny Cushing reports that the New Hampshire House of Representatives passed HB 1180 as amended yesterday, "a bill establishing a Commission to Study the Death Penalty in New Hampshire. Without discussion, the House by voice vote accepted the 15-1 recommendation...

Sam Millsap Testifies at Nebraska Capitol

Posted on March 06, 2008
Former Bexar County (San Antonio) District Attorney Sam Millsap. was in Lincoln, Nebraska yesterday to discuss his experiences with prosecuting capital punishment cases. Omaha's KPTM-TV had a preview, here. Earlier coverage of legislative proposals in Nebraska is here...

Colorado Legislation

Posted on March 06, 2008
As noted in a post last week, a Colorado state senator has introduced a proposal to make non-homicidal child rape punishable by death. Fort Collins' KUSA-TV reports, "Lawmaker wants death penalty for child rape." A Colorado lawmaker has introduced a....

In Virginia

Posted on March 06, 2008
"2 death penalty bills get vetoed," is the headline in the Roanoke Times. Gov. Tim Kaine vetoed a pair of bills Wednesday to broaden the death penalty by eliminating the state's "triggerman rule," even as the Virginia Senate voted to...

Also in Maryland

Posted on March 06, 2008
The Washington Post reports, "Bill Backs Commission To Examine Issue Again," written by John Wagner. With legislation to repeal Maryland's death penalty facing long odds this legislative session, some capital punishment opponents, including Gov. Martin O'Malley (D), are voicing support...

A Study of Cost in Maryland

Posted on March 06, 2008
Jennifer McMenamim reports, "Death penalty costs Md. more than life term," in the Baltimore Sun. The death penalty has cost Maryland taxpayers at least $186 million more in prosecuting and defending capital murder cases over two decades than would have...

Georgia Indigent Defense Funding and the Nichols Case

Posted on March 05, 2008
Today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution carries Beth Warren's report, "Judge asked to drop one Nichols attorney." Fulton County Courthouse rampage suspect Brian Nichols may lose one of his state-funded attorneys if Georgia officials get their way at a hearing Thursday...

Two Angry Men

Posted on March 05, 2008
That's the title of a web-only review for the Nation, by Robert Perkinson. It's focused on innocence in the criminal justice system and the Duke lacrosse players, and the book, Until Proven Innocent by journalist Stuart Taylor and Brooklyn College...

Events Reminder

Posted on March 04, 2008
Tomorrow afternoon, UT Law's Capital Punishment Clinic and IFC present Perspectives at the Death House Door in Room E1.016 of the Texas State Capitol. Details are here. I expect that the special hearing will be webcast here, via Texas Senate...

Illinois Weighs Second Chances

Posted on March 03, 2008
That's the title of an article in today's Washington Post by Kari Lydersen. It's subtitled, "Some See Juvenile Sentencing Laws As Overly Harsh." In 1978 at age 17, Jimmy Childres murdered his mother, stepfather and brother in what police describe...

Michael Dorf on Stevens and Danforth

Posted on February 29, 2008
"Did Justice Stevens Pull a Fast One? The Hidden Logic of a Recent Retroactivity Case in the Supreme Court," is the title of Columbia law prof Michael Dorf. Last week, in Danforth v. Minnesota, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that...

A Jessica's Law in Mississippi

Posted on February 28, 2008
The Jackson Clarion Ledger reports, "Bill permits death for rape." The state could seek the death penalty for any person convicted of raping or sexually battering a child under the age of 12, under a bill that cleared the Senate...

The Case of Paul House

Posted on February 28, 2008
Paul House, a Tennessee death row inmate who has been excluded through DNA testing remains in limbo on the state's death row. The Knoxville News Sentinel has, "Judge will rule later on freedom for death row inmate House." wheelchair-bound death...

One in 100: Behind Bars in America 2008

Posted on February 28, 2008
That's the title of a new report issued by the Pew Center on the States, The full report is here. This is from the beginning of the Executive Summary: Three decades of growth in America?s prison population has quietly nudged...

More on Indigent Defense in Georgia

Posted on February 27, 2008
Atlanta's alt-weekly Creative Loafing has the article, "Brian Nichols and Georgia's Indigent Defense Crisis," reported by Three times last year Atlanta death-penalty lawyer Tom West faced judges with the exact same complaint: The state had stopped paying his fees to...

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