StandDown Texas Project: Criminal Law

Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs

OR PHONE (866) 635-1838 for Bankruptcy Help, (866) 635-6190 for Divorce,
(866) 635-2689 for Personal Injury or (866) 635-9402 for Criminal Defense

Find a Local Lawyer

Bankruptcy (866) 635-1838
Divorce (866) 635-6190
Personal Injury (866) 635-2689
Criminal Defense (866) 635-9402

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

Life Plea Struck for Johnny Paul Penry

Posted on February 15, 2008
A loyal reader informs me that a life sentence plea has been struck for Johnny Paul Penry, whose case has been synonymous with mental retardation and capital punishment. Huntsville attorney John E. Wright has been Penry's long-standing primary attorney...

Rosenthal Resigns

Posted on February 15, 2008
Peggy O'Hare reports on the Houston Chronicle website, "Rosenthal resigns as district attorney amid e-mail scandal." Chuck Rosenthal resigned as district attorney today amid an e-mail scandal that recently forced him to abandon his re-election campaign and a lawsuit filed...

So Long Old Sparky

Posted on February 15, 2008
That's the title of an article in the Economist regarding the Nebraska Supreme Court ruling the state's electric chair unconstitutional. LINK IN 1999 Raymond Mata junior killed his ex-girlfriend's three-year-old son. He dismembered the body and fed part of the...

Physicians and Execution

Posted on February 15, 2008
That's the title of an article in the current issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. It's the transcript of a roundtable discusion on lethal injection. The online version also has video and an interactive chart at this LINK....

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

At the Death House Door

Posted on February 14, 2008
The new documentary will be showcased in a special hearing at the Texas State Capitol on Wednesday, March 5, from 1:00 - 2:45 p.m. It's being sponsored by UT Law's Capital Punishment Clinic and IFC, producer of the documentary. The...

AltLaw.org

Posted on February 13, 2008
National Law Journal reports on the AltLaw project in this web-only article, "All Supreme Court, appellate court decisions since 1950 now online." All U.S. Supreme Court and appeals court decisions since 1950 ?� the equivalent of 1,858 volumes of case...

The Travis County District Attorney Race

Posted on February 13, 2008
Four candidates are running to replace Travis County's 30 year veteran District Attorney Ronnie Earle. His office's procedure for deciding when to seek death in capital murder cases has drawn national attention. News 8 Austin, Time Warner Cable's 24-hour local...

Death Penalty Moratorium: Back on the Burners

Posted on February 12, 2008
That's the title of Chicago Tribune columnist Eric Zorn's latest. LINK DuPage County State's Attorney Joe Birkett along with Republican state reps Dennis Reboletti of Elmhurst and Randy Ramey of West Chicago have called a news conference for tomorrow at...

Today's Arizona Republic has Ray

Posted on February 11, 2008
Today's Arizona Republic has Ray Krone's OpEd, "High court should rethink executions, not just means." The U.S. Supreme Court is weighing arguments heard recently in Baze vs. Rees, which challenges the constitutionality of execution by lethal injection...

News Coverage of Nebraska Supreme Court Ruling

Posted on February 11, 2008
In the Saturday New York Times, Adam Liptak reported, "Electrocution Is Banned in Last State to Rely on It." The electric chair is cruel and unusual punishment, the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled Friday. The decision effectively suspended executions there, as...

Politics in North Carolina

Posted on February 08, 2008
The Winston-Salem Journal carries an AP dispatch, "Democratic Lt Gov hopefuls want civil unions, death penalty stay." Three Democratic candidates for lieutenant governor are offering similar policy visions for North Carolina. Winston-Salem city councilman Dan Besse, Durham attorney Hampton Dellinger...

Update on Daryl Atkins

Posted on February 08, 2008
Today's New York Times carries the AP report, "Virginia: Inmate Will Remain on Death Row." A man in the center of a case that led to the United States Supreme Court?s banning executions of the mentally retarded will remain on...

StoryCorps on NPR

Posted on February 08, 2008
Along the lines of Ronnie Dugger's essay, National Public Radio this morning broadcast, "Father Finds Peace in Forgiveness," on Morning Edition. It was gathered and produced by StoryCorps. Seven years ago, Hector Black's daughter was murdered after she surprised an...

Aggie and her killer

Posted on February 08, 2008
That's the title of a must-read commentary by Ronnie Dugger, the founding editor of the Texas Observer, in the Observer's current issue. LINK Texas, with one-thirteenth of the country?s people, has killed 37 percent of the convicted murderers ?executed? in...

An Update on Nebraska

Posted on February 08, 2008
Lyle Denniston at SCOTUS Blog writes, "Last state's electric chair-only execution ended." The Supreme Court of Nebraska ? the last state to allow the death penalty to be carried out only by electrocution ? on Friday struck down that method,...

Nebraska Supreme Court Rules Electric Chair Unconstitutional

Posted on February 08, 2008
The ruling is here. AP has this dispatch via the Omaha World-Herald. he Nebraska Supreme Court on Friday struck down the state's sole means of execution, ruling that electrocution is cruel and unusual punishment. The landmark ruling is likely a...

Commentary in North Carolina

Posted on February 07, 2008
Thr Carrboro Citizen carries an OpEd by Stephen Dear & Diann Rust-Tierney, "North Carolina needs to rethink the death penalty." Dear is executive director of People of Faith Against the Death Penalty; Rust-Tierney the executive director of the National Coalition...

Harris County DA Candidates

Posted on February 07, 2008
Alan Bernstein reports on the four GOP candidates visit with the Chronicle editorial board, "DA candidates view office in different ways." Republican candidates for Harris County district attorney clashed Wednesday about perceptions of racism and widespread injustice in the criminal...

CCA Order New Sentencing Trial

Posted on February 07, 2008
AP's Jim Vertuno reports on the case of Jose Angel Martinez in, "Court grants new punishment hearing for death row inmate," via the San Antonio Express-News. Convicted killer Jose Angel Moreno, who won a reprieve just hours before his scheduled...

Federal Public Defender Units in Ohio to Focus on Death-Penalty Cases

Posted on February 06, 2008
That's the title of an article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported by Reginald Fields. LINK Before 2007, the federal court's Northern District of Ohio never had a capital punishment trial. Last year it had two - including the high-profile...

More on the New Judge for Nichols Trial

Posted on February 06, 2008
Greg Land of the Law.com's Fulton County Daily Report has, "New Judge, but Same Obstacles in Ga. Courthouse Shooting Case." n nearly 14 years on the bench, the new Georgia judge appointed to oversee the murder trial of accused Fulton...

Legislation in Virginia

Posted on February 06, 2008
Watching state legislators in the Richmond, the Washington Post reports, "Senate Votes to Eliminate 'Triggerman' Rule." The Virginia Senate voted 24 to 14 yesterday to eliminate the "triggerman" rule, which says that only a person who pulls the trigger in...

Commentary on New Hampshire Legislation

Posted on February 06, 2008
The Concord Monitor has an editorial, "Don't expand capital punishment, abolish it." New Hampshire lawmakers have been asked to expand the death penalty to cover crimes like that of Michael Woodbury, the Maine man who killed three people in an...

Hearing for Scott Panetti

Posted on February 06, 2008
Scott Panetti's lawyers won a major case, Panetti v. Quarterman, in the U.S. Supreme Court last year, which allowed his lawyers to return to federal district court to demonstrate the severity of his mental illness. A hearing is being held...

He Gets Life, She Gets Off

Posted on February 06, 2008
That's the title of Rick Casey's latest Houston Chronicle column. LINK Maybe a Lufkin jury believed teenager Erica Basoria when she told them she had asked her boyfriend to stand on her abdomen to abort the twins she was carrying...

New Judge in Nichols Case

Posted on February 05, 2008
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has, "Cobb Judge Bodiford to take on Brian Nichols case." The assignment order is here. Seasoned Cobb County Superior Court Judge Jim Bodiford has proven he can handle cases rife with emotion and unusual twists while in...

Forum for Travis County DA Candidates

Posted on February 05, 2008
The Austin American-Statesman has, "4 Travis candidates lay out their views on death penalty." Three of the four candidates for Travis County district attorney told a packed room of potential voters in East Austin on Monday that, if elected, they...

Commentary Alabama

Posted on February 04, 2008
The Birmingham News today has an editorial, "Two families suffered this past week because the Alabama attorney general was so eager to proceed with an execution." Two families suffered this past week because state prosecutors were so eager to proceed...

Resources at Pew Forum

Posted on February 04, 2008
The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life has several new resources on its website, including this page on presidential candidates' positions on capital punishment. There is also, "Lethal Injection on Trial: An Analysis of the Arguments Before the Supreme...

Begging Bush's Pardon

Posted on February 04, 2008
That's the title of an OpEd in today's New York Times. It's written by George Lardner, Jr., a former Washington Post reporter who is writing a history of presidential pardon authority. LINK THE first rule for handling requests for presidential...

Previous | Next

Related Law Bulletins

Texas Governor Takes Surprising Stand In Favor Of Immigrants
Texas Governor Rick Perry, normally an ultra-conservative, surpris...

District Judge Upholds Texas' Moment of Silence Law
In 2003, the Texas legislature amended a "moment of silence" law s...

Irving, Texas Losing Students Due To Immigration Crackdown?
The Dallas Morning News had an interesting story Sunday about the ...

Two New USCIS Training Centers To Open In North Texas
The Dallas Morning News reports today that two regional training c...

Comprehensive Explanation of Irving, Texas Immigration Situation
The Dallas Morning News has a very good series of articles today a...