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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

Tension in the Tarrant County Criminal Court

Posted on July 15, 2010
That's the title of an editorial in today's Fort Worth Star-Telegram. LINK Were the jurors twittering during the trial and improperly discussing the case on Facebook? Did they bring forbidden materials into the jury room? Bully other jurors into voting...

Thursday

Posted on July 15, 2010
I will be traveling most the day. Posts will resume later.

Tennessee Governor Commutes Death Sentence of Gaile Owens

Posted on July 14, 2010
The commutation document is here. The Tennessee Governor's Office has issued the news release, "Bredesen Commutes Death Sentence." Governor Phil Bredesen today commuted the death sentence of Gaile Owens to life imprisonment. The Governor announced the commutation at the Capitol...

Tennessee Lethal Injection Challenge Dismissed

Posted on July 14, 2010
"Judge dismisses lawsuit by Tennessee death row inmate against lethal injection protocol," is the AP report via Memphis' KREG-TV. A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit by death row inmate Edward Jerome Harbison against the state's lethal injection protocol...

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A Compilation of Final Words

Posted on July 13, 2010
"Last Words," is the title of Charles Simic post at the New York Review of Books blog. Robert K. Elder?s Last Words of the Executed, with a foreword by the late Studs Terkel, has just been published by the University...

A Yellow Light to DNA Searches

Posted on July 13, 2010
That's the title of an editorial in today's New York Times on the issue of familial DNA testing. LINK For nearly 25 years, a serial killer stalked South Los Angeles, murdering at least 10 people. He was caught last week...

California Politics and Capital Punishment

Posted on July 13, 2010
"Races could test voters' views on death penalty" is the title of Bob Egelko's front page article in today's San Francisco Chronicle. Here's a brief excerpt: For decades, capital punishment was a driving force in California politics, swaying elections for...

Montgomery County Proposes Specialized Docket

Posted on July 13, 2010
The Courier of Montgomery County reports, "County seeks $550K grant for mentally ill indigent defendants." It's written by Kassia Micek. Montgomery County hopes to break new ground as the first county in the state to offer a docket solely for...

The Cost Issue in Ohio

Posted on July 12, 2010
The report, "Condemned inmates can cost Ohio $1M or more," by Jon Craig appeared in the Sunday edition of the Cincinnati Enquirer. Here's an excerpt: Jailing, defending and prosecuting Ohio Death Row inmates costs taxpayers at least a half-million dollars...

False Confessions

Posted on July 12, 2010
"What causes people to give false confessions?" is the title of a Chicago Tribune report by Lisa Black and Steve Mills, Tribune reporters. It appeared in the Sunday edition. After 14 hours of interrogation in a small, windowless room, Kevin...

Students, Innocence Projects, & Exonerations

Posted on July 12, 2010
This morning's Texas Tribune carries, "Student Work, Wins Increase on Innocence Projects," by Kate Ergenbright. Nick Vilbas knew he wasn?t studying law so he could eventually work for some high-powered corporation. He wanted to pursue justice for the wrongly accused,...

An Extradition Hitch

Posted on July 09, 2010
"Court: UK must not extradite terror suspects to US," is the AP report written by Robert Weilaard via Google News. An international court on Thursday ordered Britain to hold off on extraditing four terrorism suspects to the United States, saying...

An Update on the Linda Carty Case

Posted on July 09, 2010
"Government 'supports clemency bid'," is the UK Press Association item. The Government is prepared to do "anything that is necessary" to help a British grandmother who is on death row in Texas for killing a young mother. Linda Carty, 51,...

Additional Background on Familial DNA From Slate

Posted on July 09, 2010
Georgetown Law prof Jeffrey Rosen wrote, "Genetic Surveillance for All," for Slate, in March 2009. Here is a small excerpt from this must-read: Last March, at an FBI conference about genetic privacy, critics of familial searches made their case to...

Familial DNA Used in California Case

Posted on July 09, 2010
A high-visibility case is shining a light on a controversial new DNA testing technique. The New York Times reports, "?Grim Sleeper? Arrest Fans Debate on DNA Use." It's written by Jennifer Steinhauer. The arrest in the case of the ?Grim...

Are There Two Sharon Kellers?"

Posted on July 09, 2010
"Supporters Say Maligned Judge Deserves Credit," is the title of Brandi Grissom's report this morning at the Texas Tribune. Here are several excerpts: The state?s largest newspapers want her fired. Her opponents have dubbed her ?Killer Keller.? There?s even a...

More on Andrea Lyon

Posted on July 08, 2010
She posts, "Saving Clients From the Death Penalty," at Forbes. Here's an excerpt from the opening: As I lugged my cartons of books and files into the suite of shabby offices in the public defender's office on that sweltering July...

More on Lethal Injection Drug Shortage

Posted on July 08, 2010
At NPR's Two-Way blog, Korva Coleman has posted, "Execution Drugs In Short Supply." The Arizona Republic reports two of three medications used to carry out executions aren't readily available. They are thiopental sodium (better known as sodium pentothal) administered to...

More on Nebraska's New Execution Chamber

Posted on July 08, 2010
"Lethal injection chamber unveiled," is the title of Paul Hammel's report in today's Omaha World-Herald. Condemned inmates will have a much shorter walk ? about six paces ? from a new, windowless holding cell to their death in Nebraska?s newly...

Austin PD Crime Lab Problems

Posted on July 08, 2010
Today's Austin American-Statesman reports, "Police DNA lab to be subject of external review." It's written by Tony Plohetski and Steven Kreytak. Austin's police DNA lab will be the subject of an independent review, potentially affecting thousands of criminal cases, following...

More on the Kevin Keith Case in Ohio

Posted on July 07, 2010
Brian Evans has posted, "Kevin Keith and the Witness Who Wasn't There," at Huffington Post. Evans is with Amnesty International USA's Death Penalty Abolition Campaign. A man faces execution despite a strong claim of innocence. With a conviction based on...

The High Price of Life

Posted on July 07, 2010
That's the title of one article in the current issue of American Lawyer containing the Pro Bono Report 2010. The article is written by Drew Combs. LINK In July 2008 Nixon Peabody signed on to its first pro bono death...

Race, Juries, and Criminal Justice

Posted on July 06, 2010
Statistician Gary Liberson posts, "The Uneven Hand of Justice," at Huffington Post. The game prosecutors play is simple. There is a strong rejection by Blacks of the death penalty (See graph). So Southern prosecutors know the likelihood of successfully seeking...

The Cost Factor - Indiana & Nevada

Posted on July 06, 2010
Journalists in two states are examining the cost of capital punishment. In Indiana, the Munster Times reports, "The death penalty: Worth the cost?" It's written by Susan Brown. With the recent addition of murder defendant David Flores, accused of last...

A Conversation With Andrea Lyon

Posted on July 06, 2010
Andrea Lyon's memoir of representing men and women facing the death penalty is Angel of Death Row.She took time this weekend to answer some questions about the book and her work: Q: In your years of experience trying capital cases,...

Troy Davis Case Full of Murky Legal Questions

Posted on July 06, 2010
That's the title of an AP report by Russ Bynum, via the Savannah Morning News. LINK For those following the Davis case, it's a must-read. Thanks to an order from the U.S. Supreme Court, a Georgia death row inmate was...

Adam Liptak on Georgia Indigent Defense

Posted on July 06, 2010
His Sidebar column in today's New York Times is, "Defendants Squeezed by Georgia?s Tight Budget." Here's the opening: When the State of Georgia ran out of money to pay the lawyers for a man facing the death penalty, the prosecutor,...

More on the Office of Capital Writs

Posted on July 06, 2010
Brandi Grissom posts, "Trying to Restore Integrity to Death Row Defense,"this morning at the Texas Tribune. There is audio at the LINK Brad Levenson, a deputy federal public defender in California, will lead the first ever Texas Office of Capital...

What Went Wrong in New York

Posted on July 02, 2010
"How Two Questions Caused Death Penalty Misstep," by A.G. Sulzberger is in the New York Times. After five months, the death penalty trial of Ronell Wilson had entered its last few minutes when a federal prosecutor presented some parting thoughts...

North Carolina's Gas Chamber Years

Posted on July 02, 2010
That's the title of an OpEd in today's News & Observer of Raleigh, by Scott Christianson. He's the author of The Last Gasp: The Rise and Fall of the American Gas Chamber, published last month. LINK Here's the beginning of...

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