Criminal Law

The Year that Was

Posted on December 23, 2008
I am sitting in my office on Tuesday afternoon, December 23, and all the staff has left for the holiday. I am going through the piles of paper on my desk to be sure I haven't missed anything too monumental before I head home for Christmas.And, I decided that I need to reflect for just a few minutes on the year that was...

Stephen Michael West's Appeal Denied

Posted on December 19, 2008
Tennessee death row inmate Stephen Michael West has had his appeal denied by the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals. "A panel on the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati revealed Thursday it has ruled against Stephen Michael West, who has been on death row since 1986 for fatally stabbing Wanda Romines and her 15-year-old daughter, Sheila, in Union County, which is in northeast Tennessee...

The Wall Is Beginning to Crumble

Posted on December 18, 2008
Yesterday, abolitionists across this country and the world, celebrated the 1 year anniversary of the abolition of the death penalty in New Jersey. On December 17, 2007, New Jersey became the only state to abolish the death penalty legislatively and the first to abolish the death penalty since 1965...

Maryland Commission Votes for Repeal

Posted on December 15, 2008
The Maryland Commission to study capital punishment voted 13-9 in favor of repealing the death penalty."Its report to the General Assembly outlines the commission's findings after listening to 35 hours of testimony over five months, including the determination that it is possible to execute an innocent person and that racial and jurisdictional biases play into the application of the death penalty...

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2009 NCADP Conference

Posted on December 13, 2008
Join the staff of TCASK, your fellow Tennesseans, and anti-death penalty advocates from across the world in Harrisburg from January 22 ? January 25, 2009. Registration and conference info can be found by CLICKING HERE. TCASK?s Executive Director, Rev...

Gary Cone, Gaile Owens, EJ Harbison

Posted on December 10, 2008
Gary ConeThe US Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case of Cone v. Bell. Gary Cone, the defendant, is currently on Tennessee's death row for the 1980 murder of an elderly Memphis couple. There is no doubt of Cone's guilt. However, Cone's defense has uncovered serious allegations of prosecutorial misconduct, including the withholding of critical evidence for Cone's defense...

More Recommedations from the Tennessee Death Penalty Study Committee

Posted on December 09, 2008
During a three hour meeting yesterday, the Tennessee Committee to Study the Administration of the Death Penalty worked through more issues and produced more recommendations. The most dramatic of the recommendations made yesterday was the approval of legislation to recommend that the Tennessee General Assembly create an independent commission to oversee capital defense services in Tennessee...

Man Receives Federal Death Sentence

Posted on December 08, 2008
Rejon Taylor joined 50 other inmates nationwide as a rare federal death sentence was handed out. Taylor was convicted of the abduction and murder of an Atlanta restaurant owner, Guy Luck. The case was made federal because the victim was taken across state lines into Tennessee...

Death Penalty Study Committee Makes Recommendation

Posted on December 03, 2008
The Tennessee Committee to Study the Administration of the Death Penalty met on December 1 for several hours to begin voting on recommendations to the legislature. Though much was discussed, disappointingly, not much was recommended.The only recommendation which made it out of the Committee on Monday was a recommendation to create a state policy asking that law enforcement agencies record custodial interrogations...

Maryland Commission on Capital Punishment Recommends Repeal

Posted on November 17, 2008
On November 12, the Maryland Commission on Capital Punishment voted 13-7 to recommend to the legislature to repeal the death penalty in that state. The 23-member commission whose membership includes a police chief, a former death row inmate exonerated by DNA, religious leaders, three murder victims family members, legislators, and a county prosecutor, found that "the capital punishment system as it exists in Maryland doesn't really work...

Adriane Dickerson Murder Reopened

Posted on November 14, 2008
In a stunning turn of events, it has been discovered that the star witness in the murder of Adriane Dickerson was incarcerated during the time he claimed to have witnessed the murder. The death sentence convictions of G'Dongalay Berry and Christopher Davis for two other murders was won largely due to the jury's impression that they had also been responsible for Dickerson's death...

TN Death Row Inmate Granted New DNA Testing

Posted on November 10, 2008
William Glenn Rogers, a Tennessee death row inmate, has won a motion to test DNA evidence in the kidnapping, rape, and murder of Jackie Beard in 1996.Rogers believes that the DNA evidence will exonerate him. "During his trial in 2000, DNA from semen stains found on the girl's shorts were inconclusive...

TCASK Presents at Amnesty International Conference

Posted on November 03, 2008
TCASK was represented at the Amnesty International Southern Regional Conference held in Memphis, TN, October 31-November 2. On Saturday afternoon Stacy and Katie co-presented a Death Penalty 101 seminar with Brian Evans of the Amnesty International USA Death Penalty Campaign...

Troy Davis Receives Stay of Execution

Posted on October 25, 2008
Troy Anthony Davis received a stay of execution Friday. He had been scheduled for execution on Monday, October 27. This is excellent news and a testament to the significant grassroots organizing conducted around Troy Davis.?Upon our thorough review of the record, we conclude that Davis has met the burden for a stay of execution,? the court said in an order issued by Judges Joel Dubina, Rosemary Barkett and Stanley Marcus...

Tennesean Editorial and Op-Eds on Death Penalty

Posted on October 16, 2008
Kudos to Dwight Lewis and the Tennessean for publishing an editorial as well as 3 opinion editorials on the death penalty in Tennessee."Whether in support of or in opposition to a death penalty, the residents of Tennessee should have clarity, compassion and, especially, justice for everyone...

U.S. Supreme Court Allows Troy Davis Execution

Posted on October 14, 2008
Today the U.S. Supreme Court denied an appeal from Georgia death row inmate, Troy Davis, refusing to consider the case. The court refused to hear the appeal without comment.Without comment...seven out of nine prosecution witnesses have recanted their testimony since Davis' conviction in 1991, and the highest court in the land has no comment...

Belmont Pep-Rally

Posted on October 08, 2008
A pre-debate rally lasted all day yesterday at Belmont University. TCASK, along with many others, braved the cold and rainy weather and walked along "issues alley" which was located along the outskirts of Belmont's campus. Though we complained about being wet and cold, our misfortune was a fair trade for being a part of a history-making event and to have the opportunity to spread the word about the death penalty...

Paul House Trial Delayed

Posted on October 03, 2008
The retrial for Paul House, which was scheduled to begin on October 14, has now been postponed until March 2009 at the request of attorneys on both sides. After 23 years of waiting, yet another delay is frustrating for many of us, but House's attorneys need more time to ensure that he gets the best defense possible and is ultimately exonerated...

S.O.S. Back in Action

Posted on October 01, 2008
Last night I stuck around after work for a few hours for my first encounter with the speakers bureau of murder victims families, a program called Sharing Our Stories: Murder Victims' Families Speak (S.O.S.). Every two months S.O.S. meets to build fellowship with one another and practice presenting their very personal and tragic family stories...

Student Conference on the Death Penalty

Posted on September 30, 2008
When I finished my plan for the 2008 Student Conference on the Death Penalty, I had set a goal for an attendance of 100 students from across the state of Tennessee. My thinking was that if I did the work necessary to accomplish the goal and maintained the mindset of a 100 person conference, that the attendance would be strong...

Troy Davis Receives Last Minute Stay

Posted on September 24, 2008
Only two hours before Troy Davis was to be executed in Georgia, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to consider Davis' appeal. Davis wants the Court to order a judge to hear from the witnesses who have recanted their original testimony against him and from others who say another man confessed to the crime...

Hair Found on Body Not House's

Posted on September 19, 2008
An independent lab has found that the hair discovered in the hand of Carolyn Muncey did not belong to Paul House. This hair was considered to be the last piece of critical evidence potentially linking House to the murder of Muncey in 1983. Before the testing of the hair, District Attorney Paul Phillips stated that he would consider dropping the charges if the hair did not belong to House...

STOP THE EXECUTION OF TROY DAVIS

Posted on September 15, 2008
This past Friday the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles denied clemency for Troy Davis. Davis was convicted of a murder in 1989 based only on witness testimonies. Since the original trial, seven of the nine non-police witnesses have recanted their accusations, saying that they experienced police coercion...

Daryl Holton, 1 Year Later

Posted on September 12, 2008
One year ago Daryl Holton was executed by the state of Tennessee for murdering his four children. The vigil that TCASK organized at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution for the execution was early on in my tenure with TCASK and has served as a galvanizing moment in my conviction against the death penalty...

Study Committee Hears from TN Justices and Barry Scheck

Posted on September 11, 2008
Tuesday proved to be a very full day for the members of the Tennessee Death Penalty Study Committee. The meeting began at 10:00 a.m. with comments from Tennessee Supreme Court Justice Gary Wade and new Chief Justice Janice Holder. The Justices addressed several of the recommendations which the Committee is considering including bypassing the Criminal Court of Appeals (CCA) for capital cases and instead having all death penalty appeals go straight to the Tennessee Supreme Court, as well as the creation of an independent authority to oversee capital defense services in Tennessee...

Movie. Madness. Mohr.

Posted on September 10, 2008
Greetings!My name is Katie Mohr and I am the newest addition to the TCASK state office. I recently graduated from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania with a degree in English Writing and Psychology. I have relocated to Nashville and committed myself to a year of service with the Young Adult Volunteer Program sponsored by the Presbyterian Church (U...

More Death Penalty Study Committee News

Posted on September 08, 2008
Today the Fairness subcommittee of the Tennessee Death Penalty Study Committee met to continue its discussion about how to improve representation for indigent defendants charged with capital crimes in Tennessee. Report after report cited in the Committee, including reports by the American Bar Association and the Tennessee Bar Association, highlight the lack of adequate defense services available to indigent defendants in our state who are on trial for their lives...

Sister Helen Prejean Speaks to the Interfaith Gathering at the Democratic National Convention

Posted on September 03, 2008
I received this email recently sharing the words of Sister Helen Prejean to the Interfaith Gathering at the Democratic National Convention. Here are some excerpts:OUR SACRED RESPONSIBILITY TO OUR NATIONJesus said, "Blessed are the eyes that see what you see, the ears that hear what you hear...

Love Lived on Death Row to Show at the Belcourt Theatre in Nashville

Posted on August 27, 2008
Loved Lived on Death Row follows the amazing journey of the Syriani siblings from hate to forgiveness toward their father who was sentenced to die for the murder of their mother and recounts the friendship between their father and his pen-pal and spiritual advisor, Meg Eggleston...

Introducing Denver Schimming

Posted on August 21, 2008
As TCASK?s newest staff member, I would like to take a moment to introduce myself. I will be working as an organizer, specifically in reaching out to members of law enforcement and their respective agencies. I will also be working to expand our Sharing our Stories: Murder Victim?s Families Speak program which pairs a murder victim?s family member with a TCASK volunteer to provide presentations...

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