The Birmingham News has an editorial, "A lethal combination."Alabama Attorney General Troy King plans to pay a Massachusetts doctor $400 an hour to study the state's lethal injection drugs and help the state fend off a federal court challenge to the way it executes prisoners. That may sound like a lot of money - and it is. But with the problems encountered with executions in other states - and more particularly, with a federal case pending - the state has no choice except to look at its lethal injection procedures. A lawsuit filed by Death Row inmates contends the execution procedures could constitute cruel and unusual punishment. The state wants Dr. Mark Dershwitz, an anesthesiology professor at the University of Massachusetts, to look at the state's lethal injection drugs and to testify on the state's behalf when that case comes to trial in October. Dershwitz has done the same work for other states in lethal injection challenges; since…
LI in Alabama
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Lubbock Avalanche-Journal Praises PD Office
"Public defenders office was created in short time," is the title of an editorial in today's Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. The indigent defendants who will be defended by the office will be represented by attorneys familiar with the intricacies of capital murder cases and who will not be distracted by private practices. Lubbock attorney Philip Wischkaemper raised a great point about a year ago when he asked Jim Bethke, the director of the Task Force on Indigent Defense, why Texas could not have a statewide public defenders office. The regional office will, of course, be on a smaller scale, but it is a good way to begin. Texas Sens. Bob Duncan, R-Lubbock, and Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo, helped secure the $2.7 million grant that enabled the office to be created. The time frame from Mr. Wischkaemper's raising the question to the creation of the office was a remarkably short one for the workings of government. We are impressed with the fast way it…
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Religion, Culture Behind Texas Execution Tally
That's the title of a report by Reuters. LINK and LINKTexas will almost certainly hit the grim total of 400 executions this month, far ahead of any other state, testament to the influence of the state's conservative evangelical Christians and its cultural mix of Old South and Wild West. "In Texas you have all the elements lined up. Public support, a governor that supports it and supportive courts," said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. "If any of those things are hesitant then the process slows down," said Dieter. "With all cylinders working as in Texas it produces a lot of executions." Texas has executed 398 convicts since it resumed the practice in 1982, six years after the U.S. Supreme Court lifted a ban on capital punishment, far exceeding second-place Virginia with 98 executions since the ban was lifted. It has five executions scheduled for August. …
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A Very Compelling Appeal for Kenneth Foster
Huffington Post has a very compelling must-read blog entry from Sean-Paul Kelley, "Kenneth Foster, Jr.: An Innocent Man Texas Will Soon Execute."Get to know this name: Kenneth Foster, Jr. You are going to be hearing a lot of it the next 30 days because I have a personal stake in this matter. You see, one night in August 1996 one of my best friends, Michael LaHood, was murdered by Mauriceo Brown. And Kenneth Foster, Jr. was driving for Mauriceo that night. I don't know what the circumstances of Kenneth's involvement were beyond the fact that he was still in the car when Mauriceo pulled the trigger that sent a bullet through my friend's brain, ending his life immediately. Was he being forced to drive? Or was he along for the ride? I don't care. Kenneth deserves and is receiving punishment for his role in the tragedy that occurred that night. But whatever punishment Kenneth does deserve for his role in my friend's cruel murder,…
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The Death Penalty: Is It Time for a National Moratorium
That's the title of an OpEd posted at the Twin Cities Daily Planet in Minneapolis-St. Paul. LINKMinnesota is one of 12 states without the death penalty. The state legislature abolished it in 1911, six years after executioners botched the hanging of 28-year-old William Williams, who was convicted to death for murdering a 16-year-old. It took almost 15 minutes for him to die by strangulation in the Ramsey County Jail in 1906 because the executioners used a rope that was too long. Although there have been many attempts to have it reinstated, including current Gov. Tim Pawlenty's 2004 death penalty plan in response to the abduction and murder of Dru Sjodin, Minnesota lawmakers have refused to bring capital punishment back to the state. The federal government and the military also allow the death penalty, but according to a 2000 U.S. Justice Department report on the federal death penalty system, the federal government executed only 33 defendants during the…
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Monday
I will be traveling to New York on Monday. Posts will be delayed depending on how friendly the skies are.
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Complaint Accuses Judge of Having Attorney Arrested
That's the title of an article in today's Houston Chronicle about Judge James H. Keeshan. LINKA local defense bar group has filed a complaint with the state Commission on Judicial Conduct accusing a Montgomery County judge of having a Houston attorney arrested in court. State District Judge James H. Keeshan â€â
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More Commentary on Bowles v. Russell
Michael Dorf has,"The Supreme Court's Most Kafkaesque Decision: Penalizing a Criminal Defendant for Relying on a Court's Official Statement of the Due Date for His Habeas Corpus Appeal," at FindLaw.com.Last week, in Bowles v. Russell, the Supreme Court held that a federal appeals court had no jurisdiction to hear an appeal from the denial of a habeas corpus petition because the notice of appeal was filed two days late--even though it was filed one day before the date that the federal district judge had (mistakenly) told the petitioner that it was due. As a consequence of the ruling, Keith Bowles loses his one chance to have a federal appeals court correct what he alleges were errors resulting in his murder conviction and sentence of fifteen-years-to-life in prison. Of course, no legal system could function without deadlines, and sometimes missed deadlines unavoidably result in miscarriages of justice. However, the majority opinion in Bowles--written…
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How Texas' State Jails Are Keeping the Wrong Prisoners in Longer
That's the title of Carlos Guerra's must-read latest column in the San Antonio Express-News. LINK Until the mid-1990s, Texas convicts served sentences for misdemeanors and very low-level felonies â€â
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Execution
Texas carried out its 13th execution of 2007 tonight in Huntsville. It was the 392nd execution in the state since 1982, the 15th execution in the nation during 2007. A total of 1,072 men and women have been executed in...
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More on Dallas County's Latest Exoneration - UPDATED
The Los Angeles Times has, Texas men's innocence puts a county on trial.Dallas County has had more people exonerated by DNA than all but three entire states. Texas, which leads the nation in convictions overturned by genetic testing, has had...
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Death Penalty for Sex Offenders May Be a Tough Sell
That's the title of an article in today's Houston Chronicle by Polly Ross Hughes. It's a slightly different version from the report carried in the San Antonio Express-News, noted here yesterday. LINKRep. Debbie Riddle's declaration that there's a one in...
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Arizona
The Arizona Republic has, Death-penalty backlog strains justice system.Maricopa County has more pending death-penalty cases than Harris County, the Houston-area jurisdiction that is known as the death-penalty capital among critics of capital punishment. In 2006, Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas...
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North Carolina LI Developments
The Raleigh News Observer has extended coverage beginning with, Officials must weigh lethal injection.A Wake Superior Court judge Thursday stopped two executions, making North Carolina -- at least temporarily -- the latest state where lethal injections have been derailed. Senior...
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Washington State
A subcommittee of the Washington State Bar Association has prepared its final report on that state's application of the death penalty. The Death Penalty Information Center has an overview here.The Death Penalty Subcommittee of the Committee on Public Defense of the Washington State Bar has prepared a report on the state's death penalty that will be submitted to the Bar Association's Board of Governors in early 2007. The Subcommittee was formed to examine the costs of the state's death penalty and to recommend whether the death penalty should be continued, given the expenses and the state's experience in carrying out death sentences. The Death Penalty Subcommittee was made up of supporters and opponents of the death penalty, all with extensive experience with the criminal justice system. The report noted that since the death penalty was reinstated in Washington in 1981, there have been 254 death eligible cases. Of these, death…
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Six Arrests Necessary For Prosecuting Illegal Border Crossers
Source: Crime and Justice News, March 23, 2007. "Documents released in the controversy over eight fired U.S. attorneys show that federal prosecutors in Texas declined to bring criminal charges against illegal immigrants caught crossing the border until at least their sixth arrest, the Houston Chronicle reports. A heavily redacted Department of Justice memo from late 2005 disclosed the prosecution guidelines for immigration offenses, numbers the federal government tries to keep classified. Officials would not say whether the numbers have been adjusted since the memo was written, citing 'law enforcement reasons.' " Â "The prosecution guidelines have been a source of frustration for years among Border Patrol agents, said T. J. Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council. Smugglers can figure out the criteria by trial and error, he said, and can exploit it to avoid prosecution. Justice spokesman Brian Roehrkasse…
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New York Law Journal Lead Articles March 22, 2007
If you are already an online subscriber to New York Law Journal you should be able to click on any of the links provided below, sign in, and access the full text of articles listed Click here to go to www.nylj.com Thursday, March 22, 2007Court Finds Tenants Safe From EvictionOccupied Apartments When State Approved Condo PlanBy Daniel WiseWorkplace Retaliation Suit Survives Motion Under Broader StandardBy Mark HamblettCity Is Ruled Liable For Body Decomposed After Freezer BrokeBy Mark FassPatty Duke Claim Against Producers Of 'Golda's Balcony' Goes ForwardBy Beth BarNews in Brief
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LAW.COM Newswire Highlights March 22, 2007
If newsfeeds are shown on the left side of your screen, the News articles listed below can be viewed in full text by first clicking on the Law.Com Newsfeed and then scrolling down to the appropriate article. If newsfeeds are not displayed on the screen try going to http://www.law.com/newswire/ and searching for the items of interest. Calif. Supreme Court Takes Up $1 Billion Banking Case The Recorder Lawyer James Sturdevant was ebullient Wednesday after the California Supreme Court agreed to decide whether Bank of America could face more than a billion dollars in damages for its banking practices. Sturdevant represents a class led by Paul Miller, a disabled man who spent money the bank had mistakenly credited to his account, then saw BofA cover the overdraft by withdrawing Social Security benefits deposited there. Miller sued, arguing that government-directed deposits shouldn't be subject to seizure. Defense Portrays…
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France China And Turkey Handcuff the Internet
Source: InformationWeek Daily Newsletter, March 13, 2007.
France, China, And Turkey Handcuff The Internet"France, China, and Turkey have been in the news with wrongheaded attempts to handcuff the Internet. All three countries are trying to use regulation to control what they see as Internet-fueled damage to society. Sadly, all three countries are likely to find that the regulations are at best ineffective, and, at worst harmful."
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10th Anniversary of California Shootout That Changed Police Tactics
Source: Crime and Justice News, March 1, 2007.
"Yesterday was the 10th anniversary of the North Hollywood, Ca., bank robbery shootout that changed the way police forces arm themselves and continues to touch the lives of those involved, reports the Associated Press. Hundreds of rounds were fired during the 45-minute gunbattle, and 11 officers and six civilians were injured. The two bank robbers were killed."
"AP says that he heroic way police handled the incident gave a morale boost to the Los Angeles Police Department, which was struggling to rebound after the 1991 Rodney King beating and subsequent race riot. Dozens of Web sites are dedicated to the shooting and have links to video clips. Covered from head to toe in Kevlar, the robbers carried high-velocity assault weapons and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. Los Angeles patrol cars now are equipped with AR-15 assault rifles and have Kevlar plates in the doors for added protection. Other police…
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