The American Bar Association's Individual Rights and Responsibilities section has issued a book-length 500 page report (pdf) on the death penalty in Texas. Find an 18-page overview here (pdf). Looking through the summary, the topics raised appear mostly related to innocence issues with implications far beyond the death penalty, like eyewitness ID procedures, recording interrogations, and ensuring high-quality indigent defense. There's a ton of detail and Grits may soon come back to examine other aspects of the report, but for now I wanted to highlight an interesting observation about habeas corpus proceedings that I'd never considered before:Most capital habeas petitions are dismissed in a two - or three - page summary order issued by the Court of Criminal Appeals, whereas appellate courts in other death penalty states issue detailed opinions in capital post-conviction cases. Perhaps as a result of this practice, the Court of Criminal Appeals has failed to address claims that later led to relief in federal proceedings. This also creates a problem for death row petitioners and habeas lawyers attempting to research their cases, as there is little case law developed on capital habeas proceedings despite the frequency of death sentences imposed and executions carried out. Like most of the other issues discussed, that observation applies equally to non-capital habeas writs, which are typically dismissed with at most a bare-bones explanation and usually not even that. I'd never considered before how that failure to justify denials undermines the Great Writ, but it's an excellent point.
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