Death Penalty

Lingering Questions Surround Death Penalty Representation

An ACLU lawyer tells the New York Times that the problem with the death penalty is not the method of execution, but rather “poor people getting lousy lawyers.” The ACLU Capital Punishment Project represented North Carolina inmate Levon Jones, the third death row inmate in the state to win his…

May 7, 2008 2:49 PM CDT

Judge Lance Ito Criticized in Opinion Overturning Murder Conviction

Judge Lance Ito, who presided over the murder trial of O.J. Simpson, was criticized Monday in a California Supreme Court opinion for actions he took while he was a prosecutor. The court overturned a death sentence for inmate Adam Miranda in the murder of Gary Black because of failures by…

May 7, 2008 2:16 PM CDT

Lynd Execution the First Since Lethal Injection Ruling

William Earl Lynd was put to death in Georgia last night, the first execution since the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Kentucky’s widely used lethal injection procedure. The U.S. Supreme Court turned down a last-minute request for a stay last night, the Washington Post reports. Justice John Paul Stevens did not…

May 7, 2008 1:00 PM CDT

Planned Ga. Execution Tonight is First Since Moratorium Ended

Updated: The planned execution tonight of a Georgia man is the first since a de facto moratorium on capital punishment ended last month with a U.S. Supreme Court rejection of a Kentucky case that contended the lethal injections commonly used there and in other states are cruel and unusual punishment.…

May 6, 2008 3:24 PM CDT

Many Details Right in Fictional Lawyer’s Supreme Court Skewering

The U.S. Supreme Court is often the target of criticism. In one of the more recent high-profile critiques the missives were delivered by a fictional lawyer, Alan Shore of Boston Legal. The character played by actor James Spader is arguing a case before the high court with look-alike justices when…

May 6, 2008 12:50 PM CDT

Closed Courtroom Sought in High-Profile Capital-Case Sentencing

Federal prosecutors in Boise, Idaho, filed a motion yesterday seeking to close the courtroom for a high-profile sentencing in a case that reportedly involves child sexual abuse as well as kidnapping and murder. It would be emotionally difficult for the one surviving child kidnapped by Joseph Duncan in May 2005…

Apr 30, 2008 10:18 PM CDT

Houston Has a Problem With Death-Penalty Disparities, Study Says

A study of capital punishment in Harris County, Texas, has found two kinds of racial disparities in capital punishment. One disparity, which has been well-documented in studies elsewhere, found that killers of whites are more likely to be sentenced to death than killers of blacks, the New York Times reports…

Apr 29, 2008 3:55 PM CDT

Lawyers Cite Bad Childhood in Convicted Sniper’s Appeal

Lawyers for convicted sniper John Allen Muhammad have filed a habeas appeal seeking to overturn his death sentence because jurors were not told of his abuse as a child or his brain damage. Muhammad received a death sentence for the slaying of Dean Meyers in a trial in Prince William…

Apr 28, 2008 1:34 PM CDT

Man’s Death Penalty Request Unlikely to Be Granted

Seeking to forgo a trial for the killings of his mother and grandparents, an Indiana defendant wrote to the judge handling his case and asked to “enter a plea for the death penalty.” But the Indianapolis Star reports that such requests are relatively common and rarely lead to such an…

Apr 23, 2008 12:28 PM CDT

Supreme Court Lifts Execution Stays

The U.S. Supreme Court this morning cleared the way for three states to reset execution dates for death row inmates who were granted last-minute stays while the court reviewed the constitutionality of Kentucky’s lethal injection procedures. The court last week upheld Kentucky’s use of the deadly cocktail, which means Alabama,…

Apr 21, 2008 3:07 PM CDT

Kennedy Questions Sweep of Louisiana’s Death Penalty for Child Rapists

In oral arguments yesterday, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy questioned lawyers about possible ways to narrow Louisiana’s law imposing a death penalty for child rapists. Kennedy is a possible swing voter in the case, SCOTUSblog reports. During the arguments he “spent considerable effort looking for ways to allow a death sentence…

Apr 17, 2008 5:40 PM CDT

Death Penalty Opponents See Litigation Roadmap in Lethal Injection Decision

Lawyers for death row inmates will try to show that the lethal injection procedures in their states are different from Kentucky’s after yesterday’s U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding the state’s three-drug execution cocktail. The plurality opinion by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said states with execution methods “substantially similar”…

Apr 17, 2008 10:48 AM CDT

Stevens Opposes ‘Pointless’ Death Penalty

For 30 years Justice John Paul Stevens has been a key vote upholding the death penalty. But now he has declared his is in opposition to capital punishment and that he thinks it’s unconstitutional, the Associated Press reports. “I have relied on my own experience in reaching the conclusion that…

Apr 16, 2008 10:36 PM CDT

Defense Builds Exact Replica of Cell, Site of Grisly Murder

A stage-set designer and his team of nine contractors worked for months in a Colorado warehouse, building what amounted to the most disturbing project of the designer’s career: an exact replica of a Florence Penitentiary cell in which inmate Rudy Sablan is accused of murdering Joey Estrella in 1999. Opening…

Apr 16, 2008 7:00 PM CDT

Supreme Court Upholds Lethal Injection

Updated: The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the most common lethal injection procedure does not violate the Constitution. The splintered ruling clears the way for executions to resume across the country, SCOTUSblog reports. The decision is Baze v. Rees (PDF posted by SCOTUSblog). “Petitioners have not carried their burden…

Apr 16, 2008 2:34 PM CDT