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Death Penalty

1272 ABA Journal Death Penalty articles.

CA Judge: New Execution Regs Invalid

An effort to enact a new execution protocol in California that would put an end to a death penalty moratorium declared last year by a federal judge has suffered a setback. The protocol is invalid, a state judge has decided, because it was not created in compliance with the required…

Nov 2, 2007 12:39 AM CDT

Lawyer Chastises Supreme Court for Allowing TX Execution

A lawyer for the inmate executed after a Texas judge would not keep the courthouse doors open for his emergency petition says many people share the blame “for this preventable travesty.” Those who looked the other way include the justices on the U.S. Supreme Court, writes University of Houston law…

Nov 1, 2007 1:29 PM CDT

TX Prosecutor Cites Execution Moratorium

In the latest example of an apparent death penalty moratorium being voluntarily imposed in states throughout the country, a Texas prosecutor in the county with the highest number of death sentences in the nation says she will not seek further executions until the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in an…

Oct 31, 2007 10:28 PM CDT

Supreme Court Halts Execution in MS

A last-minute decision tonight by the U.S. Supreme Court to call off the scheduled execution of a Mississippi murderer seemingly signals that there is now a de facto death penalty moratorium in place nationwide. The decision—which was made a mere 15 minutes or so before Earl W. Berry was scheduled…

Oct 30, 2007 11:44 PM CDT

MS Capital Case Could Clear Up Moratorium Debate

The U.S. Supreme Court must consider today whether to grant a stay to a Mississippi inmate who didn’t challenge the state’s lethal injection procedures until Oct. 18. The court’s action could indicate whether the court intends to halt all executions pending a decision on lethal injection in a Kentucky case,…

Oct 30, 2007 12:05 PM CDT

Jezebel on a Broomstick & Salem Witch Judge

When Eve LaPlante, a Boston area writer, starts thinking about a possible book topic, she doesn’t have to go far from home. In the last several years she has written two books about family forbears, American Jezebel: The Uncommon Life of Anne Hutchinson, the Woman Who Defied the Puritans and…

Oct 29, 2007 11:02 PM CDT

ABA Calls for National Execution Moratorium

After a three-year study on state capital punishment systems, the American Bar Association is calling for a nationwide moratorium on executions until an unfair and sometimes inaccurate application of the death penalty is corrected. “The death penalty system is rife with irregularity—supporting the need for a moratorium until states can…

Oct 29, 2007 9:51 AM CDT

Storm Brews Over TX Judge Who Refused Late Capital Appeal

The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers is among a growing number of lawyers who are criticizing the presiding judge of Texas’ highest criminal court for refusing a death penalty appeal filed 20 minutes late. The group has sent a complaint against the judge, Sharon Keller, to the Texas Commission…

Oct 25, 2007 4:34 PM CDT

Appeals Court Halts Another Lethal Injection

A federal appeals court has halted another lethal injection, this time in the case of a terminally ill prisoner. Lawyers for the state of Alabama had argued that the prisoner, Daniel Siebert, could be executed because the state had changed its lethal injection procedure, the New York Times reports. The…

Oct 25, 2007 4:15 PM CDT

Respect for Precedent Swings Dissenter to Majority in NY Capital Case

A justice who dissented when New York’s highest court struck down the state’s death penalty law in 2004 said in a 4-3 opinion (PDF) today that the precedent required him to switch sides. The court ruled in the case of a man on death row for killing five Wendy’s employees,…

Oct 23, 2007 6:48 PM CDT

Death Penalty Moratorium Could Be Wishful Thinking

Assertions that the nation’s courts have placed a moratorium on the death penalty may be premature. The U.S. Supreme Court accepted a case last month challenging Kentucky’s use of lethal injection. Since then it has granted two stays of execution and refused to vacate a third. Several state courts have…

Oct 19, 2007 6:23 PM CDT

Supreme Court Halts Va. Execution

Only a few hours before Christopher Scott Emmett was scheduled to die tonight in Virginia by lethal injection, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously halted the planned execution. The move appears to signal a growing concern that problems with the constitutionality of lethal injections may need to be addressed before further…

Oct 18, 2007 12:43 AM CDT

DNA: Did Crippen Really Kill His Wife?

Updated: One of Britain’s most notorious murderers could have been wrongly convicted. Harley Crippen, a mild-mannered American doctor convicted of poisoning, dissecting and burying his wife in the cellar of their London home so that he could marry his mistress, actually may not have committed the crime for which he…

Oct 17, 2007 5:15 PM CDT

Breyer Dissents in Cert Denial for 30-Year-Old Capital Case

The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal by an Arizona inmate who argued that executing him 30 years after his original conviction would amount to cruel and unusual punishment. Justice Stephen G. Breyer dissented from the denial of certiorari, the New York Times reports. Joe Clarence Smith…

Oct 16, 2007 1:08 PM CDT

CA v. Court in Sex Offender Residency Sweep

In a showdown between California’s governor and the state supreme court, parole officers yesterday began arresting hundreds of convicted sex offenders for violating a new state law. It prohibits sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of a school or park, as well as a number of other areas where…

Oct 12, 2007 10:31 PM CDT

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