Our system of justice is built on the belief that it’s better to let a guilty man go free than to imprison – or kill – an innocent man for a crime he did not commit. That’s why there are all those procedural hurdles from the beginning of an investigation all the way through that
August 2009
In Texas Justice Keller’s Trial, What if the US Supreme Court had ruled the other way?
Posted in Death Penalty - States
The San Antonio Express-News has provided a video containing snippets from the closing arguments in the trial of Sharon Keller, Chief Justice of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (the highest criminal court in that state). It bears viewing, and it’s only 2:24 minutes long.
Listening to it, you’ll hear an attorney’s deep voice…
Last week, John Marek was Executed by the State of Florida
Posted in Death Penalty - Federal
John Marek died last Wednesday due to lethal injection at the hands of the State of Florida. His hard-working defense attorney — who had filed last minute appeals to the Supreme Court trying to keep Marek alive — didn’t go to watch. Who can blame him.
It was only a couple of weeks ago that…
Scientists Reveal DNA Evidence Can Be Faked – And It’s Not Hard to Do: the implications upon Florida criminal defense
Posted in Death Penalty Resources
Pretty soon, looks like we’re all going to know the name Dan Frumkin. Who’s he?
Dan Frumkin is the author of an article in the respected journal Forensic Science International: Genetics where he writes that DNA evidence can be created in a lab – TOTALLY FABRICATED – and he warns that the real possibility of…
AEDPA, the Power of Judicial Dissents, and the Reality of Troy Davis
Posted in Execution Methods
This week, the New York Times reports that dissents are increasing in federal cases, based in large part upon judicial frustration with the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996. According to their investigation and research, this single statute has been the basis of 6 -24 dissents per year in federal death penalty…
This week’s Justin Heyne Case Demonstrates the Two Trials Involved in a Death Penalty Case
Posted in Fact Issues - Death Penalty
Yesterday, the jury came back in the murder trial of Justin Heyne. The 12 jurors found Heyne guilty of the March 2006 murder of his roommates, Sarah Buckowski and Benjamin Hamilton and their 5-year-old daughter, Ivory.
The verdict was read to a packed courtroom. Mr. Heyne stood to hear his fate in a dark…
Today John Marek Appeals to US Supreme Court, Scheduled to Die in 12 Days
Posted in Death Penalty - Federal
John Marek’s attorneys are fighting hard to stop the State of Florida from killing their client.
Today, they filed an appeal with the highest court in the land, the United States Supreme Court, to try and stop the execution of John Richard Marek. With the Florida Supreme Court ruling that it will not hear…
The High Cost of the Death Penalty: Capital Punishment is Very Expensive
Posted in Death Penalty Resources
In these economic times, there has been significant media coverage of various states considering the banning of the death penalty — not on moral grounds or arguments about its ineffectiveness in crime prevention, but on the simple argument that it costs too much. That’s right: it is cheaper to keep someone incarcerated for the rest…