December 2009

Currently, not only the federal government but a majority of states provide for capital punishment (the death penalty) in certain crimes. There are those that argue that true fairness in this country would be an all-or-nothing approach: either every state in the union should impose capital punishment or no state should. Otherwise, two individuals convicted…

Recently, Representative Henry Johnson (D- Ga.) introduced House Bill 3986, the Effective Death Penalty Appeals Act.  This proposed law would make sure that defendants who have been sentenced to death at trial have the chance to have those death sentences reviewed as federal habeas corpus relief when they are able to provide evidence that they are not guilty of the crime — especially when that evidence was not presented at their trial.  The summary written by the Congressional Research Service (a nonpartisan part of the Library of Congress) provides:

11/3/2009–Introduced.
Effective Death Penalty Appeals Act – Amends the federal judicial code to make federal habeas corpus relief available to a person sentenced to death if adjudication on the merits in state court proceedings of the claim cited in the writ application resulted in, or left in force, a death sentence imposed without consideration of newly discovered evidence which, in combination with the evidence presented at trial, demonstrates that the applicant is probably not guilty of the underlying offense. Allows presentation of such a claim in a second or successive habeas corpus application. Allows a second or successive court motion to vacate, set aside, or correct a death sentence based on such a claim.

Many may assume that this type of federal judicial review already exists for those individuals facing a sentence of death. After all, isn’t the cost of appellate review one of the big chunks of Capital Punishment expense that is being used as an monetary argument to abolish the death penalty? Right now, federal courts are limited in their ability to review state court decisions in Death Cases —  Troy Davis is one big example While death penalty appeals are expensive in both time and money, the fact is that the innocent men and women on Death Row — and they’re there, don’t think they’re not — may not have as easy of a time taking evidence proving their innocence before a tribunal in order to gain their freedom as the public might assume.
Continue Reading House Bill 3986 – The Proposed Death Penalty Appeals Act and the Need to Include Adequate Funding for Indigent Defense Counsel

Earlier this month, the United States Supreme Court heard argument in the case of Beach Renourishment v. Florida (08-1141), a controversy surrounding the application of the Fifth Amendment’s prohibition that “…private property [shall not] be taken for public use, without just compensation,” otherwise known as the “takings clause.” It’s an interesting situation because the real…

This past Sunday, the New York Times responded to the horrific execution of Ken Biros by the State of Ohio last week.  Yes, where Biros was killed in the same way that your vet euthanizes dogs and cats.  Yes, where Ohio ran ahead and used a new method of execution that hasn’t been vetted, allowing…

Death Row inmate Romell Broom was setting in the courtroom this week as his attorneys stood ready for an evidentiary hearing that would take a couple of days in front of Federal District Judge Gregory Frost.  Romell Broom sat there, ready to testify. Think of it — Broom left his small Death Row cell to set in that public…