Sidebar With an Expert Capital Litigator
As predicted, coverage is increasing on the impeding June 2010 firing squad execution of Utah’s condemned man, Ronnie Lee Gardner. The idea that a man will die by bullets instead of injected poison is shocking many – and there’s already chatter about a firing squad being unconstitutionally cruel.
Appeal Points to the Elephant in…
The American Bar Association has announced it will be studying how the state of Missouri implements capital punishment – and the study should be pretty thorough. It’s expected that the ABA Committee will delve into DNA evidence issues, indigent defense services, and the like.
The ABA Death Penalty Moratorium Implementation Project
In past years, the ABA has…
The sordid saga of Texas trial judge Verna Sue Holland and state prosecutor Thomas S. O’Connell, Jr. carrying on a sexual affair during the capital murder trial of Charles Dean Hood continues, and the latest chapter doesn’t tell a happy tale.
This week, without comment, the United States Supreme Court declined to hear Mr. Hood’s…
When the court appointed attorney David Brenner on a murder case, he knew it was going to be the fight of a lifetime. Just how bad the case was quickly became apparent as details emerged.
The client, Kemar Johnston, allegedly masterminded the premeditated torture and murder of two young men at Kemar’s birthday party. One of…
The ACLU of Northern California released a study that got lots of attention last year, in no small part due to the practicalities it addresses. (The study is entitled Death in Decline’09, and is available for download.)
For example, the study opines that California could save itself One Billion Dollars ($1,000,000,000.00) over a five year period, just by taking capital…
James Alan Fox gave everyone a head’s up in his Boston Globe piece today: he’ll be in Florida this weekend, visiting Florida’s Death Row.
Who the heck is James Alan Fox?
To many, he’s known as the "Dean of Death," because of his extensive work in the study of mass murder in this country. To…
John Paul Stevens is retiring. It’s understandable: the man is turning 90 years old, and has served his country well.
As a revered member of the United States Supreme Court, Justice Stevens will be remembered in American History for many things, not the least of which is his 2008 concurring opinion in Baze v. Rees where…
(For details on this issue, please read the longer article at our JDSupra repository.)
JAC gets national recognition in the Casey Anthony case
Florida’s Justice Administrative Commission received a significant amount of media coverage recently when it became involved in the Casey Anthony case, providing the trial court judge with the official…
Lethal injection is so commonplace in the United States as the preferred method of imposing capital punishment that many assume it’s the only option out there. That’s not true.
In Utah, it was only recently that their state legislature nixed the option of a death penalty by firing squad – and when it acted, four…