Sidebar With an Expert Capital Litigator
This month, the Supreme Court of the United States is going to be hearing oral arguments in the following Death Penalty cases, each asking the High Court to rule on aspects of the Eighth Amendment.
Text of the Eighth Amendment
First, here’s the Eighth Amendment – that’s right, it’s only 16 words long:
Excessive bail …
We’ve posted about the case of the man who has been diagnosed as schizophrenic and who sits on Texas’ Death Row awaiting execution. Read the details about the case here (you may recall Scott Panetti as the man who defended himself at his criminal trial, and tried to call as witnesses — among others &mdash…
Investigative journalist M William Phelps just released a book about the Josh Fulgham case — a capital case that Terence Lenamon tried as Fulgham’s criminal defense lawyer in the death penalty case. (We’ve been posting about Terry’s defense in the Fulgham case here.)
Result? Another victory for Terry over the state’s seeking of…
It’s only on television that the Federal Bureau of Investigation is always honorable and crime lab evidence is beyond reproach.
In reality, FBI agents and especially the FBI Crime Lab, and evidence coming out of that FBI lab, have been brought into question — and even more, discredited by experts.
That’s right: FBI evidence has…
Death Penalty in Nevada
Few issues raise the passion of people as much as a discussion of capital punishment. The pro-death penalty crowd starts its argument from a moral base, often quoting the Bible as their source.
The anti-death penalty crowd has always attempted to counter the arguments with – wait for it – quotes…
Great series by the Death Penalty Information Center, "50 Facts About the Death Penalty," is now finished, with all 50 Facts online.
Each Death Penalty Fact has a great image with a bit of information about the death penalty in America, and there are links to additional information on that particular topic for those…
This week, a state supreme court held that the death penalty is unconstitutional — and banned all executions in the State of Connecticut. However, the holding is fact-specific to the situation in Connecticut. Three years ago, the state abolished capital punishment — but there were men sitting on Death Row already.
Connecticut Death Row Inmates …
The jury in the Colorado Death Penalty trial of James Holmes came back against capital punishment this week, and news reports are that the reason Holmes was spared the death penalty was due to a single juror who stood firm against it.
In Colorado, that single juror has big power. Not so in Florida.
For…
For Terry Lenamon, it happens almost every day: getting asked why he does what he does — defending people in criminal cases where they are facing the death penalty in some of the most horrific and troubling crimes imaginable.
Byron Burch Case: State Wanted Death Penalty
Take for example his recent trial over in Tampa…
A new study has been released that argues that how someone looks has a great impact upon how they are perceived insofar as being sentenced for a crime.
According to this new research, someone whose face gives them an untrustworthy appearance is more like to get more years behind bars and harsher sentences.
The study…