FACDL Death Penalty Seminar, Day 1:

This weekend, I am attending the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyer’s 15th Annual Death Penalty Seminar. This is an annual event that I have often attended since its inception. It is an opportunity for death penalty lawyers to share tactics, techniques, and review the latest developments in the law.

Steve Potolsky, a renowned criminal defense lawyer who was on the team in the first Federal death penalty case tried in Florida, started the seminar with a discussion of national attitudes toward the death penalty Steve asserted that we are entering a period of national reconsideration for the death penalty and cited several reasons for the decline in death sentences nationally. Among these are increased publilcity surrounding exoneration by DNA evidence and the fact that many states have done away with the possibility of parole or early release in such cases. He noted that New Hampshire repealed the death penalty.
Continue Reading Update – 1: the FACDL (Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers) Death Is Different 15th Annual Death Penalty Seminar