Lawyer rejects $190,000 for 2 trials, 3 years January 13, 2008
Posted by Idta in : Constitution, Criminal Law, Death Penalty , 1 comment so far
Here’s an interesting money-saving idea: Don’t pay the death-penalty defense lawyers.
That’ll show ‘em!
To take these (appointed) cases may interfere with the survival of these lawyers’ practices. I don’t think federal judges understand this.
‘Bad’ Legal Advice and the Death Penalty December 8, 2007
Posted by Idta in : Criminal Law, Death Penalty , add a comment Does this case suggest a lawyer must advise a client to plead to a life sentence rather than risk a death sentence?
It was the defense lawyer’s misfortune to receive the … case at a moment when death-penalty law was in a particularly high state of flux. Just six weeks [earlier], the Ninth Circuit had invalidated Arizona’s death penalty law on the ground that it gave too much fact-finding power to the judge. Since Idaho’s death penalty law was indistinguishable, and Idaho is also in the Ninth Circuit, Mr. Wellman reasoned that even if his client received a death sentence, it would be overturned on appeal.
However, Mr. Wellman was unaware that four days before the plea bargain was offered, the Arizona Supreme Court, in a separate case, had rejected the Ninth Circuit’s reasoning and had upheld the Arizona death penalty statute.
Texas judge enforces DEAD-line. Literally. October 5, 2007
Posted by Idta in : Criminal Law, Death Penalty , add a comment A defense attorney’s computer crash proved fatal for one man on death row in September.
Or maybe it was the result of human error after all:
Presiding Judge Sharon Keller closed the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals offices at the regular time Sept. 25, preventing attorneys for inmate Michael Richard from filing an appeal seeking to halt Richard’s execution hours after the U.S. Supreme Court said it would consider a Kentucky case questioning the constitionality of lethal injection.
TDCJ officer killed in escape September 25, 2007
Posted by Idta in : Criminal Law, Death Penalty, Law Enforcement , add a comment Yesterday was a very sad day in Huntsville, Texas.
“This was obviously a very unfortunate incident. It’s absolutely a terrible tragedy and reminds us correctional officers take this job knowing they may have to make the ultimate sacrifice. They put their lives on the line.”
The reason for defense lawyers September 3, 2007
Posted by Idta in : Criminal Law, Death Penalty, Law Enforcement , add a comment My sister sent me this link about the recent acquittal of a teenager wrongly convicted of raping and killing a girl in the 1950s in Canada.
14-year-old Truscott was arrested for the rape and murder of the little girl two years his junior. He was the last person seen with the victim, after he offered her a ride on his bike - an invitation he’s always insisted she declined.
At first, he was sentenced to hang.
Anti-Death Penalty Song June 19, 2007
Posted by Idta in : Death Penalty , add a comment Eric Bogle has written a beautiful song called Singing the Spirit Home about an execution in South Africa. The guards who come to take the condemned man to his death have no mercy for him. But the other prisoners sing for him. Their voices are the last sounds he hears . . . .
“Other hearts beat with him in his final desperate hour.
From the darkness of the prison came the sound of his brothers singing.
‘Courage,’ their voices told him. ‘You do not walk alone.’ â€
This song is also on By Request
