Friends,

On trial with decades worth of exposure. We’ll return soon.

This week’s edition will be out Tuesday morning.  The drafts are available at html / pdf. From the intro:

A large number of, disproportionately favorable, Alabama opinions lead off this edition.

The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals in State v. Larry Smith granted relief in light of trial counsel’s absolutely abysmal performance. As the Equal Justice Iniative’s blog explains Mr Smith’s “lawyer failed to adequately prepare for trial.” “Mr. Smith’s trial lawyer had never before tried a capital murder case. The Court of Criminal Appeals found that, while the evidence indicated that trial counsel performed ‘some’ investigation, he failed to locate numerous witnesses who would have provided testimony critical to Mr. Smith’s defense.” “The lawyer had done little or no investigation himself, and hired an unqualified investigator who spent just three hours on the case. This investigation was unreasonable and deficient, the court held, and therefore could not support any strategic decision about what evidence to present.” “Mr. Smith’s counsel presented only two witnesses at the penalty phase of trial, and later claimed he made a strategic decision not to present additional witnesses because he thought it would annoy the jury. The Court of Criminal Appeals held, however, ‘that labeling a decision as ‘strategic’ does not render that decision above reproach; rather, counsel must have performed an adequate enough investigation to make an informed and educated decision’.”

Likewise in State v. LaSamuel Gamble the CCA granted relief at trial counsel simply failed to develop and present readily available mitigatory evidence. EJI notes that Mr. “Gamble’s lawyers presented no evidence at the penalty phase of trial, even though powerful and relevant mitigating testimony from family members, teachers, and friends, and a wealth of documentary evidence, was available to inform the jury about his ‘leak’ childhood.. . . Mr. Gamble’s father was an alcoholic who violently abused his family. He passed out drunk one night on top of his one-month-old daughter and smothered her to death. Mr. Gamble’s mother’s low IQ placed her in the mentally retarded range, and she abandoned LaSamuel in Atlanta when he was a small child. LaSamuel lived with more than a dozen relatives in a filthy ‘run-down shack.’ Like his mother, he also had cognitive deficits. “

In Donald Whatley v. State the Alabama CCA remands. EJI notes the reason for the remand simply as “there was evidence that the prosecutor at his trial illegally excluded African Americans from jury service on the basis of race. At trial, the prosecutor excluded 17 of the 22 qualified African Americans from Mr. Whatley’s jury. The African Americans who were excluded shared similarities with whites who were permitted to serve on the jury.. . . [T]he evidence of racial discrimination in Mr. Whatley’s case requires the prosecutor to explain why she excluded so many African Americans from Mr. Whatley’s jury. It sent the case back to the trial court for the prosecutor to give reasons for her strikes. “If the prosecution cannot provide race-neutral reasons for its use of peremptory challenges against black veniremembers,” the court ruled, “Whatley shall be entitled to a new trial.”

If you would like to contribute to the Equal Justice Initiative to keep its tremendous work going , they have made it rather easy to their website and give.

The Supreme Court has stayed, at least temporarily, the execution of Gayland Bradford in light of his intellectual disabilities. The Court last Monday denied cert to “Jamie Ryan Weis, who has been in jail facing the death penalty in Pike County for more than four years while the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council struggles to pay for attorneys to handle his case”  A slew of Texas cases, were also denied. The National Law Journal notes that the Court also heard arguments in the case of Connick v. Thompson in which former New Orleans District Attorney Harry Connick maintains that his office should not be held liable for what he contends was a single incident of failing to hand over exculpatory evidence to the defense before trial.

As always thanks for reading.  – karl

Since the last edition, innumerable Alabama decisions, mostly wins.

In favor of the convicted or condemned

• Jarrod Taylor v. State, 2010 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 83, (Ala. Crim. App.10/1/2010) State concedes error as the trial court erred in failing to rule on all of the postconviction claims before it.

• State v. LaSameuel Lee Gamble, 2010 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 82 (Ala. Crim. App.10/1/2010) . “Gamble was denied the effective assistance of counsel at the penalty phase of his capital-murder trial because counsel failed to investigate and present mitigating evidence.” New penalty phase ordered. Proportionality claim on which the trial court also granted relief, reversed, where Gamble, as the non-shooter received death and the shooter life. EJI has more.

• State v. Larry Reynold Smith, 2010 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 93 (Ala. Crim. App.10/1/2010) Penalty phase relief granted trial counsel “had never before tried a capital murder case [and therefore] his ‘judgment’ was not based on experience with such cases. And while he said he had read EJI’s recommendations of how to handle the sentencing phase of a capital murder case, and claimed he tried to follow these recommendations , the evidence, described above suggests otherwise.” Note that the Court of Criminal Appeals strongly endorses the EJI’s standards for the performance of counsel. EJI has more.

• John Michael Ward v. State, 2010 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 79 (Ala. Crim. App.10/1/2010) State Supreme Court remanded for second time so, in a near summary fashion, the Court of Criminal Appeals remands again to the trial court.

• Mark Dwyatt Brown v. State, 2010 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 92 (Ala. Crim. App.10/1/2010) Mr. “Brown’s convictions must be reversed because the trial court gave erroneous instructions regarding intent.”

• Donald Dwayne Whatley v. State, 2010 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 87 (Ala. Crim. App.10/1/2010) “[W]e remand this case to the trial court for that court to conduct a Batson hearing and to make written findings regarding Whatley’s allegations. If the prosecution cannot provide race-neutral reasons for its use of peremptory challenges against black veniremembers, Whatley shall be entitled to a new trial.” EJI notes that “[a]t trial, the prosecutor excluded 17 of the 22 qualified African Americans from Mr. Whatley’s jury. The African Americans who were excluded shared similarities with whites who were permitted to serve on the jury. And the Mobile County District Attorney’s Association has a long history of racial discrimination in jury selection. ” [...]

The opinion in New Hampshire v. Michael Addison is now available.  For proportionality purposes, only cases where death is imposed, but with a twist:

We agree that instate case comparison is preferable. Local jury verdicts best express contemporary community values regarding whether the punishment of death is appropriate for a particular crime committed by a particular defendant.. . .  [However,] in this case we will consider published opinions of out-of-state cases to the extent such comparison would be meaningful for performing comparative proportionality review under the framework set forth in this opinion. If New Hampshire’s death penalty jurisprudence develops beyond this first death penalty case of its kind, we may in the future find it unnecessary to consider out-of-state cases for purposes of comparative proportionality

This week’s edition now available [html/pdf]

Leading off this edition is the Albert Brown stay litigation.  In two separate orders from the Ninth Circuit, Michael Angelo Morales and Albert Greenwood Brown v. Cate decided last Monday and Michael Angelo Morales and Albert Greenwood Brown v. Cate, modifying its earlier decision last Tuesday, the Ninth Circuit addressed the propriety of the district court’s attempts to mollify the California Department of Corrections in its desire to execute Mr. Brown. Specifically, the district court decided, to “provide Brown the choice of a one-drug option.”  The remedy the district court sought  to provide the litigants, as the court noted in its  initial order, however, “is not consistent with California state law and procedures. California law does not provide the condemned a choice between a three-drug protocol or a one-drug option. The only choice provided is between lethal gas or lethal injection.”  As such the panel vacated the district court’s order and remanded.  The last of the California Department of Correction’s sodium thiopental, required for its three drug procedure, the panel noted, expired on Friday, October 1. The Court has made available the briefs and related materials.

Missed in last week’s edition was the Alabama Supreme Court’s decision in Ex parte Esaw Jackson.  The Jackson Court explored the impermissible use of what amounted to a victim impact witness in the guilt phase. Holding that the use of such a witness was improper and, that in light of a less than overwhelming set of proofs, the error was not harmless, it ordered a new trial.

In the news, the  New York Times reports that the shortage of this drug has not only halted executions in several states, but is also disrupting ordinary surgical protocols; Steve Hall at StandDown notes, however, the executioners in Texas & Arkansas, are purportedly well stocked. DPIC notes that “Judge Charles Baird of Austin, Texas, will conduct a court of inquiry on October 6–7 to determine whether Cameron Willingham (pictured) was wrongfully convicted and executed for the death of his three daughters in a fire originally deemed to be an arson.”  Likewise it reports that early “in September, a Nevada district judge ordered the immediate release of Ronnie Milligan, who spent over 20 years on death row. Milligan, a Navy veteran, may have been wrongfully convicted of the 1980 killing of Zolihon Voinski.”  For those who read such things, a list of 50 of the best blogs and resources on capital punishment has recently been published.

As always thanks for reading.  – karl [...]

The Supreme Court on Monday will hand down dozens of cert. denials in criminal and capital cases. While your waiting to figure out how your cases stand:

For the defendant or condemned

• Michael Angelo Morales and Albert Greenwood Brown v. Cate,  2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 20012 (9th Cir 9/28/2010) “Conditional stay order was remanded as court’s unilateral decision to provide inmate choice of one-drug lethal injection option was improper because State had not, in its protocol, devised or implemented procedures for one-drug injection, and imposing on inmate choice between new three-drug protocol and one-drug option placed undue burden on him.”   [via Lexisone] [briefs]

• Michael Angelo Morales and Albert Greenwood Brown v. Cate, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 19988 ((9th Cir 9/27/2010)  “Because imposing on an inmate under a sentence of death a choice between a new three-drug protocol and a one-drug option never adopted by the State of California placed an undue burden on the inmate and was beyond the power and expertise of the district court, the matter was remanded to consider a stay under just the three-drug protocol.”  [via Lexisone] [briefs]

• Ex parte Esaw Jackson,  2010 Ala. LEXIS 179  (Ala 9/24/2010) A witnesses’ “expression of anguish and the inseparable inadmissible opinion and victim-impact testimony thereby communicated to the jury rise to the level of plain error, because the errors reflected by the admission of that testimony affected Jackson’s substantial rights and likely had an unfair prejudicial impact on the jury’s deliberations. Therefore, the judgment of the Court of Criminal Appeals is reversed and the case is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.” [...]

California appears to be out of the execution business for the rest of the year.   Albert Brown’s execution has been stayed due to problems with its lethal injection protocol and drugs.

From this weeks edition [html / pdf]

Leading off this week’s is the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals’ decision in Leonard Edward Smith v. State.  Smith presents a new twist on an old story, trial counsel’s failure to investigate. Rather than dealing with the usual failure of trial counsel find and present mitigation evidence, Smith involves the failure to discover and present evidence supporting a motion to recuse the sentencing judge. Specifically, trial counsel failed to uncover evidence that the trial judge overseeing the resentencing – and serving as the “thirteenth juror” under Tennessee’s sentencing scheme – had previously been involved in the prosecution of Mr. Smith on the very charges for which he was facing death.  Counsel’s failure to examine publicly available documents to ascertain the contours of what, if anythings, the trial judge’s involvement was in the case while an ADA, fell below professional norms of conduct. Had the trial court’s prior involvement in the case been disclosed, the trial court would have been required to recuse himself, and, as a result,  Mr. Smith is entitled to a new trial.

In other news, DPIC notes that in California “Late on Monday (September 27), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ordered U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel of San Jose, California, to reconsider his plan that would have allowed the execution of Albert Greenwood Brown. In a ruling on September 24, Judge Fogel denied a stay of execution for Brown, and said that he lacked the time to inquire whether the state’s new lethal injection protocol contained sufficient safeguards against painful executions.  Fogel said that Brown could request that the state use a single drug (sodium thiopental) for the execution, but Brown refused to make a choice.  Brown’s execution is now scheduled for September 30, and would be the first execution in the state since 2006 if it proceeds. The appeals court said that it appeared that the state’s haste to execute Brown was in part because California’s supply of one of the drugs used in its lethal injection protocol, sodium thiopental, has an expiration date of October 1. The state has not been able to secure more of the lethal drug because of a nationwide shortage that has affected other states. The manufacturer, Hospira Inc., has said that new supplies will not be available until at least January 2011. ” Steve Hall has been gathering all the latest news on the sodium thiopental shortage.

Stephen Bright has launched his blog, Second Class Justice examining the role of quality of counsel in the criminal justice system.  E. Wycliffe Orr, Sr.asks “Georgia’s Indefensible Indigent Defense System – A Defense in Name Only?” at the ACS blog. A recent law review article entitled The Racial Geography of the Federal Death Penalty by G. Ben Cohen and Robert Smith published in the Washington Law Review “reveals that federal prosecutors often seek the death penalty in federal court in cases that otherwise would be tried in state jurisdictions with substantial minority populations. “

Under errata, there is  Joshua Wayne Andrews v. Commonwealth in last week’s edition.  It is an odd case and if you practice in Virginia or intend to rely on it, please read more than our squibs.  By way of additional analysis LexisOne notes: “Defendant’s capital murder convictions pursuant to Va. Code Ann. § 18.2-31 were affirmed, but the death sentences were vacated, as the imposition of two death sentences upon defendant for convictions under § 18.2-31(7) and -31(8) violated the double jeopardy prohibition against multiple punishments for the same offense.”

As always thanks for reading.  – karl

Gov. Schwarzenegger has issued a temprorary reprieve to Albert G. Brown Jr. so that he may exhaust any avenues for relief that he may have left.  The execution has been reset for Thursday.  His execution would likely be the last of the year in California.

Since the last edition:

In light of the Supreme Court’s long conference orders list to be issued Tuesday morning, this week’s edition will mail out Tuesday night.

[update] Georgia on Monday killed Brandon Rhode after spending countless money on preventing his suicide attempts and treating the aftermath of those attempts. AJC notes that it took roughly 30 minutes to find a vein and 14 minutes to kill him.

——-

Georgia is pushing hard for Brandon Rhode‘s execution to happen.

wires note

A Virginia grandmother who hired two men to murder her husband and stepson, so she could pocket their $250,000 life insurance policy, was executed by lethal injection Thursday at Greensville Correctional Center, Va., the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported.

Teresa Lewis, 41, was the first woman to be executed in the state of Virginia in almost 100 years and only the 12th woman executed across the nation since the death penalty was resumed in 1976 after a four-year hiatus.

She died at 9:13pm, according to officials cited by the Times-Dispatch, moments after a final statement directed towards her stepdaughter Kathy Clifton.

“I just want Kathy to know I love her and I’m very sorry,” she said.

Although she pleaded guilty over the 2002 shooting deaths of Julian Lewis, 51, and his son, C.J. Lewis, 25, the condemned woman had become a symbol for campaigners against the death penalty

As a colleague has noted, ” Virginia tonight killed a woman with an IQ of 72 for a double murder in which she was not the trigger person. The two shooters got life. If this is justice, the law is an ass.”

Midweek wrap:

• Teresa Lewis has lost before the United States Supreme Court in her attempts to stop her scheduled killing by the Commonwealth of Virginia on Thursday.  Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell previously denied clemency.

• “A hearing is underway to determine if  a condemned triple murderer is competent to be executed Friday in light of an attempt he made to kill himself  Tuesday by slashing both arms and his neck. Brandon Rhode was to have been executed Tuesday evening for murdering a Jones County father and his two children in 1998. But earlier in the day Tuesday the 31-year-old attempted suicide. The Georgia Supreme Court delayed Rhode’s lethal injection until 9 a.m. Friday to give his attorney time to pursue a mental competency claim. “

• Albert Brown, scheduled to die next week in California will find out by Friday if the injunction suspending all executions in lethal injection will or will not hold.

• Under errata, there is  Joshua Wayne Andrews v. Commonwealth in last week’s edition.  It is an odd case and if you practice in Virginia or intend to rely on it, please read more than our squibs.  By way of additional analysis LexisOne notes: “Defendant’s capital murder convictions pursuant to Va. Code Ann. § 18.2-31 were affirmed, but the death sentences were vacated, as the imposition of two death sentences upon defendant for convictions under § 18.2-31(7) and -31(8) violated the double jeopardy prohibition against multiple punishments for the same offense.”

This week’s edition notes:

Leading off this edition are two cases from unlikely suspects.  This past Wednesday the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granted habeas relief in Ex Parte Jimmie Urbano Lucero holding “that applicant’s counsel failed to investigate applicant’s background or present mitigating evidence at the punishment phase in violation of Rompilla v Beard.” In Joshua Wayne Andrews v. Commonwealth the Virginia Supreme Court held that where a double murder resulted in four capital murder convictions double jeopardy required a new penalty phase proceeding.

The Texas Forensic Science Commission on Friday declined to clear fire investigators of professional misconduct for determining that arson caused a 1991 fire that killed three girls and led to the conviction and execution of Todd Willingham. Phillip Bivens and Bobby Ray Dixon, both serving life were exonerated by a judge on Thursday morning, with a third man, Larry Ruffin, likely to be exonerated in the coming days; they were convicted of a murder they did not commit almost a third of a century ago. In North Carolina, the Racial Justice Act has placed that state’s death penalty on trial. 

DPIC notes that “the latest FBI Uniform Crime Report released on September 13, the national murder rate has dropped from 5.4 (per 100,000 of population) in 2008 to 5.0 in 2009, an 8.1% decrease. Each region of the country experienced a decrease in its murder rate, with the Northeast experiencing the most significant drop of 9%, from 4.2 to 3.8. As in the past, the Northeast continued to have the lowest murder rate in the country, while the South continued to have the highest (6.0, the only region above the national average). In 2009, the South accounted for about 87% of the executions in the country. The other 13% of executions came from the Midwest, the region with the second-highest murder rate (4.6).”

As always thanks for reading.  – karl

In the scrum that is capital litigation, for the next edition we’ve spotted:

US

• Joshua Wayne Andrews v. Commonwealth, 2010 Va. LEXIS 239 (Va 9/16/2010) Death sentence vacated and remanded for assessment of punishment where the Commonwealth erred in the in which it proceeded to assert the aggravating factors in an apparent duplicitious manner. ” Upon review of the four capital murder convictions and death sentences imposed on the defendant, non-harmless errors occurred in the penalty-determination phase of the trial. The death sentences are vacated and the case is remanded for a new penalty-determination proceeding. Defendant’s convictions for robbery, malicious wounding, abduction, and various firearms charges are affirmed. Issues discussed include the propriety of simultaneous convictions under Virginia’s statutes governing multiple killings under Code §§ 18.2-31(7) and (8), liability for killings as a principal in the first degree, spoliation of evidence, expert ballistics proof, double jeopardy, alleged prosecutorial misconduct, victim impact evidence concerning unadjudicated conduct and various other evidentiary and procedural issues.” [...]

This week’s edition is available here. From the intro:

Leading off this week is an odd case, Harry Mitts v. Bagley, from the Sixth Circuit.   I call the case odd as the trial court’s instruction  the majority holds, required  jurors to acquit Mr. Mitts of death before they could consider a lesser sentence.  The panel holds that ”Beck [v. Alabama] compels that proper instructions must make clear that the jury does not have to complete its death deliberation before considering a life sentence.” In the instant case, the jury instructions violated clearly established federal law by requiring that “a mandatory death penalty sentence [could] only be avoided by an acquittal before the jury has an opportunity to consider life imprisonment. ” As such the majority grants relief.

DPIC looks toward  the new Supreme Court Term and notes three capital cases have been set for oral argument.  On October 6 the Court will hear Connick v. Thompson where the New Orleans Parish DA challenges an award of $14 million to John Thompson;  the district attorney’s office failed to train its lawyers about its discovery obligations under the federal constitution.   “On October 13, the Court will hear Skinner v. Switzer to determine whether a Texas death row inmate’s (Hank Skinner) request for DNA testing can be considered as a civil rights claim rather than as part of his death penalty appeal. Lower federal courts have been split on this issue.. . .  Finally, on November 9, the high court will hear Cullen v. Pinholster, reviewing a Ninth Circuit decision overturning Pinholster’s death sentence because of ineffectiveness of counsel.” Skinner appears to be the likeliest “win.”

Texas Monthly’s new editions features the Anthony Graves case in two articles whose titles says it all: Reasonable Doubt and Innocence Lost. A recent John Grisham OpEd in the Washington Post notes Teresa Lewis Didn’t Pull the Trigger. Why Is She on Death Row? A judge  has “halted the scheduled Sept. 16 execution of a Kentucky man convicted of a 1987 murder and kidnapping and barred the state from carrying out any other executions because of questions about the state’s lethal injection process.” Finally, for those who practice in such realms, the last ditch efforts on behalf of Cal Brown to prevent his killing by the State of Washington are here & here.

As we go to “press” lawyers for Gregory Wilson, who has received a stay from a trial court in Kentucky,  are battling for Greg’s ;fie in a case scheduled to resolve no later than midnight Thursday.

Since the last edition, Holly Wood was killed by the State of Alabama  and Cal Brown by the State of Washington. As always thanks for reading.  – karl

9.13.2010

The Weekly edition is likely to go out sometime on Wednesday. Noted since the last edition:

US

• Harry Mitts v. Bagley, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 18736; 2010 FED App. 0291P (6th Cir 9/8/2010) ” Beck compels that proper instructions must make clear that the jury does not have to complete its death deliberation before considering a life sentence, Mitts’ due process rights were violated. Under Beck, a jury instruction violates due process if it requires a mandatory death penalty sentence that can only be avoided by an acquittal before the jury has an opportunity to consider life imprisonment. Accordingly, the holding of the Supreme Court of Ohio was contrary to clearly established federal law as determined by the Supreme Court of the United States in Beck v. Alabama,”

[...]

Coming off of vacation in an (unexpectedly) no internet zone (yes they still exist).  Catching up with a trial call on Monday.  Put another way, I’m running later than I would like & the weekly might not run if the trial call, which is highly unlikely to go, actually happens.

Should we not run, we’ll be watching the stay granted to Gregory Wilson and the impending execution of Teresa Lewis.  At a minimum, the favorable decisions from last week will be uploaded in a new post. – k

This week’s edition is now available:

Leading off this edition is the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals’ opinion in Ex parte Kenneth Wayne Thomas. The per curiam Thomas Court granted a new penalty phase trial in light of Penry and its progeny. “Reviewing the case after remand, the record shows that the mitigating evidence presented by applicant is the sort of evidence that this Court has said is not encompassed within the previous statutory special issues. [Mr. Thomas] presented mitigating evidence at the punishment phase of trial tending to establish that he had limited intellectual ability, suffered from mental illness and brain damage, and had been victimized as a teenager in a violent assault.” ”The mitigating evidence presented at applicant’s trial is the type of evidence for which he was entitled to a separate vehicle for consideration.”

Two cases from the California Supreme Court are also noted. As Alex Coolman describes them: “[t]he California Supreme Court on Monday (8/30/10) published a pair of interesting cases dealing with the lack of qualified attorneys to handle capital habeas cases and the use of cursory “shell” petitions as a mechanism for tolling the AEDPA statute of limitations.  The cases, [In re Edward Patrick Morgan] and [In re Samuel Zamudio Jimenez], deal with situations where the petitioner has gone without a habeas attorney for years — 13 years, in the case of Morgan.  About 300 inmates on California’s death row are also awaiting the appointment of capital habeas counsel, according to Morgan. Justice Corrigan writes an notable concurrence and dissent in Morgan, arguing that California should end the practice of permitting ‘shell’ petitions because they do not serve the state’s interests and because ‘it is not . . . our proper role to help one class of convicted inmates evade a federal statute of limitations’.”

DPIC notes that “[o]n September 2, Ohio Governor Ted Strickland (pictured) granted clemency to Kevin Keith, commuting his death sentence to life without parole. Keith, who was convicted of killing three people, has always maintained his innocence, and some evidence pointed to another suspect. Gov. Strickland’s commutation statement addressed his concerns regarding Keith’s case: “Mr. Keith’s conviction relied upon the linking of certain eyewitness testimony with certain forensic evidence about which important questions have been raised. I also find the absence of a full investigation of other credible suspects troubling.” The governor acknowledged that Keith might well be guilty and that the Ohio Parole Board had recommended against clemency, but he could not allow an execution with the doubts that persisted.  The governor left open the possibility that future developments might require additional relief for Mr. Keith.  Attorneys for Keith applauded Gov. Strickland’s actions, but said they will continue to petition for a new trial to address newly discovered evidence, evidence withheld by the State, and new science behind eyewitness identification, all of which, they claim, point to Mr. Keith’s innocence.”

In other news, President of the North Carolina Conference of District Attorneys is calling for a moratorium on executing any death row inmates whose cases include evidence from that State Bureau of Investigation.  A recent report notes that during his two terms as Pennsylvania’s Governor Edward Rendell, to date, has signed 113 execution warrants without an execution. Oklahoma’s Attorney General is seeking to have the moratorium on lethal injections lifted as it claims to have acquired enough sodium thiopental to resume killing.

I would be remiss for not noting that the Sixth Circuit has released an unusually large number of opinions in the last week, all denying relief: Donald Ray Middlebrooks v. Bell, Kevin Keith v. Bobby, Charles Walton Wright v. Bell,   Dennis McGuire v. Ohio,  and Gregory Wilson v. Rees.

As always thanks for reading.  – karl

09.06.2010