Death Penalty

Attorneys for the Damned: ABA Project Marks 25 Years of Providing Counsel to Death Row Inmates

After Joe Lee Guy was convicted of murder and sentenced to death in Texas for his role in a 1993 convenience store robbery—he had served as an unarmed lookout—attorneys from Minneapolis-based Dorsey & Whitney took up his case on appeal. They had a hard time believing some of what they…

Jul 1, 2012 6:20 AM CDT

July 2, 1881: Charles Guiteau Shoots President James Garfield

One day after James Garfield’s presidential inauguration, Charles Guiteau traveled to Washington, D.C. Guiteau had haltingly given a half-baked campaign speech in support of Garfield, and somehow fancied it crucial to his election. He expected to be rewarded with a consulship, though the self-described “lawyer, theologian and politician” had no…

Jul 1, 2012 5:10 AM CDT

Federal Judge Nixes Lawyer’s Plan to Take Day Off from Capital Trial to Attend Hemingway Event

Citing a Dorothy Parker profile of Ernest Hemingway published in the New Yorker, a federal judge in Tampa has denied a Florida lawyer’s request to take a day off during a capital murder-for-hire trial in order to compete in an annual Hemingway lookalike contest held at at Sloppy Joe’s Bar…

Jun 26, 2012 11:01 PM CDT

Judge Bans Now-Bearded Fort Hood Shooting Suspect From Military Court

A 41-year-old Army psychiatrist charged in a fatal 2009 shooting spree at Fort Hood in Texas was banned from attending a military court hearing there on Tuesday because he is wearing a beard, in violation of Army regulations. Col. Gregory Gross had warned suspect Nidal Hasan in an earlier hearing…

Jun 19, 2012 5:55 PM CDT

Ga. Judge Dismisses 2003 Child-Murder Case Over Speedy Trial Violations

A Georgia judge on Wednesday dismissed all charges against a Savannah man accused of raping and killing his girlfriend’s 12-year-old daughter in 2003 because of a series of delays that violated his constitutional right to a speedy trial. Although expressing concern that Bobby Lavon Bucker could potentially escape justice for…

May 30, 2012 10:57 PM CDT

Death Penalty Is Sentence for Two Brothers Convicted in Separate Crimes, 25 Years Apart

Brothers Roger and Rodney Berget are a rarity in the criminal justice system. Both were condemned to die for murders. There are at least three other cases in which brothers got the death penalty, the Associated Press reports. But the Bergets are unusual because they were sentenced to death for…

May 30, 2012 2:56 PM CDT

Rhode Island Governor Loses Bid for Supreme Court Stay in Showdown over Death Penalty

Accused killer Jason Pleau and Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee have failed to obtain a U.S. Supreme Court stay that would prevent the defendant from being turned over to federal custody. Justice Stephen G. Breyer refused a stay on Thursday, report WPRI.com and the Providence Journal. Chafee had refused to…

May 25, 2012 1:24 PM CDT

Journalists Sue for Access to Entire Executions in Idaho; Was 9th Circuit Ignored?

Are five Western states ignoring a 2002 appeals court ruling requiring entire executions to be open to witnesses? The answer is yes, according to a review by the Associated Press, which has joined with 16 other news organizations to file suit for access in Idaho. The suit claims the media…

May 23, 2012 3:24 PM CDT

More Than 2,000 Exonerations for False Convictions in the US Since 1989, New Report Says

An unprecedented report asserted today that more than 2,000 falsely convicted people of serious crimes have been exonerated in the United States in the past 23 years. In the most complete database of exonerations ever compiled, the new national registry closely examines 873 exonerations from 1989 through March 1, 2012…

May 21, 2012 9:08 PM CDT

ABA Silver Gavel Awards Honor Documentaries on Fights for Justice

Two documentaries on people who fought for justice are among four Silver Gavel award winners announced this week by the American Bar Association. The Silver Gavel Awards for Media and the Arts recognize outstanding work that fosters the American public’s understanding of law and the legal system, according to a…

May 18, 2012 10:30 AM CDT

Rhode Island Governor Loses Battle to Keep Inmate from Potential US Death Penalty Prosecution

Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee says he is evaluating his options after a federal appeals court ruled he must hand over a murder defendant for federal prosecution. Chafee had refused to surrender defendant Jason Pleau because of the possibility the feds would seek the death penalty, an option he opposes,…

May 8, 2012 3:10 PM CDT

California Voters Will Decide on Death Penalty

A measure on the November ballot in California will allow voters to decide whether to continue the death penalty in the state. The referendum would substitute life in prison without parole for capital sentences, report the Los Angeles Times and the Associated Press. The measure would apply to those currently…

Apr 24, 2012 3:17 PM CDT

Applying New Law, NC Judge Overturns Death Sentence Due to Racial Bias

In a landmark North Carolina ruling that is the first to apply the state Racial Justice Act to the case of a death row inmate, a Cumberland County judge has determined that racial bias infected the trial and sentencing of Marcus Reymond Robinson. His death sentence is now automatically converted…

Apr 20, 2012 9:40 PM CDT

Death Sentence Upheld in ‘92 Court Murder; Judge, 2 Lawyers, 5 Others Also Targeted in Shooting

Convicted, after a lengthy procedural history that included three competency hearings and two trials, in the 1992 murder of his wife during a courtroom divorce hearing, a Missouri man shot twice in the head in the fray has lost a pro se appeal focused largely on claimed failures by his…

Apr 17, 2012 10:17 PM CDT

Review Found FBI Hair Analysis Flaws in 250 Cases, But DOJ Didn’t Inform Defendants and Public

An inspector general’s nine-year review of misconduct at the FBI crime lab found forensic flaws in hair analysis, but the results of the probe that ended in 2004 were revealed only to prosecutors. The Justice Department did not separately inform defendants whose cases could be affected, including one Maryland man…

Apr 17, 2012 12:00 PM CDT