Updated on October 29, 2020
Emergency E-mail System Created after Execution Controversy
An emergency e-mail system was created by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to deal with last-minute pleadings made on behalf of inmates facing imminent execution. The action was prompted by controversy over an execution carried out in September.
Refusal to Stay Open
On September 25, defense attorneys attempted to file a last-minute appeal regarding the constitutionality of the lethal injection method on behalf of inmate Michael Richard.
Shortly before 5 p.m., the lawyers called the clerk’s office to ask the court to remain open for an additional 20 to 30 minutes because they had experienced computer problems, which delayed the required hand-delivery of the appeal.
Presiding Judge Sharon Keller denied the attorneys’ request without informing the judge assigned to the case, who was in her office awaiting a possible appeal.
Richard was subsequently executed, even though there was a good chance the appeal would have been granted pending a high court decision on another lethal injection case.
Wave of Criticism
Keller’s decision has been highly criticized, and the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association has asked for sanctions to be placed on the judge for her failure to carry out her duties and for diminishing the public’s faith in the legal system.
More than 300 attorneys, including former Texas Supreme Court justices, signed a petition two weeks ago calling for the Court of Criminal Appeals to create an emergency e-mail filing systems.
“It’s about time” such a system was created for emergencies, said James C. Harrington of the Texas Civil Rights Project.
Lawyers will now be able to send last-minute appeals, which will be “routed to an on-call ‘duty’ judge as well as the rest of the court to begin consideration.”
(Source: The Dallas Morning News online)
Charged with a crime? Contact an experienced criminal defense attorney today to start planning a course of action.
Updated on October 29, 2020
Multiple Personality Disorder Cited in Murder Defense
The defense attorney for a man charged with two counts of first-degree murder claims that the man was incapable of “cool reflection”—which is necessary for a conviction—because he suffers from multiple personality disorder.
Case “Simple” for Prosecutor
John M. Opry, 28, is on trial for the 2005 murder of two Missouri men. According to the prosecutor in the case, Opry burglarized the home the two men were watching on a Friday, then returned the next day only to be surprised when the men entered the home.
The prosecutor said Opry hid in the basement and shot the victims when they became suspicious and checked the basement.
Not So Simple for the Defense
Public defender Larry Maples is not denying that his client committed the murders. Instead, he claims that Opry suffers from multiple personality disorder because of abuse he endured as a child.
Opry, Maples said, was actually born David Haler and his name was changed two to four years later when his mother married a man who repeatedly abused her and her children.
“The little boy saw his mother shot at. The little boy saw his mother beaten,” said Maples.
To cope with the abusive environment, Maple argued Opry developed a second personality to protect his primary one.
Cool Reflection or Panic?
When the two men discovered Opry in the basement, he panicked, and it is this moment of panic that Maple is asking the jury to consider. At that moment, Opry was not acting with cool reflection, the defense attorney argues.
The trial, which began on Monday, is expected to last three days.
(Source: The Joplin Globe online)
Facing murder charges? Don’t risk your life or your freedom. Contact an experienced defense attorney near you today to discuss your options.
Updated on October 29, 2020
New DNA Evidence Could Help Convicted Killer
Defense attorneys are optimistic that new DNA evidence will help overturn the conviction of Damien Echols, a death row inmate accused of killing three boys in West Memphis more than a decade ago.
According to lead defense attorney Dennis Riordan, “no reasonable jury would convict Damien Echols, essentially knowing what we know today.” A motion to have the conviction reversed was filed in federal court on Monday.
Lack of Evidence
The original case involves the 1993 killing of three 8-year-old boys whose bodies were discovered bound and naked in a ditch. At the time of the murders, Echols was 18. He and two other teens, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley were convicted in the deaths.
Echols received the death penalty while Misskelley and Baldwin were given life sentences. Supporters of the defendants argue that prosecutors obtained a conviction despite a lack of physical evidence by linking the men to Satanism based on their love of heavy metal music.
“It was a rush to judgment, the worst kind of rush to judgment,” Riordan said.
A forensic expert for the defense said, “None of the DNA evidence connects any of the defendants to the scene of the crime.”
The Defense’s Concern
DNA evidence, however, did not rule out the stepfather of one of the victims and one of the stepfather’s friends, who was with him on the day of the murders.
But defense attorneys say it’s not their job to prove who committed the murders, only to prove that their client was not involved in the killings.
“If we can demonstrate the innocence of Damien Echols, it’s not our legal burden to solve this crime,” said Riordan.
(Source: Stephens Media Group)
Charged with a crime? You need an experienced defense attorney on your side. Contact us today to locate a defense attorney near you for a free consultation.
Updated on October 29, 2020
Fingerprint Ruling May Have Broad Implications
A judge’s decision to bar fingerprint evidence in a Baltimore homicide trial could have far-reaching implications, according to some legal experts. The ruling is unprecedented, largely because fingerprints have been a crucial aspect of forensic science for nearly a century.
Circuit Court Judge Susan M. Souder said in her ruling that fingerprinting’s long history is not necessarily proof of its dependability.
“The state is correct that fingerprint evidence has been used in criminal cases for almost a century. While that fact is worthy of consideration, it does not prove reliability. For many centuries, perhaps for millennia, humans thought the earth was flat,” she wrote.
A Blow for Prosecutors
State prosecutors had planned to use a set of partial fingerprints taken from a Mercedes owned by Warren T. Fleming, who was killed in January 2006 during an attempted carjacking at Security Square Mall.
The fingerprints linked the killing to Bryan Keith Rose, a 23-year-old Baltimore man. However, defense attorneys challenged the admissibility of the prints and during a pretrial hearing cited the lack of consistent scientific review of fingerprint evidence over the past century.
The Decision
In recent years, fingerprinting technology has come under scrutiny. Judge Souder criticized a common fingerprinting method as highly subjective and called testimony asserting the technique’s infallibility “neither credible nor persuasive.”
She partially based her decision on the 2004 Madrid bombing case in which the FBI mistakenly linked the crime to Oregon lawyer Brandon Mayfield based on fingerprint analysis. Mayfield was offered an apology last year and a $2 million award.
No Longer the “Gold Standard”
“Fingerprints, before DNA evidence, were always considered the gold standard of forensic science, and it’s turning out there’s a lot more tin in that field than gold,” said professor David L. Faigman of the University of Hastings College of Law.
The repercussions of the judge’s decision, according to Faigman, are “terrifically broad.”
“If fingerprinting turns out to not be so good, people could start questioning that science as well,” he said in reference to other types of forensic science such as bite pattern and firearm analyses.
(Source: Baltimore Sun online)
Charged with a crime? An experienced criminal defense attorney can help you challenge the evidence. Contact us today to schedule a free consultation with an attorney near you.
Updated on October 29, 2020
Rate of Domestic Violence Dramatically Drops
The number of domestic violence cases in the U.S. fell dramatically from 1993 to 2004, according to the Justice Department who also added that native Alaskan women and American Indian women face an increased risk of being victimized than Caucasians and other minorities.
Furthermore, the statistics, gathered by the Bureau of Justice, found that “intimate partner violence” rates dropped by over 50 percent. This sharp decline mirrors a downward trend in other violent crimes in the U.S.
What Caused the Drop
The Justice Department has no definite answer as to why the rates of domestic violence crimes have dropped so significantly in the last decade, but some criminal experts claim it has something to do with better police training and funding for prosecution.
“For the first time, there are entire domestic violence units in law enforcement,” said Lonna Stevens, director of the Sheila Wellstone Institute, a domestic violence group. “We’ve had protocols and policies developed for responding to this.”
More Statistics
For every 1,000 people over the age of 12 in the U.S, there were nearly 5.8 cases of nonfatal violence in 1993. By 2004, that rate had dropped to 2.6.
However, native Alaskan women and American Indian women suffered three times the incidence of violence than white woman, and Black women were also more likely to be abused than white women.
According to Stevens, this could be because law enforcement officials are less successful at responding or deterring violent behavior in some minority neighborhoods.
In addition, the Justice Department found that divorced or separated women, or those in their early 20s faced the highest risk of being abused. Women in low-income households were also victimized more often.
Accused of domestic abuse? Please click here to ensure your legal rights and interests are fully protected.
Updated on October 29, 2020
Legal Group: Death Penalty System in U.S. Flawed
The nation’s largest association of lawyers recently released a report citing serious problems with the death penalty system in the United States. A halt on executions is justified until issues of fairness and accuracy in capital punishment are reviewed, the organization said.
“The death penalty system is rife with irregularity,” said Stephen F. Hanlon, who chairs the association’s Death Penalty Moratorium Implementation Project.
According to the American Bar Association report, problems with the death penalty system include:
- False confessions
- Eyewitness misidentification
- Racial disparities—for instance, the death penalty is more likely to be administered when the victim of a crime is white
- Mishandling of DNA evidence—more than 200 inmates have been exonerated in recent years with DNA
Separate reviews of the death penalty have been conducted over the past several years in eight states. Those reviews were compiled and presented in the ABA report.
“After carefully studying the way states across the spectrum handle executions, it has become crystal clear that the process is deeply flawed,” Hanlon said.
The ABA does not take a position on capital punishment and is not calling for a permanent halt to executions. Rather the organization is recommending that states review their procedures before putting more inmates to death.
(Source: The Associated Press)
Facing criminal charges? Contact an experienced criminal defense attorney near you today to discuss a plan of action.
Updated on October 29, 2020
Teen Sex Offender Released After Long Legal Battle
A controversial teen sex offense case came to a conclusion today after the Georgia Supreme Court ruled 4-3 that Genarlow Wilson be released from prison. According to the court, Wilson’s sentence violated the constitutional ban against “cruel and unusual” punishment.
In 2005, Wilson was convicted on felony aggravated child molestation charges for having consensual oral sex with a 15-year-old girl and received a mandatory 10-year sentence. He was 17 at the time of the sex act.
Wilson Kept Behind Bars
Wilson has been in jail since his conviction more than two years ago, despite a previous ruling by a Monroe County Superior Court judge to void the sentence based on constitutional grounds. The state attorney general’s move to appeal that ruling kept Wilson behind bars.
Majority Ruling
The high court’s ruling upheld the decision of the Monroe County judge.
“Although society has a significant interest in protecting children from premature sexual activity, we must acknowledge that Wilson’s crime does not rise to the level of culpability of adults who prey on children,” the majority wrote in its decision.
“For the law to punish Wilson as it would an adult, with the extraordinarily harsh punishment of 10 years in prison without the possibility of probation or parole, appears to be grossly disproportionate to the crime,” the majority concluded.
Controversial Case Draws Attention
Wilson’s case drew international attention and the support of civil rights leaders and former President Jimmy Carter, who once served as Georgia’s governor. Amid controversy over Wilson’s conviction, the state legislature changed the law regarding consensual teen sex acts.
The new law made such acts misdemeanors, as opposed to felony crimes, and “punishable by no more than a year in prison and no sex offender registration.” However, the laws were not made retroactive and so did not apply to Wilson’s case.
Wilson To Go Home
B.J. Bernstein, Wilson’s attorney, said he could be released today.
“We want him home. In the end, it shows this: That the courts can work, the courts do work,” Bernstein said.
(Source: CNN)
Need a criminal defense attorney? Click here to arrange a complimentary consultation with an experienced criminal defense attorney near you.
