ummm, scheduling issues

My schedule is in meltdown mode of late. Others are covering stories that should have been covered here. Some of those stories from Monday include:

The New York Times discusses why there are so many federal capital prosecutions in the NYC area and so few death verdicts:

In the 20 years since the federal death penalty statute was revived, no federal juries have been more reluctant to sentence federal defendants to death than those in New York. According to records compiled by the Federal Death Penalty Resource Counsel Project, which coordinates the defense of capital punishment cases, federal prosecutors in New York State have asked juries to impose death sentences 19 times since 1988. In only one case did a jury rule for execution. [salute to FDPRC] Kansas Defenders have more.
Of Counsel weighs in on the Nichols trial and teh announcement of a trial date:

At today’s hearing, Judge Bodiford set Nichols a trial date of July 10. The prosecution wanted June while defense requested September. Judge Bodiford, still pretty gung-ho, plans to have 9 1/2 hour days and Saturdays to get through the trial by Christmas. (Don’t even get me started on why it’s necessary for this trial to take 6 months.)

A Public Defender looks at attempts to modify the Nutmeg state’s death penalty:

Two separate news items of note on the death penalty in Connecticut today. The first is a hearing in the judiciary committee on a bill that sets absurd time limits on the filing of appeals and habeas corpus petitions. S.B. 320 is a resurrection of an almost identical bill that failed in the last legislative session. The bill would require both the defendant and the state to file its briefs within 4 months of the imposition of the sentence and it would require the Supreme Court to schedule oral argument no later than 6 months from the date of the imposition of the sentence. These time limits are absurd and arbitrary and unworkable. There is no way that all issues that need to be raised in capital cases can be raised in two months.. . .The second news item was a discussion on the state of the death penalty in Connecticut on NPR’s “Where We Live“. The guests include Waterbury State’s Attorney John Connelly, Yale Prof. John Donahue, who conducted the disparity study, Helen Williams – the mother of Richard Reynolds’ victim, Robert Nave – the director of the Connecticut Network to Abolish the Death Penalty, New Jersey Senator Christopher Bateman and State Rep. Michael Lawlor.

via Harmless Error, the Nevada Supreme Court to hold hearing on stay of indigent defense policy

On March 18th, at 3:00 p.m., the Nevada Supreme Court will hear from Pershing County, Humboldt County, Judge Wagner, Washoe County and any other interested parties concerning Pershing County’s and Humboldt County’s motions to set aside the Court’s order concerning representation of indigent defendants;

Sean O’Brien talks on indigent defense & the death penalty for lawyers not going in to public interest law.

UMKC criminal law professor Sean O’Brien didn’t bother using the microphone and podium. He paced back and forth in front of the students gathered in the School of Law’s lounge, as he gave an impassioned speech last Friday in favor of a moratorium on the death penalty in Missouri.”Missouri ranks 50 of 50 states in per-capita spending for indigent defense,” O’Brien said.. . ..”Most of you are going to run as fast as possible in the opposite direction when a judge calls you and says, ‘Will you take this death penalty case?’” O’Brien said. “And that would be the rational response. … What has been happening in America since the Supreme Court gave a green light to executions in 1976 is that the bulk of these cases are being tried by cash-hungry drunks.”

“The problem is that the states have viewed Gideon as an unfunded mandate,” O’Brien said. “In 1981, the Missouri Supreme Court said that doesn’t create a Constitutional right to have the lawyer paid. … If you take a case … then you are committing, if you are a solo practitioner, to living in a cardboard box by the time the case is done.”

“The moratorium movement is based upon a simple concept,” he said. “It is not anti-capital punishment per se. It is simply based on the notion that a system that would dispense death must first dispense justice.”. . . .

“I’m going to implore you to do one thing,” he said. “If it’s your choice to walk away from the death penalty and not put yourself at financial risk, or not become a skilled specialist the way the government is always represented by skilled specialists in these cases, then … at least give some time, some effort and some money to the ABA [American bar Association] moratorium movement.”

In a move likely to chill the assistance of prison paralegals around the country and cut sharply in to the availability of assistance in preparing postconviction litigation, South Carolina authorities are investigating whether prison legal aides break the law when the assist other inmates: [h/t crimprof blog]
The prison law clerk who convinced the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a fellow inmate’s case is being investigated by South Carolina authorities for practicing law without a license, the prisoner’s attorney said.
Lawyer Rauch Wise said the state attorney general’s office informed him last week they were investigating Michael Ray, a federal inmate in South Carolina.
Ray helped fellow inmate Keith Lavon Burgess appeal his conviction for possession of crack cocaine with the intent to distribute. In the appeal, which the U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on March 24, Burgess is arguing that a prior drug conviction prosecutors used to get him the 20-year minimum prison sentence shouldn’t have applied because it was a misdemeanor instead of a felony.Conflicting court rulings have required 10-year sentences for people already convicted of misdemeanors, so a successful appeal could trim Burgess’ sentence in half.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, today 5 US soldiers killed in Baghdad
“Five soldiers paid the ultimate sacrifice on behalf of the Iraqi and American people. I ask you remember these fallen heroes and their families as well as their wounded brethren in your thoughts and prayers,” said Col. Allen Batschelet, chief of staff for Multi-National Division-Baghdad. “We remain resolute in our resolve to protect the people of Iraq and kill or capture those who would bring them harm.”The explosion marks the deadliest attack against the U.S. military since five soldiers were killed January 28 in a roadside bombing in Mosul. Troops killed a Saudi insurgent whose network was responsible for that attack.Earlier, an Iraqi Interior Ministry official said one person was killed and eight people were wounded in a suicide bomb attack targeting a U.S. military convoy in western Baghdad.

It is not clear if the U.S. and Iraqi reports are about the same incident.

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Author:cdw
Date: Monday, 10. March 2008 22:33
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