Fla Death Penalty is Unconstitutional, Fla Taxpayers--Tell Us Again Why Were Paying for this Case Anthony Carnival?

At least that's the question Florida taxpayers should be screaming at prosecutors in the wake of the 94-page ruling by U.S. District Judge Jose Martinez striking down Florida's death penalty.  Judge Martinez repeatedly cited a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court decision as a basis for his finding that Florida's law is fatally flawed.

So Florida prosecutors are proceeding with a media circus in nearby Orlando in a declared effort to kill that idiot-child, Casey Anthony.  At the cost of how many millions?  And does Florida have so much revenue that they can feed and house all the abused and neglected children?

Judge Sharon "Killer" Keller: "I Won!"

Mary Alice Robbins at Texas Lawyer (a publication of Law.com) has this interview with Texas Criminal Court of Appeals Chief Judge, Sharon Keller, who proclaims herself completely exonerated following the eleventh-hour dismissal of ethics charges.  The charges against Keller included, Judge Keller's refusal to hold open the clerk's office for the late-filing of a motion to stay of execution of a Texas death row inmate executed later that evening. 

As you will recall Judge Keller had an appliance repairman to attend to; while the ;lawyers for the late Michael Richard's lawyers' struggled with balky technology, occasioning their late arrival at the clerk's office. 

Dante describes a place where judges like Sharon Keller will find themselves, if not in reality, metaphorically, Judge Keller is already there.  I wouldn't be surprised based on the remarks to the reporter from Texas Lawyer, that Judge Keller already knows.

Frontline: The Execution of Cameron Todd Willingham Examined

Mike Hale at the New York Times reviews the Frontline documentary on the Cameron Todd Willingham execution, the so-called forensic science, and other issues that scream out in the aftermath of this fine piece of Texas "justice."  As both the NYT review and the Frontline episode, “Death by Fire,” tonight, make clear, it isn't over. 

DNA and Death at the Supreme Court

The Texas Tribune has a profile on the case of Texas Death Row inmate, Henry "Hank" Skinner, who's Supreme Court case on issues relating to DNA lit up some of the major law blawgs yesterday.  The legal issues in Skinner's case are examined in Adam Liptak's New York Times article.  According to Liptak, the Supreme Court seemed less interested in the DNA question, than the curious course of Skinner's case particularly, the jurisprudential tactics of his appellate counsel in obtaining certiorari.

Translation:  yeah, ok, somebody's continued existence on the planet turns on what we do, so what;  how did you get in our court, counselor? 

Ohio Kills Another Inmate Sets State Record!

Congratulations, Ohio, you broke your record for State-Sanctioned Slayings of death row inmates with your torrid 2010 pace.  Here's the joyous news, courtesy of the Cincinnati Enquirer. 

Dayton Ohio-area Judge Removes Self From Capital Case Because the Death Penalty is Morally Indefensible

The Dayton Daily News is reporting that Montgomery County Common Pleas Judge AJ Wagner (pic) removed himself from the capital case of Cody Henderson because of his conviction as a practicing Roman Catholic that the death penalty is morally repugnant.  The folllowing is from Lou Greico's article:

"In his recusal, Wagner cited both his opinion that capital punishment is unconstitutional as well as his spiritual beliefs as a Catholic.  'I adhere to a belief that an individual’s temporal life begins at conception and ends when we are reclaimed by God,' Wagner wrote. 'It is not for man to determine that end time, but for the creator. God was very clear about this when he gave the law [the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, celebrating this event is today] to Moses, 'Thou shall not kill.’

Wagner noted that the American Law Institute, which developed the model penal code used across the country in death penalty statutes, including Ohio, withdrew that code in October. The original version was written in 1962, and the model code was cited by the U.S. Supreme Court as a way to 'avoid the unconstitutional, unfettered discretion found in the implementation of capital punishment,' Wagner wrote.

Now, the ALI, a group of lawyers, judges and legal scholars, say they cannot devise a standard that would remove the arbitrary nature of capital punishment. 'Further, believing it impossible, they have given up on even finding a standard that will work.'

Wagner noted other concerns, including that, as of 2008, 62 percent of death row inmates had killed a white victim, while only 32 percent had killed a black person. He also wrote that, since 1973, 139 defendants nationwide have been released from death row after evidence showed they were actually innocent. Five of those were in Ohio, and another seven Ohio inmates were removed from death row after they were found to be mentally retarded, Wagner wrote."
________________________________
Judge Wagner sounds like he should be a contributing writer at Bad Lawyer.  At the link you can see Judge Wagner's official profile from the Montgomery Common Pleas Court website.