"A Killing in Texas," is Richard Bernstein's review at Daily Beast. If you're at all like me you've always assumed that the criminal justice system generally works pretty well in these United States, even knowing how slowly its wheels turn and that serious mistakes are made. Da...

That's the title of Jay Winkler's latest message.  He's the General Secretary of the United Methodist Chuch General Board of Church & Society.  LINK I have led hundreds of workshops on The United Methodist Church’s Social Principles during the past 20 years. I realized ...

That's the title of Gretel Kovach's portrait of Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Presiding Judge Sharon Keller in today's New York Times.  LINK If Sharon Keller, the presiding judge of Texas’ highest criminal court, has ever doubted her judgment, she has not shown it. In 1998, Jud...

"Bill disputes standard for retardation," is from today's Florida Times-Union.  A bill sponsored by two Georgia legislator-lawyers would make it easier for defendants, including condemned Waycross triple murderer Billy Daniel Raulerson, to use the defense of guilty but mentally r...

The state's Associated Press bureau has a lengthy examination, "NC executions unlikely to resume any time soon," by Marlon Walker and Gary Robertson.  It appears in the Rocky Mount Telegram. It's been more than two years since North Carolina put an inmate to death, and the un...

AP's Michael Graczyk writes this updated report, via the Houston Chronicle website. Attorneys looked to the courts to stop the scheduled Tuesday execution of an Oklahoma man convicted of shooting an 85-year-old woman to death during a burglary in far northeast Texas. Willie Pondexter, 34, was on...

The bill is on the floor right now.  You should be able to listen to the debate at this LINK, however I am getting an error message. The Washington Post Maryland Moment blog will be posting updates on the debate.  The most recent post is by John Wagner, "Md. Death Penalty Debate Sta...

At CNN.com, Emanuella Grinberg reports, "Budget concerns force state to reconsider the death penalty." If Kansas Senate Bill 208 passes, it won't take effect until July 1, so it won't affect Thurber's sentence. But future savings could be substantial. "Because of the downt...

That's the title of Dahlia Lithwick's article in the March 9 edition of Newsweek.  It's subtitled, "Judges are not gods. But we must trust them to do their jobs, or do away with the institution itself." February was a spectacularly bad month for the judging business. Last...

"Court rejects inmate’s request to delay execution," is Allan Turner's report in today's Houston Chronicle. A federal court Thursday refused to delay Tuesday’s execution of Willie Pondexter Jr., who was sentenced to die for the 1993 murder of an 85-year-old Northeast Texas woma...