Over the weekend, a number of media outlets featured calls to stop the execution of Marvin Wilson. The State of Texas is scheduled to execute Wilson on Tuesday, August 7, for the 1992 murder of Jerry Robert Williams in Beaumont. Advocates contend that his execution should be prohibited by the 2002 U.S. Supreme Court decision […]
unconstitutional
Dallas County Judge Rules Death Penalty Unconstitutional, Later Recused
On December 19, 2011, during a pre-trial hearing in the Dallas County capital murder case of Roderick Harris, state District Judge Teresa Hawthorne ruled that Texas’ death penalty statute is unconstitutional, leading to death sentences that are arbitrarily and capriciously sought. According to a summary of the court’s findings, Judge Hawthorne provided the following reasons […]
Prosecutor in Duane Buck Case Urges Stay of Execution
Today, Linda Geffin, a former Harris County Assistant District Attorney who served as second-chair prosecutor in the capital murder trial of Duane Buck in 1997, called on local and state officials to stay his execution. In her letter to Governor Rick Perry, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, Attorney General Greg Abbott, and Harris […]
Texas CCA Ends Judge Fine Hearing on Death Penalty
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled today that Judge Fine does not have the authority to conduct a court hearing on the constitutionality of the death penalty in the state and put an end to the legal proceeding that was raised as part of John Edward Green Jr’s Capital murder trial. John Edward Green […]
Firestorm Surrounding Judge Fine’s Ruling on the Death Penalty in Texas
On March 4, 2010 State District Judge Kevin Fine of Harris County, ruled that Article 37.071 of the Texas Code of Criminal Appeals, the state’s death penalty statute, was unconstitutional and thus could not be sought by prosecutors in the capital murder case against John Green. In Judge Fine’s ruling he held that innocent people […]
Judge Fine Schedules Hearing on Death Penalty
On Friday March, 5 2010 state District Judge Kevin Fine historically ruled in accordance with a defense pretrial motion that the death penalty is an unconstitutional institution. After a firestorm of backlash from leading political opposition, on March 9, 2010 Judge Fine rescinded his original statement, moving forward with the trial of John Green as […]
Judge Declaration of Death Penalty as Unconstitutional Raises Additional Concern
Galveston County Daily News published an article on March 9, 2010 criticizing those who have spoke out against state District Judge Fine’s ruling that the death penalty is unconstitutional in Texas. From other district level judges on through the governor himself, critics of the pretrial ruling have cited a variety of reasons as to why […]
Judge Declares Death Penalty Unconstiutional
On Thursday, March 4, state District Judge Kevin Fine granted a pretrial motion declaring the death penalty unconstitutional. “Based on the moratorium (on the death penalty) in Illinois, the Innocence Project and more than 200 people being exonerated nationwide, it can only be concluded that innocent people have been executed. It’s safe to assume we […]
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