Parole Reforms Upheld: A story in today's Los Angeles Times reports on yesterday's unanimous Ninth Circuit decision, in Valdivia v. Schwarzenegger, upholding the tougher parole revocation procedures adopted by California voters in 2008 as part of Proposition 9, the Crime Victim's Bill of Rights Act. The decision vacated and remanded Federal District Judge Lawrence Karlton's earlier ruling striking down
the procedures. A story on the same decision in the Sacramento Bee mistakenly reports that the appeal of Judge Karlton's ruling had been filed by Attorney General Jerry Brown, with support from Proposition 9's backers. Jerry Brown was not involved. Governor Schwarzenegger engaged private counsel to file the appeal.
Effort to Delay Murder Trial Rejected: In a divided ruling announced Wednesday, the Georgia Supreme Court rejected a capital defendant's claim that he should be acquitted because his trial was delayed over a dispute regarding who would represent him. New York Times writer John Schwartz reports that the trial of Jamie Ryan Weis, for the 2006 robbery and murder of a 73-year-old woman, was delayed for two years over the dispute. The first two attorneys assigned to represent Weis withdrew because the agency that provides funds for defense lawyers in death penalty cases could not pay them. When two new public defenders were appointed, Weis argued that he should be represented by his first legal team. The court's decision notes that the second pair of defense attorneys were experienced, had tried death penalty cases in the past, and had agreed to make his case a priority. They finally asked to withdraw because Weis would not work with them. In rejecting Weis' claim the court noted that "Weis' own behavior, and the behavior of his attorneys, also contributed to the delay."
Maybe he thought it was a groundhog. Near Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, state troopers arrested Donald Wolfe for public intoxication after he was seen attempting mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on a very dead possum. Sam Wood has this story in the Philadelphia Inquirer.
The Nebraska Legislature killed a bill to do a cost study on the death penalty, JoAnne Young reports in the Lincoln Journal Star.
Effort to Delay Murder Trial Rejected: In a divided ruling announced Wednesday, the Georgia Supreme Court rejected a capital defendant's claim that he should be acquitted because his trial was delayed over a dispute regarding who would represent him. New York Times writer John Schwartz reports that the trial of Jamie Ryan Weis, for the 2006 robbery and murder of a 73-year-old woman, was delayed for two years over the dispute. The first two attorneys assigned to represent Weis withdrew because the agency that provides funds for defense lawyers in death penalty cases could not pay them. When two new public defenders were appointed, Weis argued that he should be represented by his first legal team. The court's decision notes that the second pair of defense attorneys were experienced, had tried death penalty cases in the past, and had agreed to make his case a priority. They finally asked to withdraw because Weis would not work with them. In rejecting Weis' claim the court noted that "Weis' own behavior, and the behavior of his attorneys, also contributed to the delay."
Maybe he thought it was a groundhog. Near Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, state troopers arrested Donald Wolfe for public intoxication after he was seen attempting mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on a very dead possum. Sam Wood has this story in the Philadelphia Inquirer.
The Nebraska Legislature killed a bill to do a cost study on the death penalty, JoAnne Young reports in the Lincoln Journal Star.
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