News and Developments 2006: Arbitrariness

Judge Carolyn Dineen King of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit was the main speaker at the "Red Mass" on October 4 at the Catholic cathedral in Corpus Christi, Texas.  The Red Mass is an annual liturgy held for members of the legal profession near the beginning of the judicial term.  Its traditions extend back to 13th century Europe.  Judge King spoke about the death penalty, both from her perspective as a judge and as a Catholic.  In both areas, she raised strong concerns about the application of the death penalty in the U.S.

One attorney's appeal brief on behalf of a Texas death row inmate was so poorly written that State District Judge Noe Gonzalez of Edinburg wrote that "Applicant totally misinterprets what actually occurred in this case."  A committee of citizens and attorneys filed a complaint about the appellate lawyer with the State Bar of Texas, but nothing was done: the lawyer remains on the state's list of approved death penalty attorneys, and the client remains on death row.

Back From The Dead: One woman’s search for the men who walked off America’s death row is the story of 589 former death row inmates who, through a lottery of fate, were given a second chance at life in 1972 when the death penalty was abolished.  Joan Cheever, a former editor of the National Law Journal, who also represented a death row inmate in Texas, traveled the country interviewing inmates who had been condemned to death but whose sentences were reduced to life when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the death penalty in Furman v. Georgia in 1972.

Anthony Graves, who was sentenced to death in Texas in 1994, may soon be released on bail.  Graves' conviction was overturned in March 2006 by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit because prosecutors had withheld two pieces of important evidence from Graves' attorneys prior to his trial.  One of the main witnesses against Graves, a co-defendant who participated in the crime, recanted his earlier testimony.  The federal court has given Texas until September 12, 2006 to either retry Graves or to dismiss charges.  Texas requested more time because it has appealed the 5th Circuit ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court, but the request was denied.