Assignment Number One
Write four letters to these board members. You must express in writing how the cuts to the teachers in your community will greatly impact your academic success and long term goals. Keep in mind that as you matriculate on to High school you will be faced with possible class sizes of 40 or more students per class.
Ms. Yolie Flores Aguilar
Ms. Monica Garcia
Ms. Marguerite LaMotte
Mr. Cortines
Assignment Number Two
All students must read 8 new death penalty postings. You must write a 4 page response in total to the 8 postings.
Assignment Number Three
Read anything about the current economic bailout packages.
All these assignments are due immediately when you return.
Friday, April 3, 2009
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Death Penalty Court Cases
Death Penalty : Court Cases
Estrada v. State of Texas (12/09/2008)
ACLU Challenges Texas Death Sentence Obtained Under False Pretenses
State of North Carolina v. Jones (04/14/2008)
Innocent North Carolina Man Exonerated After 14 Years On Death Row
State of Tennessee v. Taylor (07/17/2007)
Severely Mentally-Ill ACLU Client is Sentenced to Life Imprisonment After Successful Appeal and 18 Years on Death Row
Soffar v. State of Texas (04/30/2007)
Texas Sentences to Death an Innocent Man, the ACLU Appeals
Estrada v. State of Texas (12/09/2008)
ACLU Challenges Texas Death Sentence Obtained Under False Pretenses
State of North Carolina v. Jones (04/14/2008)
Innocent North Carolina Man Exonerated After 14 Years On Death Row
State of Tennessee v. Taylor (07/17/2007)
Severely Mentally-Ill ACLU Client is Sentenced to Life Imprisonment After Successful Appeal and 18 Years on Death Row
Soffar v. State of Texas (04/30/2007)
Texas Sentences to Death an Innocent Man, the ACLU Appeals
Supreme Court Cases
Home : Death Penalty
Death Penalty : Supreme Court Cases
Kennedy v. Louisiana (02/21/2008)
Whether a state may constitutionally impose the death penalty for the rape of a child. DECIDED
Baze v. Rees (11/07/2007)
Whether Kentucky's lethal injection protocol violates the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment by using a combination of drugs that creates an unnecessary and avoidable risk of excruciating pain. DECIDED
Danforth v. Minnesota (07/17/2007)
Whether a state can permit an inmate to raise constitutional claims in state post-conviction proceedings that would be barred in federal habeas proceedings. DECIDED
Uttecht v. Brown (03/28/2007)
Reviewing whether the state courts improperly excluded a prospective juror in a death penalty case after he indicated that future dangerousness was a relevant consideration but that he would, in any event, follow the law as instructed by the judge. DECIDED
Lawrence v. Florida (09/14/2006)
Reviewing whether, and under what circumstances, the one year deadline for filing a federal habeas petition can be subject to "equitable tolling." DECIDED
Death Penalty : Supreme Court Cases
Kennedy v. Louisiana (02/21/2008)
Whether a state may constitutionally impose the death penalty for the rape of a child. DECIDED
Baze v. Rees (11/07/2007)
Whether Kentucky's lethal injection protocol violates the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment by using a combination of drugs that creates an unnecessary and avoidable risk of excruciating pain. DECIDED
Danforth v. Minnesota (07/17/2007)
Whether a state can permit an inmate to raise constitutional claims in state post-conviction proceedings that would be barred in federal habeas proceedings. DECIDED
Uttecht v. Brown (03/28/2007)
Reviewing whether the state courts improperly excluded a prospective juror in a death penalty case after he indicated that future dangerousness was a relevant consideration but that he would, in any event, follow the law as instructed by the judge. DECIDED
Lawrence v. Florida (09/14/2006)
Reviewing whether, and under what circumstances, the one year deadline for filing a federal habeas petition can be subject to "equitable tolling." DECIDED
Quality of Counsel
Home : Death Penalty : Quality of Counsel
BLOG
> For Christmas, the Poor Get Death
> More Death Penalty News
The United States Supreme Court has indicated that the death penalty must be reserved for "the worst of the worst," i.e. "those offenders who commit a narrow category of the most serious crimes and whose extreme culpability makes them the most deserving of execution." Roper v. Simmons, 543 U.S. 551, 568 (2005) (internal citations and quotation marks omitted). Quality of counsel, however, is a far better predictor of who gets sentenced to death and ultimately executed. The death penalty is arbitrary and capricious, in part, because the "worst of the worst" most readily describes the quality of representation of those subject to it.
Texas Highest Criminal Court Sets Standards for Dumping Attorneys for Shoddy Work
The Texas Criminal Court of Appeals adopted new rules that will set standards for criminal representation and remove attorneys whose work “falls below professional standards.” The new rules enforce the 11-year-old state law that guarantees death row inmates competent legal assistance in filing appeals. Read the story >> (Off-site Link)
Lawrence v. Florida
The case addresses questions about deadlines that death row inmates must meet in filing an application for a federal writ of habeas corpus. The ACLU CPP's amicus brief demonstrates the abysmal representation received by Florida death row inmates. Read more >>
Newspaper in State Capital Decries Quality of Representation in Death Penalty Cases
According to a current The Austin American-Statesman series, incomplete, incomprehensible or improperly argued habeas corpus petitions and direct appeals in the Texas court system are routinely bungled as 273 people have been executed under this shoddy taxpayer paid system. The American-Statesman's review points to a failed court system that exercises little oversight into the quality of writs and attorneys who fall below professional standards. Read the series >> (Off-site Link)
Death Penalty : Quality of Counsel : Resources
Mitigation in Capital Cases - Hofstra Publication (08/07/2008)
Off-Site Resources for News and Information on Capital Punishment (01/25/2007)
BLOG
> For Christmas, the Poor Get Death
> More Death Penalty News
The United States Supreme Court has indicated that the death penalty must be reserved for "the worst of the worst," i.e. "those offenders who commit a narrow category of the most serious crimes and whose extreme culpability makes them the most deserving of execution." Roper v. Simmons, 543 U.S. 551, 568 (2005) (internal citations and quotation marks omitted). Quality of counsel, however, is a far better predictor of who gets sentenced to death and ultimately executed. The death penalty is arbitrary and capricious, in part, because the "worst of the worst" most readily describes the quality of representation of those subject to it.
Texas Highest Criminal Court Sets Standards for Dumping Attorneys for Shoddy Work
The Texas Criminal Court of Appeals adopted new rules that will set standards for criminal representation and remove attorneys whose work “falls below professional standards.” The new rules enforce the 11-year-old state law that guarantees death row inmates competent legal assistance in filing appeals. Read the story >> (Off-site Link)
Lawrence v. Florida
The case addresses questions about deadlines that death row inmates must meet in filing an application for a federal writ of habeas corpus. The ACLU CPP's amicus brief demonstrates the abysmal representation received by Florida death row inmates. Read more >>
Newspaper in State Capital Decries Quality of Representation in Death Penalty Cases
According to a current The Austin American-Statesman series, incomplete, incomprehensible or improperly argued habeas corpus petitions and direct appeals in the Texas court system are routinely bungled as 273 people have been executed under this shoddy taxpayer paid system. The American-Statesman's review points to a failed court system that exercises little oversight into the quality of writs and attorneys who fall below professional standards. Read the series >> (Off-site Link)
Death Penalty : Quality of Counsel : Resources
Mitigation in Capital Cases - Hofstra Publication (08/07/2008)
Off-Site Resources for News and Information on Capital Punishment (01/25/2007)
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