"Hearing on Texas death penalty stopped by court," is the AP report, via Google News.
An unusual court hearing on the constitutionality of the death penalty in Texas was put on hold Tuesday after the state's highest criminal court granted a request by prosecutors to stop it.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ordered that the hearing be temporarily halted so prosecutors and defense attorneys can file motions on whether the legal proceeding should be allowed to continue.
The hearing, which began Monday and was set to last up to two weeks, had been ordered by a state district judge in Houston.
And:
Lawyers for the Houston man who had asked for the hearing had already presented two days of testimony on whether problems with such things as eyewitness identification and evidence offered by informants have created flaws in death penalty prosecutions in Texas and resulted in a risk that innocent people will be executed. They said their client, John Edward Green Jr., is innocent and the case against him uses some of the same faulty evidentiary procedures that have resulted in others being wrongly convicted. Green, who is awaiting trial, faces a possible death sentence if convicted of fatally shooting a Houston woman during a June 2008 robbery.
Green's attorneys said they were disappointed by the appeals court's decision.
"We're confident we'll get a ruling in our favor and the hearing will continue," said Bob Loper, one of Green's attorneys. "We think our cause is just."
Donna Hawkins, a spokesman for the Harris County District Attorney's Office, declined to comment. At the hearing this week, prosecutors said they wouldn't participate during the legal proceeding and remained quiet.
The appeals court gave both sides 15 days to file their legal briefs. Loper said he doesn't know how long the hearing could remain on hold.
On Monday, the prosecutor's office had filed a motion with the appeals court, asking it to reconsider its decision from last month to not stop the hearing. In their motion, prosecutors reiterated their arguments that the claims being made by Greens' attorneys were well-settled case law and that Fine didn't have the authority to prevent the state from seeking the death penalty in the case.
Today's New York Times carries a brief item, "Texas: Hearing on Death Penalty Halted," by AP.
"Appeals court halts death penalty hearing in Houston," is the Houston Chronicle report written by Brian Rogers.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals halted an unprecedented death penalty hearing late Tuesday after an emergency appeal from the Harris County District Attorney's Office argued that a Houston judge was overstepping his boundaries.
The hearing on the constitutionality of the procedures surrounding the death penalty in Texas will be stopped to allow both sides 15 days to respond and file briefs in the state's highest criminal court.
State District Judge Kevin Fine had acknowledged that the appellate court may have been considering whether to order him to halt the proceedings in a preliminary hearing in the death penalty trial of John Edward Green.
Prosecutors and defense lawyers will now argue whether the hearing should take place. The district attorney's office said in its brief that Fine was exceeding his authority by allowing evidence regarding flaws in past death penalty cases to decide issues in Green's case.
Donna Hawkins, a spokeswoman for the district attorney office, declined to comment late Tuesday.
Defense lawyers for Green said they were disappointed in Tuesday's decision, but vowed to fight on.
"We will never quit on this issue and will defend him all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary," said Casey Keirnan, one of Green's attorneys.
Arguments at the appellate court could end or may just delay what has turned in to a full-fledged accounting of the safeguards of the procedures available used to convict and execute inmates in Texas.
And:
Brandon Garrett, a University of Virginia law professor, testified Tuesday that the rate of exonerations across the country is now averaging more than one a month.
Seven of the 261 national exonerations came from Harris County, Garrett said.
Loper noted that some of the reasons behind the wrongful convictions include mistaken eyewitness identification, bad forensic science and informant testimony.
Lawyers for Green believe the evidence against Green may include an eyewitness, a partial palm print and snitches.
Green, 25, could face the death penalty. He is alleged to be the gunman in a 2008 robbery and slaying in southwest Houston.
His attorneys have said Green is innocent, but the hearing was less about Green's case and more about whether Texas has executed innocent people because of a flawed system.
Barry Scheck, co-director of the Innocence Project, had been scheduled to take the helm today to call witnesses to testify about Cameron Todd Willingham and Claude Jones, two men convicted of capital murder and executed.
Scheck had been expected to try to convince Fine that the two men had been wrongfully executed.
Reuters posts, "Texas court halts death penalty hearing."
While some legal analysts have said the hearing into the legality of the death penalty will apply only to Green's case, it could render a high-profile judgment that influences the national debate on capital punishment.
The hearing is based on Texas rules that allow defendants to challenge the legality of potential punishments even before trial begins.
The state has executed 464 inmates over the last three decades -- far more than any other U.S. state. But death penalty opponents cite two prominent Texas cases in which significant evidence has come to light years after inmates' sentences were carried out.
Earlier coverage begins with last night's post, "CCA Stays Harris County Hearing."
The basis for the hearing is contained in this brief filed by Mr. Green's attorneys. Complete coverage of the Todd Willingham and Claude Jones cases at the links.
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