| ||||||
|
Roy v. State, 2006 OK CR 47 (November 22, 2006): 1) Jury Instructions; Defense Requested Instructions and 2) Prosecutorial Misconduct; Improper Argument: First Degree Murder case out of Tulsa County where the defendant was sentenced to LWOP. The Court affirmed the conviction but reversed the sentence and remanded for re-sentencing on an 85% instruction error. Note: this error was not preserved below but the Court found plain error, notably in the form of a jury question inquiring about guidelines about sentencing and Roy was a young man with no prior record. The Court also found "blatant prosecutorial misconduct" in the way the prosecutor contrasted the victim's character with that of Roy but found insufficient prejudice to reverse. Peach v. United States, No. 06-3313 (10th Cir., November 21, 2006) (Published): Peach filed a Rule 60(b) motion in the District Court arguing that the District Court failed to rule on his claims raised in his section 2255 motion. The District Court treated the motion as a successive petition requiring authorization from the circuit and transferred the matter to the circuit. In this opinion, the panel held that the motion is a "true" Rule 60(b) motion and not a successive petition because it does not attack the underlying judgment and sentence directly, but rather the integrity of the section 2255 proceeding. The panel remanded to the District Court to consider the Rule 60(b) motion in the first instance. No new cases.
DEATH PENALTY FOR CHILD ABUSE: Texas lawmakers will consider bills next January that would expand death-eligible crimes to include aggravated sexual assault of a child younger than 14 if the defendant has previously been convicted of a similar offense. Five states have enacted similar laws (Louisiana, Florida, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Montana) and one person is actually on death row under such a law in Louisiana for raping (but not murdering) an 8-year-old girl. His case is on appeal. SUBMISSIONS: Submit articles, war stories, letters to the editor, victory stories, comments, critiques and questions via e-mail to jameshankins@ocdw.com, by phone 405.232.1988, by fax to 405.272.9859, or by regular mail to James L. Hankins, 119 N. Robinson Ave, Ste 320, Oklahoma City, OK 73102. | ||||||
|
ABOUT THE OCDW: The Oklahoma Criminal Defense Weekly is compiled, maintained, edited and distributed weekly by attorney James L. Hankins. Archived issues are available at www.ocdw.com. OCDW accepts no money from sponsors and Mr. Hankins is solely responsible for its content. OCDW is designed by Patty Hankins and FullPace Web Solutions. COPYRIGHT STATEMENT & DISCLAIMER: © 2006 by James L. Hankins. All rights reserved. OCDW hereby grants free use of these materials for any non-commercial purpose provided that proper credit to the OCDW is given. In the event that copyrighted works are included in an edition of the OCDW such works may not be reproduced without the consent of the copyright holder because under federal law the OCDW has no authority to allow the reproduction of the intellectual property of others. For purposes that go beyond "fair use" of the copyrighted material under federal law, the permission of the copyright holder must be obtained. If you are a copyright holder and object to any portion of an issue of the OCDW please contact the publisher, James L. Hankins, at the contact information above (located in the paragraph titled "SUBMISSIONS"). Finally, the materials presented in this newsletter are for informational purposes only, and are not, nor intended to be, legal advice or to create an attorney-client relationship. You should consult an experienced attorney for legal advice applicable to the specific facts of your case. Cases are summarized as they are issued by the respective court and are subject to being withdrawn, corrected, vacated, or modified without notice. Always do your own research! |
||||||
|
| ||||||
