The White House filed a swift appeal of the judge’s release order, and said it would seek “emergency relief” from the D.C. [read post]

The leading case is Kemp v. [read post]

Twenty of the 27 executions so far carried out in Kentucky, Montana, Nevada, Utah and Washington have been of prisoners who waived their appeals (see table at end of report).Race and mental health appear to be the strongest predictors of who will waive their appeals - most "volunteers" are white males (as are the five prisoners featured in the second half of this report), and many have a history of mental disorders.(3) Nevertheless, a review of such cases suggests that any number… [read post]

Anyone remember that old SNL skit that mocked three Texas politicians' over-eagerness for the death penalty - Ann Richards, Jim Mattox and Mark White. [read post]