From the Cleveland Plain Dealer and Cleveland Scene.

Jingle Cells Jingle Cells

JAIL THREAT A BIT RICHEY

EXCLUSIVE David Leslie News of the World Scotland

17 Dec 06

Texas highest criminal court sets standards for dumping attorneys for shoddy work.

By Chuck Lindell
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Tuesday, December 12, 2006

The state's highest criminal court, criticized for tolerating shoddy appeals filed on behalf of death row inmates, adopted new rules Monday to begin weeding out attorneys whose work falls below professional standards.

When the rules take effect Friday, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals will be able to sanction lawyers who submit sloppy, lazy, inferior death-row appeals - a significant shift for the nine-member court.

Ohio once again ranked 2nd in the nation to Texas in the number of executions this year.

OHIO SUPREME COURT----No-smoking rule didnt affect jurys death-penalty verdict

A Licking County judge did not violate a Newark man's right to a fair trial by forbidding jurors to smoke during deliberations in his death-penalty trial three years ago, the Ohio Supreme Court has ruled.

"We find that the sentence imposed in this case was appropriate," wrote Justice Evelyn Lundberg Stratton in the unanimous decision announced today.