a public defender

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In the midst of a massive snowstorm yesterday, the unusually situated DP hearing concluded yesterday at Northern CI - the State’s only maximum security prison where death row is housed. The arguments were pretty standard: the State moved to dismiss arguing that these habeas petitions have languished for a while, whining abuse of process. The defense countered with “these are death cases, studies take time”.

Much was made of the location of the hearing, but it used to be the norm back in the day. What interests me and I’m sure will interest some of my readers is this graphic in the Courant, which seems to have all the relevant data (if they would only please upload a real copy of the study and not the bizarre hacked 7-page version).

So, as you can see, black and white defendants are charged with a capital felony about the same, but when it comes to a white victim, there is a significant disparity (about 21%). When there is a white victim, as opposed to a black victim, the death penalty is sought 19% more.

SL & P links us to this NYT article which can’t even correctly report how many people CT has executed in the last 30 years. It says none, Michael Ross says hello.

The bottom line: Will Judge Fuger grant this Motion to Dismiss? I d0ubt it, but I wouldn’t be surprised.