When Texas resumed executions last week, there was controversy again, with lawyers for Karl Chamberlain saying the convicted murderer was executed even though they were still taking appeals to the nation’s highest court. In the Chamberlain case, the court was late in getting its denial to the defense lawyers. Maurie Levin, a University of Texas law school professor and attorney with the Texas Defender Service who was working on Chamberlain’s case, said that the delay of more than 30 minutes according to a timeline provided by the court meant the lawyers could not file the Supreme Court appeal. Levin said the lawyers told the state attorney general’s office they were filing another appeal, and the practice has been that executions are not carried out until all appeals are exhausted. In this case, she said, the attorney general’s office did not wait. “The only interpretation of the events,” Levin said, “is that they were so keen to see him executed that they were willing to play games to make that happen. None of it is about the merits of the case.”
The Chicago Tribune
Pace of Executions Revives Fairness Disputes
June 20
