Hooman Hedayati, For the Express-News – Monday, July 4, 2016 A year ago today on this page, I criticized the troubling obstructionism by U.S. Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz of Texas. They have repeatedly failed to fill vacated seats in our state’s federal appellate and district courts, including their opposition to potential nominations of qualified […]
Hedayati: In Texas death row case, punishment does not fit crime
Monday, July 18, 2016 By Hooman Hedayati – Special to the American-Statesman Jeff Wood has an appointment he hopes to miss. On Aug. 24, 2016, at about 6 p.m., the Texas Department of Criminal Justice plans to inject a lethal dose of pentobarbital into Jeff’s veins to stop his heart as punishment for the 1996 […]
Bill will hurt innocent travelers
Letter to the Editor: Bill will hurt innocent travelers Albuquerque Journal – 27 Dec 2015AS AN Iranian-American, I was saddened to see the Journal’s report that New Mexico’s three congressional representatives had voted in favor of H.R. 158, a revision of the Visa Waiver Program that was revived in response to the recent San Bernardino, Calif., shooting. […]
Judicial vacancies slow judicial system
Perhaps no one can appreciate the importance of quick access to our federal courts more than death-row inmate Max Soffar. By the time the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals rules on his habeas petition in support of his claim of innocence, he might have already died of liver cancer. The fact that the Fifth Circuit, […]
Book Review: Wars of plunder: Conflicts, Profits and the Politics of Resources (2012)
Philippe Le Billon, Wars of plunder: Conflicts, Profits and the Politics of Resources (2012) 288 Pages ISBN: 9780199327546 When I was a young child in Iran, my father would always tell me that the biggest wall blocking modernization of Iran is not Islam as claimed by many dissidents, but the discovery of petroleum. The idea […]
R.I.P Delbert L. Tibbs
“It really makes me believe the Great Spirit laid this trip on me so that I could bear witness of this terrible thing we call the deathpenalty in the U.S.” – Delbert Tibbs I Just found out that death-row survivor Delbert Tibbs passed away last night. I first met Delbert at the Fast and Vigil […]
Firing Line: Learn from Lehmberg
The Daily Texan Published on April 29, 2013. It looks like that the main argument against District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg’s resignation is that if she resigns, Gov. Rick Perry will get to appoint a conservative Republican to serve for the remainder of her term. Therefore we should ignore the fact that she was driving drunk, […]
Blindly siding with aggression
Kudos to Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Austin and his 35 colleagues who voted against House Resolution 867, a resolution that condemns the Goldstone report on Gaza and again blindly takes the side of Israeli aggression. The UN report that was published by the South African jurist Richard Goldstone, a supporter of Israel, found that both […]
March against the death penalty
Published: Tuesday, September 1, 2009 The Daily Texan Would you oppose the death penalty if it were proven that Texas has executed an innocent man? If so, remember this name: Cameron Todd Willingham. He was innocent and Texas executed him. There are plenty of executed death-row inmates with strong claims of innocence, such as David […]
Firingline: Support Keller impeachment
Published: Wednesday, April 29, 2009 The Daily Texan Sharon Keller denied Michael Richard’s constitutional rights when she closed her courtroom at 5 p.m. and refused to accept his last-minute appeal (“Representative initiates efforts for impeachment of Sharon Keller,” April 28). Justice is not a 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. issue, and everyone deserves a fair […]
