On October 20, attor­neys for Jeffrey Landrigan filed a clemen­cy peti­tion with the Arizona Board of Executive Clemency call­ing on the Board to rec­om­mend the com­mu­ta­tion of Landrigan’s death sen­tence large­ly because of errors by his tri­al attor­neys. Landrigan’s orig­i­nal attor­neys failed to present mit­i­gat­ing evi­dence at the sen­tenc­ing hear­ing, which could have includ­ed evi­dence of brain dam­age and severe abuse. Judge Cheryl Hendrix, the judge who imposed Landrigan’s death sen­tence, recent­ly signed a dec­la­ra­tion admit­ting that, if she knew about Landrigan’s back­ground and brain dam­age, she would not have sen­tenced him to death. Judge Hendrix wrote, ​“Had the tri­al coun­sel pre­sent­ed any of the mit­i­gat­ing infor­ma­tion I have received [since the sen­tenc­ing tri­al] – which was avail­able at the time of sen­tenc­ing – Mr. Landrigan would not have been sen­tenced to death.” UPDATE: A U.S. District Court Judge has stayed Landrigan’s exe­cu­tion, for­bid­ding the use of sodi­um thiopen­tal in the lethal injec­tion because the state has not ade­quate­ly assured the court of the drug’s effi­ca­cy. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld the stay. (Oct. 26, 2010). FURTHER UPDATE: The U.S. Supreme Court (5 – 4) lift­ed the stay of exe­cu­tion and Landrigan was exe­cut­ed late on Oct. 26.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that Landrigan’s tri­al counsel’s per­for­mance was defi­cient and that he was enti­tled to a hear­ing to prove the out­come of his sen­tenc­ing would have been dif­fer­ent if his coun­sel had been effec­tive. This deci­sion, how­ev­er, was reversed in a close deci­sion by the U.S. Supreme Court. Landrigan’s clemen­cy peti­tion also states that his death sen­tence was dis­pro­por­tion­ate to life sen­tences imposed in the state where the facts of the crime were much more heinous, and that his case is sim­i­lar to oth­ers in which the Board has grant­ed clemen­cy in the past. Finally, new DNA tests indi­cate that blood and semen sam­ples found at the crime scene are not a match to Landrigan, cast­ing fur­ther doubt about his upcom­ing exe­cu­tion. The Arizona Board of Executive Clemency is sched­uled to con­sid­er Landrigan’s peti­tion on October 22. He is sched­uled for exe­cu­tion on Tuesday, October 26, 2010.

(“Application for Executive Clemency for Jeffrey Timothy Landrigan,” October 20, 2010). See Arbitrariness, Clemency and Representation.

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