Entries by Death Penalty Information Center

By a vote of 7 – 2, the U.S. Supreme Court has thrown out the death sen­tence of Maryland death row inmate Kevin Wiggins, rul­ing that his inex­pe­ri­enced attor­neys failed to ade­quate­ly rep­re­sent him at tri­al. Wiggins’ orig­i­nal lawyers made no attempt to inform mem­bers of the jury that sent Wiggins to death row that their client was repeat­ed­ly raped, beat­en and denied food as a child, and that his moth­er burned his hands on the stove as pun­ish­ment. In an opin­ion authored by Justice Sandra Day…