NEWS (9/16/21) – Nevada: The Supreme Court of Nevada has overturned Samuel Howard’s death sentence, finding him “actually innocent” of the death penalty. Reversing the trial court’s dismissal of Howard’s postconviction challenge to his death sentence, the appeals court ruled that a recent decision by New York state courts that overturned a conviction prosecutors relied upon as an aggravating circumstance in Howard’s case invalidated that aggravating circumstance.
The Nevada Supreme Court had previously invalidated another aggravating circumstance in Howard’s case. With no aggravating circumstances to make Howard eligible for the death penalty, the court declared him innocent of the death penalty.
