Capital Case Round Up

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.

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