Publications & Testimony

Items: 5981 — 5990

Jan 29, 2004

Court Finds Racial Bias in Pennsylvania Jury Selection

Arnold Holloway, a Pennsylvania death row inmate who was con­vict­ed 18 years ago, was grant­ed a new tri­al after a fed­er­al appeals court found that pros­e­cu­tors improp­er­ly exclud­ed blacks from the jury. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit said that an assis­tant dis­trict attor­ney in Holloway’s case used 11 of his 12 peremp­to­ry strikes dur­ing jury selec­tion to elim­i­nate blacks.​“The pat­tern here was cer­tain­ly strong enough to sug­gest an inten­tion of keeping…

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Jan 27, 2004

Georgia Parole Board Grants 2004’s First Clemency

Just one day before Georgia was sched­uled to exe­cute Willie James Hall, the state’s parole board com­mut­ed his sen­tence to life in prison with­out parole. During the hear­ing on Hall’s request for clemen­cy, 6 of the jurors from his orig­i­nal tri­al tes­ti­fied that they would have giv­en Hall life with­out parole if that sen­tence had been an option at his tri­al. In addi­tion, the parole board not­ed that Hall had excel­lent behav­ior in prison and no crim­i­nal record before the…

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Jan 27, 2004

U.S. Supreme Court to Review Constitutionality of Juvenile Death Penalty

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to con­sid­er whether the exe­cu­tion of those who were under the age of 18 at the time of their crime vio­lates the Constitution’s ban on​“cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ment.” The Court will like­ly hear argu­ments in the case of Roper v. Simmons , No. 03 – 633, this com­ing fall. The Justices have not vis­it­ed this issue since 1989 and will like­ly decide whether there is now a nation­al con­sen­sus against the prac­tice of exe­cut­ing juvenile offenders.

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