Publications & Testimony
Items: 41 — 50
Aug 05, 2024
New Report Reveals Texas Junk Science Statute Fails to Adequately Provide Relief for Innocent Prisoners, Including Robert Roberson
A July 2024 report from the Texas Defender Service (TDS), An Unfulfilled Promise: Assessing the Efficacy of 11.073, the first-ever comprehensive review of Texas’ junk science writ, revealed that the “law systematically fails to provide relief to innocent people convicted based on false forensic evidence.” In 2013, the Texas Legislature passed a first-of-its-kind law, Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Article 11.073, creating a procedural pathway for convicted individuals to seek new…
Read MoreAug 02, 2024
Disability Pride Month Series: How Mitigation Specialists Help Protect Intellectually Disabled Defendants
In honor of Disability Pride Month (July), the Death Penalty Information Center posted a weekly feature highlighting issues related to the death penalty and disability and profiles of individuals who have played key roles in changing the laws to protect prisoners with disabilities. This final post focuses on the role of mitigation…
Read MoreAug 02, 2024
U.S. Military Reaches Plea Agreement to Avoid the Death Penalty with Three Men Accused of Plotting September 11 Attacks
UPDATE: On August 2nd, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin revoked the July 31, 2024 plea agreement reached between military commissions prosecutors and defense counsel for three of the 9/11 defendants being held at Guantanamo. In a two-paragraph memo, Secretary Austin revoked the authority of Susan Escallier, the head of the Military Commissions Convening Authority, to enter into the plea agreements and reserved that authority for himself. This unexpected development negates…
Read MoreAug 01, 2024
Missouri Supreme Court Blocks Attorney General’s Efforts to Prevent Innocence Hearing for Marcellus Williams
On July 26, 2024, the Missouri Supreme Court denied Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s request to block an evidentiary hearing scheduled for August 21st, 2024, where the St. Louis County Circuit Court is set to hear evidence of Marcellus Williams’ (pictured) innocence. The circuit court set the August 21st hearing in response to a motion to vacate Mr. Williams’ conviction and death sentence filed by Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell in January 2024. In his motion, DA Bell wrote that the…
Read MoreJul 31, 2024
Articles of Interest: Lead Detective on Robert Roberson’s Case Now Believes He Is Innocent
Brian Wharton, who was the lead detective in Palestine, Texas at the time of Robert Roberson’s conviction for the death of his two-year-old daughter Nikki, now believes Mr. Roberson is innocent and supports abolition of the death penalty. Mr. Wharton said in a video for The New York Times that there is “unassailable doubt” that Mr. Roberson is…
Read MoreJul 29, 2024
Articles of Interest: Salt Lake Tribune Calls for Clemency for Taberon Honie, Urges Abolition of Death Penalty
With Utah preparing for its first execution in 14 years, one of the state’s leading newspapers has issued a call not only to spare Taberon Honie, the prisoner set for execution on August 8, 2024, but to end the practice of capital punishment altogether. In a July 25 editorial, the Salt Lake Tribune highlights Mr. Honie’s abusive upbringing and his sincere remorse for the crime, saying his case for clemency “is strong.” The day after the editorial was published, the Utah Board of Pardons and…
Read MoreJul 26, 2024
Analysis: Why Executive Officials Grant Clemency
In a new analysis, the Death Penalty Information Center has found that executive officials most often cite disproportionate sentencing, possible innocence, and mitigation factors such as intellectual disability or mental illness as reasons to grant clemency in capital cases. Ineffective defense lawyering and official misconduct are also common factors in clemency grants. While present in fewer cases, support for clemency from the victim’s family or a decisionmaker in the original trial, such…
Read MoreJul 24, 2024
New Study Finds Evidence of Racial Bias in California Death Sentences As Resentencings Begin in Cases Tainted by Discriminatory Jury Selection
As Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price seeks to remedy her office’s history of discriminatory jury selection, an study published in the 2024 Journal of Empirical Legal Studies by Catherine M. Grosso, Jeffrey Fagan, and Michael Laurence finds empirical evidence that the race of the defendant and the race of the victim affect the likelihood of a death sentence being imposed in…
Read MoreJul 23, 2024
Disability Pride Month Series: Daryl Atkins, Death-Sentenced Prisoner Whose Case Resulted in New Legal Protections for People with Intellectual Disability
This July, in honor of Disability Pride Month, the Death Penalty Information Center is posting a weekly feature highlighting issues related to the death penalty and disability and profiles of individuals who have played key roles in changing the laws to protect prisoners with…
Read MoreJul 22, 2024
Missouri Attorney General Opposes Opportunity for Marcellus Williams to Establish His Innocence Before Execution Date
On July 18, 2024, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey asked the state Supreme Court to block a scheduled evidentiary hearing for Marcellus Williams and deny him the opportunity to establish his innocence before his scheduled execution on September 24, 2024. The Circuit Court of St. Louis County scheduled the August 21st hearing to assess the “clear and convincing” evidence of Mr. Williams’ actual innocence that prompted St. Louis Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell to file a motion to vacate…
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