Significant Developments in Cases of Innocent Prisoners on Death Row

On Wednesday, July 3^rd, the 200^th death row exon­er­a­tion was announced. But an unknown num­ber of pris­on­ers with com­pelling inno­cence claims remain on death row, unable to secure relief either because they lack access to com­pe­tent legal rep­re­sen­ta­tion for their appeals, are barred from access­ing the courts because of pro­ce­dur­al legal bar­ri­ers, or due to the incal­ci­trance of elect­ed offi­cials. For some of these pris­on­ers, exe­cu­tion dates have been set. Significant devel­op­ments have occurred recent­ly in three cas­es with strong inno­cence claims: Marcellus Williams in Missouri, Robert Roberson in Texas, and Rodney Reed in Texas. 

Marcellus Williams, who was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death for the 1998 mur­der of Felicia Gayle in St. Louis, Missouri, is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed in September 2024, despite DNA evi­dence that excludes him from pos­si­ble per­pe­tra­tors. Mr. Williams’ tri­al court, at the request of St. Louis County Prosecutor (DA) Wesley Bell, has set an evi­den­tiary hear­ing for August 21, 2024 to review his claims that he is inno­cent and should not be exe­cut­ed. In January 2024, DA Bell filed a motion to vacate Mr. Williams’ con­vic­tion after his office reviewed the case and deter­mined there is ​“clear and con­vinc­ing evi­dence” of Mr. Williams’ inno­cence. DA Bell not­ed that Mr. Williams’ DNA was not found on the mur­der weapon, and oth­er evi­dence test­ing has fur­ther exclud­ed him from possible contributors. 

In Texas, Robert Roberson remains on death row for caus­ing the death of his daugh­ter based on ​“Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS).” On July 1, a Texas court set an exe­cu­tion date of October 17, 2024 for Mr. Roberson, despite new sci­en­tif­ic and med­ical evi­dence debunk­ing the the­o­ry of SBS. Mr. Roberson has main­tained his inno­cence in the death of his daugh­ter Nikki, who had ​“severe, undi­ag­nosed” pneu­mo­nia at the time of her death, which caused her to stop breath­ing. Instead of doc­tors diag­nos­ing Nikki with pneu­mo­nia, they pre­scribed her drugs that are no longer giv­en to young chil­dren because they have been found to sup­press breath­ing even fur­ther. Mr. Roberson’s attor­neys allege that Nikki’s death ​“was a trag­ic, untime­ly death of a sick child whose impaired, impov­er­ished father did not know how to explain what has con­found­ed the med­ical com­mu­ni­ty for decades.” 

Despite new sci­en­tif­ic evi­dence sup­port­ing the the­o­ry that Nikki was not the vic­tim of child abuse, in 2023, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA) denied Mr. Roberson a new tri­al. At the time, pros­e­cu­tors argued that the evi­dence sup­port­ing Mr. Roberson’s con­vic­tion was ​“clear and con­vinc­ing” and that the sci­ence sur­round­ing SBS has not changed to the degree defense attorneys allege.

On July 2, 2024, the United States Supreme Court reject­ed the request of Rodney Reed, anoth­er Texas death row pris­on­er who has main­tained his inno­cence, to review his claim that pros­e­cu­tors, dur­ing his 1998 cap­i­tal tri­al, ille­gal­ly sup­pressed evi­dence favor­able to his defense. In reject­ing Mr. Reed’s request, the Court has allowed the TCCA’s deci­sion deny­ing him a new tri­al to stand. While Mr. Reed will not be grant­ed a new tri­al because of pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct, the Supreme Court ruled in April 2024 that his request for fur­ther DNA test­ing of evi­dence could be con­sid­ered. Attorneys for Mr. Reed believe that DNA test­ing of crime scene evi­dence will iden­ti­fy anoth­er indi­vid­ual as the per­pe­tra­tor of the mur­der. Following the ​“very shock­ing and very dis­ap­point­ing” deci­sion from the Court, Sandra Reed, Mr. Reed’s moth­er, said that ​“we the Reed fam­i­ly remain opti­mistic, and we will con­tin­ue to fight.”