Entries tagged with “Brain Damage”
Executions
Religion
,Mar 24, 2025
Four Executions in Three Days Spotlight Constitutional Concerns About Death Penalty
In a three-day span from March 18 to March 20, four men were executed in four different states. Two of the men put to death, in Louisiana and Arizona, were the first executed in their state in years. While the close timing of the executions resulted from independent state-level decisions and individualized legal developments rather than any coordinated national effort, all four executions raised serious constitutional concerns. March 18: Jessie Hoffman (LA) On March 18, Louisiana executed…
Issues
Upcoming Executions
,May 19, 2023
Missouri Clemency Petition Highlights Prisoner’s Extraordinary Artwork
UPDATE 2: On June 2, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit lifted the stay that had been imposed by the U.S. District Court, saying that the lower court did not have jurisdiction to order the stay. UPDATE 1: On May 31, 2023, U.S. District Judge Stephen R. Bough issued a stay of execution, pending an evidentiary hearing on whether a juror was unqualified under Missouri law. Michael Tisius is an artist. He is also a death row prisoner who is set to be executed by the state of…
Issues
Oct 17, 2022
Oklahoma Denies Clemency to Death-Row Prisoner Richard Fairchild Who Suffers from Brain Damage, Hallucinations, and Delusions
In a 4 – 1 vote, the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board denied clemency to Richard Fairchild, the third of 25 people the state scheduled for execution between August 2022 and December 2024. Fairchild’s attorneys argued that he was represented at trial by incompetent counsel who never presented evidence of Fairchild’s severe childhood abuse and of his repeated traumatic brain injuries. Fairchild’s clemency petition also detailed the debilitating effects of his serious mental illness and organic…
Issues
Feb 03, 2022
New Poll: Voters Overwhelmingly Oppose Las Vegas DA Seeking the Death Penalty Against Vulnerable and Impaired Persons
Likely voters in Clark County, Nevada overwhelmingly oppose the use of capital punishment against broad categories of vulnerable and impaired persons whom county prosecutors have been trying to execute, a new poll released by Vegas Watch on January 27, 2022 shows. The poll, conducted by the Justice Research Group from December 1 to 13, 2021, found a significant disconnect between voters’ views on capital punishment and the practices of Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson (pictured).
Issues
Upcoming Executions
,Federal Death Penalty
,Sep 18, 2020
Psychologist Raises Concerns About Upcoming Federal Execution for Crimes Committed as a Teenager
The federal government intends to execute Christopher Vialva (pictured) on September 24, 2020, the first time in nearly 70 years it will have put any teenage offender to death. But according to a prominent cognitive neuropsychologist, the decision to execute Vialva is out of step with what science now knows about the workings of the adolescent brain. Vialva was 19 years old when he and four co-defendants, aged 15, 16, 16, and 18, killed a Texas couple during a carjacking and robbery. In a…
Issues
Jul 27, 2020
Capital Case Roundup — Death Penalty Court Decisions the Week of July 20, 2020
NEWS (7/21 & 7/22/20) — Texas: Split panels of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit have upheld the convictions and death sentences imposed on Erica Sheppard (pictured) and Anibal Canales. The trial court had reversed Sheppard’s death sentence on grounds that her lawyer had provided ineffective assistance in the penalty phase of trial, but the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals reversed, saying that counsel’s minimal presentation of mitigating evidence had not been prejudicial. The…
Issues
Oct 22, 2019
After U.S. Supreme Court Orders Further Review, Federal Appeals Court Overturns Death Sentences of Two Brain Damaged Prisoners
A federal appeals court has overturned the death sentences imposed on two brain damaged death-row prisoners in cases separately sent back for further review by the U.S. Supreme Court. On October 15, 2019, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit ordered a new sentencing hearing for Alabama death-row prisoner James McWilliams. Two days later, another three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit granted a new penalty hearing to Georgia death-row prisoner Lawrence Jefferson. Both men had been…