Entries tagged with “Clarence Thomas

Jun 01, 2026

Supreme Court Roundup: Decisions Allow Jury Discrimination Claim to Proceed and Keep Protections for Intellectually Disabled in Place

In recent weeks, the U.S. Supreme Court issued deci­sions regard­ing two key types of claims that often appear in cap­i­tal cas­es: pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct and intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty. A bipar­ti­san group of con­ser­v­a­tive and lib­er­al jus­tices car­ried each deci­sion. The Court ruled in favor of Mississippi pris­on­er Terry Pitchford, allow­ing his jury dis­crim­i­na­tion claim to pro­ceed, as well as Florida pris­on­er Gary Whitton, based on a low­er court error in…

Women

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Jan 22, 2025

Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Only Woman on Oklahoma Death Row, Confirming Admission of Prejudicial, Gendered Evidence Can Violate Due Process Rights

At Brenda Andrew’s 2004 tri­al in Oklahoma for the mur­der of her hus­band, the pros­e­cu­tor called wit­ness­es to tes­ti­fy about her​“provoca­tive” cloth­ing and her pre­vi­ous sex­u­al rela­tion­ships, and ques­tioned​“whether a good moth­er would dress or behave” the way she had. Jurors heard Ms. Andrew called a​“hoochie” and a​“slut pup­py.” In his clos­ing argu­ment, the pros­e­cu­tor opened a suit­case and showed the jury Ms. Andrew’s under­wear, ask­ing,​“The grieving widow…