Entries tagged with “Rubberstamping

Policy Issues

Arbitrariness

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Innocence

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Intellectual Disability

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Secrecy

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May 07, 2020

Capital Case Roundup — Death Penalty Court Decisions the Week of May 42020

NEWS (5/​7/​20) — Florida: The Florida Supreme Court has upheld the death sen­tence imposed on Leonardo Franqui, deny­ing post-con­vic­tion chal­lenges to his death sen­tence based upon claims that he is inel­i­gi­ble for the death penal­ty because of intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty and that his death sen­tence was uncon­sti­tu­tion­al­ly imposed after some mem­bers of his jury vot­ed for…

Policy Issues

Arbitrariness

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United States Supreme Court

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May 21, 2019

Supreme Court Denies Review in Death-Penalty Case Where Texas Judge Rubberstamped Prosecution’s Findings

The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to review a case in which the Texas courts decid­ed a death-row prisoner’s appeal by adopt­ing the prosecution’s fact find­ings and legal argu­ments word-for-word with­out pro­vid­ing the defendant’s lawyer any oppor­tu­ni­ty to respond. In a May 20, 2019 rul­ing, the Court with­out com­ment denied the peti­tion for writ of cer­tio­rari filed by Ray Freeney (pic­tured), there­by per­mit­ting the Harris County

Policy Issues

Arbitrariness

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Innocence

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Representation

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Executions Overview

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May 17, 2018

Texas Executes Juan Castillo Without a Hearing on His Claims of Innocence and Ineffective Representation

Texas exe­cut­ed Juan Castillo (pic­tured) on May 16, 2018, after its state courts stayed his exe­cu­tion to address whether his con­vic­tion and death sen­tence for a botched rob­bery and mur­der had been a prod­uct of false tes­ti­mo­ny, but then denied him an evi­den­tiary hear­ing nec­es­sary to prove that…

Policy Issues

Arbitrariness

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Jul 26, 2016

Defendant Seeks Supreme Court Review of Prosecutorial Ghostwriting, A Widespread Practice in Capital Cases

Doyle Lee Hamm (pic­tured), an Alabama death row pris­on­er, has asked the United States Supreme Court to con­sid­er his case after Alabama’s state and fed­er­al appel­late courts upheld an order in which the tri­al court reject­ed his appeal by adopt­ing word-for-word an 89-page order writ­ten by the state attor­ney gen­er­al’s office. In a process The Marshall Project’s Andrew Cohen described as a sham,” the court dis­missed Hamm’s appeal one busi­ness day after receiv­ing the…