Entries tagged with “Sandra Day O'Connor

Innocence

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United States Supreme Court

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Sep 19, 2024

Hispanic Heritage Month: Leonel Herrera and the Agony of Doubt”

In hon­or of Hispanic Heritage Month (Sept. 15-Oct. 15), DPI is post­ing a week­ly fea­ture on Hispanic or Latino/​a peo­ple who have had a sig­nif­i­cant impact on the death penal­ty in the U.S. The first post in this series tells the sto­ry of Leonel Herrera, the defen­dant at the cen­ter of a key Supreme Court case on…

Facts & Research

United States Supreme Court

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Dec 05, 2023

Justice Sandra Day O’Connor’s Conflicted Death Penalty Jurisprudence

Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman to sit on the United States Supreme Court, died at the age of 93 on December 1, 2023. In her 25-year tenure on the Court, Justice O’Connor authored opin­ions in sev­er­al land­mark death penal­ty cas­es, includ­ing deci­sions that upheld the use of the death penal­ty for vul­ner­a­ble groups and peo­ple with dimin­ished cul­pa­bil­i­ty. However, she demon­strat­ed an ear­ly inter­est in improv­ing cap­i­tal defense stan­dards, and in her lat­er years on the Court expressed…