Entries tagged with “Sandra Day O'Connor”
Innocence
,United States Supreme Court
,Sep 19, 2024
Hispanic Heritage Month: Leonel Herrera and the “Agony of Doubt”
In 1993, the Supreme Court generated widespread outrage when it ruled in Herrera v. Collins that new evidence of actual innocence does not entitle a death-sentenced prisoner to a hearing in federal court. “Not Guilty? It Doesn’t Matter,” reported the Atlanta Constitution, while USA Today pleaded, “Don’t Make It Easier to Execute the Innocent.” Many newspapers and advocates took up the final line in Justice Harry Blackmun’s blistering dissent: “The execution of a person who can show…
Facts & Research
United States Supreme Court
,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…