Entries tagged with “Terry Pitchford”

Jul 21, 2026

What to Know: Prosecutorial Misconduct and the Death Penalty

DPI’s​“What to Know” series exam­ines cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment from mul­ti­ple angles, one top­ic at a time. Each install­ment pro­vides essen­tial facts and data on spe­cif­ic aspects of the death penal­ty. **Why it mat­ters:** More than 600 cap­i­tal con­vic­tions or death sen­tences have been over­turned or led to exon­er­a­tions because of pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct, and researchers say the true scope of the prob­lem is like­ly far greater. — DPI has iden­ti­fied more than 600…

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…

Dec 19, 2025

U.S. Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Mississippi Death Penalty Case Alleging Race Based Jury Discrimination

The U.S Supreme Court announced on December 15, 2025, that it will hear the appeal of Mississippi death-sen­­tenced pris­on­er Terry Pitchford, who has argued his con­sti­tu­tion­al rights were vio­lat­ed because of race dis­crim­i­na­tion dur­ing jury selec­tion. Mr. Pitchford was sen­tenced to death near­ly two decades ago for his role in the shoot­ing death of Reuben Britt. At the cen­ter of Mr. Pitchford’s case is Doug Evans, a Mississippi dis­trict attor­ney whose con­duct has drawn…