Entries tagged with “Willie B. Smith III”
Policy Issues
Intellectual Disability
,Methods of Execution
,Jan 10, 2022
Alabama Federal Court Issues Injunction Against Executing Matthew Reeves by Any Method but Nitrogen Hypoxia
An Alabama federal judge has issued an order halting the scheduled January 27, 2022 execution of Matthew Reeves…
Policy Issues
Intellectual Disability
,Upcoming Executions
,Oct 21, 2021
Alabama Executes Intellectually Disabled Death-Row Prisoner
Alabama has executed an intellectually disabled death-row prisoner who was sentenced to death by his trial judge despite a non-unanimous sentencing recommendation by his jury. Willie B. Smith III was executed by three-drug lethal injection on October 21, 2021 after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review his appeal of a lower federal court ruling denying his claim that the state’s choice to execute him by lethal injection violated his rights under the…
Policy Issues
Intellectual Disability
,Upcoming Executions
,Methods of Execution
,Lethal Injection
,Oct 19, 2021
Intellectually Disabled Alabama Death-Row Prisoner Appeals Denial of Stay of Execution, Arguing Designation of Lethal Injection Violated Americans With Disabilities Act
An intellectually disabled Alabama death-row prisoner has appealed a federal district court ruling that clears the way for his execution on October 21,…
Facts & Research
Religion
,United States Supreme Court
,Executions Overview
,Sep 09, 2021
U.S. Supreme Court Stays Texas Execution, Agrees to Review Contours of the Right to Religious Exercise in the Execution Chamber
In an after-hours order issued on September 8, 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court halted Texas’s planned execution of John Henry Ramirez and agreed to review his claim that the state’s refusal to allow his pastor to “lay hands” on him or pray audibly during the execution violated federal law and his First Amendment right to the free exercise of…
Facts & Research
Religion
,Apr 26, 2021
Texas Revises Execution Protocol to Permit Spiritual Advisers in Death Chamber
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) has amended its execution protocol to permit a condemned prisoner to be accompanied in the execution chamber by a spiritual adviser of his or her own…
Executions
Executions Overview
,Feb 22, 2021
DPIC Analysis: U.S. Enters Longest Period in 40 Years Without Any State Carrying Out an Execution
The United States has entered the longest period in 40 years without any state carrying out an execution, an analysis of data in the Death Penalty Information Center execution database has…
Facts & Research
Religion
,Upcoming Executions
,Feb 10, 2021
Supreme Court Lets Stand Federal Appeals Court Injunction Halting Alabama Execution on Claim of Religious Discrimination
Four hours after Alabama was scheduled to execute death-row prisoner Willie B. Smith III on February 11, 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court let stand a federal appeals court injunction barring the execution from going forward unless the state permitted Smith’s pastor to be present to provide him religious comfort in the execution chamber. Alabama then announced that it was calling off the…
Policy Issues
Intellectual Disability
,Race
,DPI Reports
,Upcoming Executions
,Foreign Nationals
,Federal Death Penalty
,Dec 04, 2020
DPIC Analysis — Intellectually Disabled Defendants of Color, Foreign Nationals Disproportionately Subject to the Death Penalty
Defendants of color and foreign nationals who are intellectually disabled are disproportionately likely to be sentenced to death, a Death Penalty Information Center analysis of cases involving intellectually disabled defendants…