Entries tagged with “Alfred Bourgeois”

Policy Issues

Arbitrariness

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Intellectual Disability

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Race

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United States Supreme Court

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Jun 22, 2022

On 20th Anniversary of Atkins v. Virginia, Supreme Court Denies Petition to Review Procedural Loophole Permitting Execution of Intellectually Disabled Prisoners

On the twen­ti­eth anniver­sary of its land­mark deci­sion in Atkins v. Virginia pro­hibit­ing the use of the death penal­ty against indi­vid­u­als with intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty, the U.S. Supreme Court let stand a Florida case that cre­ates a pro­ce­dur­al loop­hole that allows those exe­cu­tions to…

Facts & Research

United States Supreme Court

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Federal Death Penalty

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Jan 29, 2021

Legitimacy and the Rule of Law: Supreme Court’s Institutional Standing Damaged by Rulings During Federal Execution Spree

From July 14, 2020 through January 16, 2021, the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment exe­cut­ed thir­teen pris­on­ers. It was the most con­sec­u­tive exe­cu­tions by a sin­gle juris­dic­tion since the U.S. death penal­ty resumed in the 1970s and the longest peri­od of time in which an exe­cu­tion spree by any gov­ern­ment went unabat­ed while no oth­er juris­dic­tion executed…

Policy Issues

Intellectual Disability

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Mental Illness

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Race

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United States Supreme Court

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Native Americans

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Women

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Federal Death Penalty

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Jan 18, 2021

‘This is Not Justice’ — Federal Execution Spree Ends with Planned Execution of African-American on Martin Luther King Jr’s Birthday

An his­tor­i­cal­ly aber­rant six-month fed­er­al exe­cu­tion spree came to a close after mid­night on January 16, 2021 when an African-American man who was sched­uled to die on the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.​’s birth­day was put to death by pri­vate exe­cu­tion­ers hired in a secret no-bid…

Policy Issues

Intellectual Disability

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United States Supreme Court

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Federal Death Penalty

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Jan 14, 2021

Federal Government Executes Corey Johnson, Who was Likely Intellectually Disabled, Without Any Judicial Review of His Eligibility for the Death Penalty

For the sec­ond time in less than five weeks, the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment has exe­cut­ed a death-row pris­on­er who like­ly was intel­lec­tu­al­ly dis­abled, with­out afford­ing him judi­cial review to deter­mine his eli­gi­bil­i­ty for the death penal­ty. Corey Johnson (pic­tured) was pro­nounced dead from lethal injec­tion at 11:34 p.m. on January 14, 2021, the 12th fed­er­al pris­on­er exe­cut­ed in six months and the fifth in the tran­si­tion peri­od between Donald Trump’s defeat in the November 2020…

State & Federal Info

Federal Death Penalty

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Dec 11, 2020

Federal Government Carries Out Two More Executions, Capping Deadliest Federal Death Penalty Year Since the 1890s

The fed­er­al gov­ern­ment car­ried out back-to-back exe­cu­tions of Brandon Bernard and Alfred Bourgeois on December 10 and 11, 2020, cap­ping the dead­liest run of fed­er­al exe­cu­tions in the United States in the 20th and 21st cen­turies. According to the Espy file, a data­base of exe­cu­tions in the U.S. and its colonies between 1608 and 2002, the ten exe­cu­tions since July 14 con­sti­tute the most fed­er­al civil­ian exe­cu­tions in a cal­en­dar year since the fed­er­al government…

Facts & Research

Clemency

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Upcoming Executions

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Federal Death Penalty

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Dec 07, 2020

Prosecutors Call for Ending Federal Executions

Saying ​“our nation’s long exper­i­ment with the death penal­ty has failed,” a coali­tion of near­ly 100 crim­i­nal jus­tice offi­cials is call­ing on the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment to halt the five exe­cu­tions cur­rent­ly sched­uled for December 2020 and January 2021 and to end its use of the death…

Policy Issues

Intellectual Disability

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Race

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DPIC Reports

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Upcoming Executions

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Foreign Nationals

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Federal Death Penalty

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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…

Policy Issues

Arbitrariness

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Intellectual Disability

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History of the Death Penalty

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Upcoming Executions

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Federal Death Penalty

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Nov 23, 2020

Trump Administration Presses Forward with Death Penalty Despite Election Defeat, Announcing 3 More Death Warrants and More Capital Prosecutions

Despite its defeat at the polls on November 3, the Trump admin­is­tra­tion is press­ing for­ward with efforts to con­duct an his­tor­i­cal­ly unprece­dent­ed num­ber of lame duck exe­cu­tions and in announc­ing new fed­er­al cap­i­tal pros­e­cu­tions that it will not be in posi­tion to carry…

Policy Issues

Mental Illness

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Representation

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Victims' Families

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Upcoming Executions

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Federal Death Penalty

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Jun 16, 2020

With Litigation Pending in U.S. Supreme Court, Federal Government Issues Four Death Warrants

With a peti­tion for review pend­ing before the U.S. Supreme Court on the legal­i­ty and con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of the fed­er­al exe­cu­tion pro­to­col, U.S. Attorney General William Barr on June 15, 2020 set exe­cu­tion dates for four fed­er­al death-row pris­on­ers, includ­ing three who are involved in the pend­ing case. The war­rants sched­uled three exe­cu­tions over a five-day peri­od in July and a fourth exe­cu­tion in late August. No fed­er­al exe­cu­tions have been car­ried out since 2003, and the five…

Executions

Lethal Injection

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Federal Death Penalty

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Jan 16, 2020

Appeals Court Hears Argument on Injunction that Halted Federal Executions

A three-judge pan­el of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit heard near­ly two hours of argu­ment on January 15, 2020 in four con­sol­i­dat­ed cas­es that could deter­mine whether the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment will be able to resume exe­cu­tions in 2020. The appeals pan­el — com­posed of Gregory G. Katsas and Neomi Rao, both appoint­ed by President Donald Trump, and David S. Tatel, appoint­ed by for­mer President Bill Clinton — sharply ques­tioned lawyers for the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and four…

Facts & Research

United States Supreme Court

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Upcoming Executions

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Lethal Injection

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Federal Death Penalty

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Dec 07, 2019

Supreme Court Ruling Halts Scheduled Federal Executions

The United States Supreme Court has denied an appli­ca­tion by the U.S. Department of Justice to lift a fed­er­al court injunc­tion block­ing the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment from car­ry­ing out four exe­cu­tions sched­uled for December 2019 and January 2020. The Court’s unan­i­mous rul­ing, issued Friday evening December 6, ensures that there will be no fed­er­al exe­cu­tions in…

Executions

Upcoming Executions

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Lethal Injection

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Federal Death Penalty

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Nov 21, 2019

Washington District Court Enjoins U.S. Government From Carrying Out Federal Executions

A fed­er­al judge in Washington has issued a pre­lim­i­nary injunc­tion bar­ring the United States gov­ern­ment from car­ry­ing out four exe­cu­tions sched­uled for December 2019 and January 2020. The opin­ion, issued November 20, 2019, tem­porar­i­ly halts the fed­er­al exe­cu­tions pend­ing com­ple­tion of court chal­lenges to the government’s exe­cu­tion process and is a major blow to the Trump administration’s plan to resume car­ry­ing out the fed­er­al death penal­ty after a sixteen-year…