Entries tagged with “Antonin Scalia”

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 innocence. 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…