Entries tagged with “Barry Jones”

Issues

Jun 16, 2023

Barry Jones Freed from Arizona’s Death Row after 29 Years

On June 15, 2023, Arizona death-sen­tenced pris­on­er Barry Jones was freed after serv­ing 29 years for a crime that the Arizona Attorney General agreed he did not com­mit. Mr. Jones was sen­tenced to death in 1995 after being con­vict­ed of mur­der­ing his girlfriend’s four-year-old daugh­ter in 1994. Medical evi­dence that was read­i­ly avail­able at the time of tri­al showed that the child did not sus­tain her fatal inter­nal injuries dur­ing the time while she was in Mr. Jones’s care. But this evidence was…

Issues

May 25, 2022

Legal Analysts Blast Supreme Court Ruling Denying Prisoners Who Were Incompetently Represented in State Courts Access to Federal Courts to Prove Innocence, Constitutional Violations

In an opin­ion legal experts have blast­ed as ​“night­mar­ish” and ​“an abom­i­na­tion,” the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in two Arizona death penal­ty cas­es that 1990s amend­ments to the fed­er­al habeas cor­pus law per­mit state pris­on­ers who were pro­vid­ed inef­fec­tive rep­re­sen­ta­tion at tri­al and in post-con­vic­tion pro­ceed­ings to argue that their coun­sel were inef­fec­tive but bar them from pre­sent­ing evi­dence of their inef­fec­tive­ness that com­pe­tent lawyers had dis­cov­ered once the case had reached federal…

Research

Dec 09, 2021

Supreme Court Hears Oral Argument in Case that Threatens Meaningful Federal Review for Prisoners Denied Competent Lawyers

The United States Supreme Court heard oral argu­ment on December 8, 2021 in a case that will have seri­ous impli­ca­tions for the right to fed­er­al court review of wrong­ful con­vic­tions and death sen­tences. Arizona has asked the Supreme Court to reverse fed­er­al appel­late court rul­ings in favor of Barry Jones and David Ramirez. The Court seemed skep­ti­cal of Arizona​’s argu­ment that even though the state pro­vid­ed inef­fec­tive coun­sel to represent…

Issues

Religion

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Oct 26, 2021

Supreme Court Moves Arguments in Death Penalty Cases to Hear Texas Abortion Cases

The U.S. Supreme Court has pushed back argu­ments in three death-penal­ty cas­es so it can expe­dite con­sid­er­a­tion of two cas­es involv­ing Texas’ restric­tive abor­tion statute. To hear argu­ment in United States v. Texas and Whole Women’s Health v. Jackson on November 1, 2021, the court resched­uled argu­ment in Ramirez (John) v. Collier and Shinn v. Ramirez (David) and Jones. The Court will now hear argument in…

Issues

Sep 24, 2021

Supreme Court Case Threatens to Deny Access to Federal Courts to Death-Row Prisoners Who Received Ineffective State Representation

Nine dif­fer­ent groups of advo­cates, includ­ing for­mer pros­e­cu­tors and judges, lead­ing legal schol­ars, inno­cence advo­cates, and defense attor­neys, have filed friend-of-the-court ami­cus briefs in the United States Supreme Court ask­ing the court to rule in favor of Arizona death-row pris­on­ers Barry Jones and David Ramirez in cas­es that could have broad impli­ca­tions for the avail­abil­i­ty of fed­er­al judi­cial review of state…

Issues

Aug 03, 2018

Federal Judge Grants New Trial to Barry Jones Based on Evidence Suggesting His Innocence

A fed­er­al dis­trict court has vacat­ed the mur­der con­vic­tion of Arizona death-row pris­on­er Barry Jones (pic­tured) in the death of 4‑year-old Rachel Gray, and has ordered the state to imme­di­ate­ly retry or release Jones. On July 31, 2018, U.S. District Judge Timothy Burgess grant­ed a new tri­al to Jones, who has spent 23 years on Arizona’s death row, find­ing that if Jones had been com­pe­tent­ly rep­re­sent­ed at tri­al, ​“there is a rea­son­able prob­a­bil­i­ty that his jury…