Entries tagged with “Bruce Webster”

Policy Issues

Arbitrariness

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Innocence

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Intellectual Disability

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International

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Race

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Federal Death Penalty

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Oct 05, 2020

Capital Case Roundup — Death Penalty Court Decisions the Week of September 28, 2020

NEWS (10/​1/​20) — Washington, D.C.: The fed­er­al gov­ern­ment has sched­uled an eighth exe­cu­tion for 2020, set­ting a November 19 exe­cu­tion date for Orlando Hall. Hall’s case would be the first fed­er­al exe­cu­tion in more than a half-cen­tu­ry for the killing of an African-American vic­tim and the sec­ond con­sec­u­tive exe­cu­tion of an African-American pris­on­er after the exe­cu­tions of five white pris­on­ers and the sole Native American on…

Policy Issues

Intellectual Disability

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Federal Death Penalty

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Jul 04, 2019

Judge Finds Federal Death-Row Prisoner Bruce Webster Intellectually Disabled, Vacates Death Sentence

An Indiana fed­er­al dis­trict court judge has vacat­ed the death sen­tence imposed on fed­er­al death-row pris­on­er Bruce Webster, find­ing that Webster is inel­i­gi­ble for the death penal­ty because he is intel­lec­tu­al­ly dis­abled. After a five-day hear­ing in April 2019, in which the court heard live tes­ti­mo­ny from sev­en men­tal health experts and con­sid­ered depo­si­tion tes­ti­mo­ny from three oth­ers, Senior Judge William T. Lawrence of the Southern District of Indiana ruled on June 18, 2019…

Policy Issues

Intellectual Disability

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United States Supreme Court

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Dec 07, 2010

Supreme Court Declines to Take Case of Federal Death Row Inmate With Mental Retardation

The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear the appeal of Bruce Webster, an inmate on the fed­er­al death row with evi­dence that he is intel­lec­tu­al­ly dis­abed. In 2002, the Supreme Court ruled in Atkins v. Virginia that the exe­cu­tion of a per­son with intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ties (men­tal retar­da­tion) would be uncon­sti­tu­tion­al. Webster’s evi­dence indi­cates that three fed­er­al doc­tors deter­mined he had an intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty when he applied for disability…

Policy Issues

Intellectual Disability

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Federal Death Penalty

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Jul 19, 2010

Federal Inmate Faces Execution Despite Clear Evidence of Intellectual Disability

Bruce Webster faces a fed­er­al exe­cu­tion despite new evi­dence – includ­ing eval­u­a­tions by three doc­tors – indi­cat­ing he is intel­lec­tu­al­ly dis­abled. Although the U.S. Supreme Court banned the exe­cu­tion of the ​“men­tal­ly retard­ed” (now referred to as ​“intel­lec­tu­al­ly dis­abled”) in 2002, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in April denied Webster’s request for a hear­ing on his men­tal capac­i­ty claim. The court found that Webster had exhaust­ed all his…