Entries tagged with “Juries”
Oct 29, 2024
Hearings Begin on Constitutional Challenge to Kansas’ Death Penalty and Capital Jury Selection Process
“If you are charged with capital murder … you are less likely to get…
Issues
May 28, 2024
Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals Categorically Bars Review of Racial Bias in Capital Jury Selection
Madison County,…
Issues
Mar 28, 2024
OP-ED: Black Woman Denied Opportunity to Serve as a Juror in Georgia Capital Trial Cites Concerns About Racial Bias
In a March 26, 2024, op-ed published in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Patricia McTier, a Georgia nurse, recounts her experience being removed from a jury pool in 1998 for what she calls a“questionable reason” related to her race. Born and raised in Appling County, Georgia, Ms. McTier grew up in the Jim Crow era and writes that she“enter[ed] adulthood during a time of great social change,” where she grew to“cherish our American system of justice and the…
Issues
Feb 20, 2024
Op-Ed: Law Professor Stephen Bright Encourages SCOTUS to Review “Egregious Racial Discrimination” in Georgia Death Row Prisoner’s Case
In a February 14, 2024 op-ed published in the Washington Post, the longtime defense lawyer, former director of the Southern Center for Human Rights, and law professor Stephen Bright highlights the continued illegal exclusion of Black jurors in violation of Batson v. Kennedy (1986). The op-ed titled,“Struck from a jury for being Black? It still happens all too often,” uses the case of Georgia death-sentenced prisoner Warren King, whose petition the U.S. Supreme Court is…
Research
Apr 18, 2023
Florida Legislature Rescinds Unanimous-Jury Requirement in Death Sentencing
Florida is poised to become the state with the nation’s lowest threshold for juries to recommend death sentences, after the state legislature passed a bill allowing a judge to impose death if at least eight out of twelve jurors agree. Most states, including Florida, have required a unanimous jury verdict to recommend death. Governor Ron DeSantis (pictured) is expected to sign the bill, following the House’s approval on April 13, 2023. Alabama requires at least 10 jurors to…
Research
Feb 06, 2023
Florida Governor Pushes To Remove Safeguards in Death Penalty Cases
At the urging of Governor Ron DeSantis, bills have been introduced in the Florida House and Senate that would allow death sentences even when the jury cannot come to a unanimous verdict on the proper penalty. The proposed legislation would also permit a presiding judge to override a jury’s recommendation of life and impose a death sentence. Death sentences would be allowed if at least eight jurors agreed, creating the lowest threshold in the nation for the…
Issues
Jan 20, 2023
Kansas Capital Defendant Moves to Bar Death Penalty, Invoking State Constitution’s ‘Strict Scrutiny’ For Life and Liberty Issues
A Kansas capital defendant is challenging the prosecution’s decision to pursue the death penalty in his case, invoking a heightened standard of review the Kansas constitution applies to infringements of fundamental…
Issues
Nov 29, 2022
Texas Schedules Execution of Mentally Ill Prisoner Who Ate His Eye, After SCOTUS Refuses to Review Evidence of Racial Bias
Texas is planning to execute a seriously mentally ill prisoner who has gouged out both of his eyes because of his paranoid schizophrenia. On November 7, 2022, the District Court of Grayson County, Texas set an April 5, 2023 execution date for Andre Thomas (pictured, left when arrested; center, after gouging out his right eye prior to trial; right, after gouging out and eating his left eye while on death row). Thomas has been described by his attorneys…
Issues
Oct 28, 2022
Florida Study Documents Disproportionate Exclusion of Black Jurors in Jacksonville Death Penalty Cases
Two-thirds of Black women and more than half of Black men have been struck from jury service in Duval County death penalty cases, more than double the rate at which white prospective jurors are excluded, a study of capital jury selection in the Florida…
Issues
Oct 18, 2022
U.S. Supreme Court Declines to Hear Case of Texas Prisoner Whose Jurors Expressed Racist Views
With three justices dissenting, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the case of Texas death-row prisoner Andre Thomas, who was sentenced to death by jurors who admitted to racial bias. In a case involving an interracial murder and marriage, jurors who opposed interracial relationships were allowed to serve without objection by defense counsel. These beliefs were referenced by the prosecution during closing…
Issues
Oct 13, 2022
Non-Unanimous Florida Jury Sentences Nikolas Cruz to Life Without Parole for Parkland School Shootings
A non-unanimous Florida jury has returned a verdict of life without parole for Nikolas Cruz, the teen offender convicted of killing 17 people in the February 14, 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School (pictured) in Parkland, Florida. The October 13, 2022 verdict, in which three jurors voted to spare Cruz’s life, concluded a six-month sentencing trial. Florida law, like that of nearly every death-penalty…
Research
Sep 14, 2022
BOOKS: “Geometrical Justice: The Death Penalty in America”
The outcome of a capital prosecution can be predicted based upon the relative social status of the victim, the defendant, and the jurors, applying a sociology concept known as the geometrical theory of law, according to the authors of a new book, Geometrical Justice: The Death Penalty in…
Issues
Sep 13, 2022
Alabama Court Upholds Fifth Non-Unanimous Death Sentence Imposed on Intellectually Impaired Man Over the Course of Six Penalty Trials for the Same Crime
An Alabama appeals court has upheld a fifth non-unanimous death sentence imposed on a death-row prisoner who has faced six capital sentencing trials for the same offense and was once found to be ineligible for the death penalty because of intellectual…
Issues
Apr 28, 2022
Supreme Court Refuses to Review Case in Which Texas Judge Seated Juror Who Believed ‘Non-White Races’ More Violent
Five years after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Texas death sentence when an expert witness had testified that a Black defendant posed an increased risk of committing future acts of violence because of his race, the Court has refused to review another Texas capital case in which the trial court permitted a juror to serve who expressed the…
Issues
Apr 15, 2022
Advocacy Group Tells Supreme Court that Negative Stereotypes Distort Perception that Latinos in Death-Penalty Cases Pose Future Danger to Society
An amicus brief filed in the U.S. Supreme Court in support of Arizona death-row prisoner John Montenegro Cruz presents evidence that Latinx defendants are particularly vulnerable to juror bias regarding determinations of future…
Issues
Federal Death Penalty
,Apr 04, 2022
New DPIC Podcast: Prof. Meredith Rountree on What Influences Death Penalty Jurors’ Moral Decision Making
In the March 2022 episode of Discussions With DPIC, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law Senior Lecturer Meredith Rountree speaks with Death Penalty Information Center Executive Director Robert Dunham about her study of the types of evidence that influence juror decision-making at the sentencing stage of…
Issues
Aug 03, 2021
Equal Justice Initiative Releases Report on Racial Discrimination in Jury Selection
Racial bias in jury selection is compromising the“credibility, reliability, and integrity of the legal system,” and its effects are especially pronounced in death penalty cases, a new report from the Equal Justice Initiative…
Issues
Jun 07, 2021
California Supreme Court Hears Case That Could Undo Hundreds of State Death Sentences
The California Supreme Court heard oral argument on June 2, 2021 in a capital case whose outcome could affect the fate of hundreds of prisoners on the state’s death row. Supported by friend-of-the-court briefs by California Governor Gavin Newsom and an alliance of progressive California district attorneys, lawyers for death row prisoner Don’te McDaniel argued to the court that California’s capital sentencing scheme is unconstitutional…
Issues
Time on Death Row
,Apr 19, 2021
Texas Appeals Court Overturns Death Sentence of Nation’s Longest Serving Death-Row Prisoner
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA) has overturned the death sentence of the nation’s longest-serving death-row prisoner, 45 years after he was first sent…
Issues
Upcoming Executions
,Federal Death Penalty
,Dec 08, 2020
Jurors and Appellate Prosecutor Say Teen Offender Brandon Bernard Should Not be Executed
As the December 10, 2020 execution date of federal death-row prisoner Brandon Bernard (pictured with his family) approached, jurors and a former prosecutor in his case came forward saying that the teen offender’s life should be spared. Bernard, who was 18 years old at the time of the offense, became the youngest offender executed by the federal government in at…
Research
Federal Death Penalty
,Oct 13, 2020
Federal Prosecutors Seek Supreme Court Review of Appeals Decision Overturning Death Sentence in Boston Marathon Bombing
Federal prosecutors have filed a petition in the U.S. Supreme Court asking the Court to review a federal appeals court ruling that overturned the death sentence imposed on Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (pictured) in the 2013 Boston…
Issues
Sep 08, 2020
Curtis Flowers Exonerated in Mississippi After Attorney General Drops All Charges
After six trials marred by prosecutorial misconduct and racial prejudice, drawing a scathing rebuke from the U.S. Supreme Court, former Mississippi death-row prisoner Curtis Flowers (pictured with the ankle monitor that had kept him under house arrest) has…
Issues
Sep 04, 2020
California Legislature Passes Racial Justice Package Affecting Death-Penalty Practices
In the closing days of its 2020 legislative session, the California legislature passed a trio of racial justice reform bills expected to reduce the influence of racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic bias in the administration of the death penalty in the state with the country’s…
Issues
Aug 25, 2020
California Supreme Court Overturns Scott Peterson’s Death Sentence
Ruling in one of the most sensationalized trials of the early 2000s, the California Supreme Court has overturned the death sentence imposed on Scott Peterson for the murders of his pregnant wife, Laci, and their unborn son in December 2002. The court upheld Peterson’s convictions for…
Issues
Aug 24, 2020
Capital Case Roundup — Death Penalty Court Decisions the Week of August 17, 2020
NEWS (8/19/20) — California: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit released habeas corpus appeal decisions in two capital cases involving California death-row prisoner Martin Kipp, overturning his conviction in a case prosecuted in Orange County and upholding his conviction and death sentence in a Los Angeles County…
Issues
Aug 21, 2020
Commentary: Tennessee’s Commitment to Racial Justice Tested as Attorney General Continues to Push for Execution in Case Rife with Racial Bias
Declaring that “[r]acism still exists and has no place in society,” the Tennessee Supreme Court on June 25, 2020 directed its Access to Justice Commission (AJC) to create“a new initiative to identify and eliminate barriers to racial and ethnic fairness and justice.” The court’s pronouncement, at the height of the racial justice protests that swept the nation following the murder of George Floyd by a white Minneapolis police officer, was meant to signal…
Issues
Federal Death Penalty
,Aug 17, 2020
Capital Case Roundup — Death Penalty Court Decisions the Week of August 10, 2020
NEWS (8/14/20) — Alabama: The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals has affirmed a lower court ruling granting a new trial to death-row prisoner Steven Petric based upon his lawyer’s ineffective representation at trial. Petric had been convicted and sentenced to death in 2009 for a rape and murder in suburban Birmingham two…
Issues
Victims' Families
,Upcoming Executions
,Native Americans
,Federal Death Penalty
,Jul 30, 2020
Over Tribal Objection, U.S. Government Sets New Execution Date for Sole Native American on Federal Death Row
The U.S. government has set an August 26, 2020 execution date for the sole Native American on federal death row, against the wishes of his tribe, the victims’ family, and the local U.S. Attorney’s office that…
Issues
Upcoming Executions
,Jul 01, 2020
Capital Case Roundup — Death Penalty Court Decisions the Week of June 29, 2020
NEWS (7/2/20) — Florida: The Florida Supreme Court denied relief to death-row prisoner Leroy Pooler, applying two recent decisions that retroactively rescinded case precedent that could have overturned his…
Issues
Jun 30, 2020
New Podcast: Henderson Hill and North Carolina’s Historic Racial Justice Act Rulings
In the June 2020 episode of Discussions with DPIC, Henderson Hill (pictured), Senior Counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union Capital Punishment Project, speaks with Death Penalty Information Center Executive Director Robert Dunham about North Carolina’s Racial Justice Act. Hill, who has spent decades as a public defender, capital defense attorney, and civil rights advocate, is currently representing North Carolina death-row…
Issues
Federal Death Penalty
,Jun 19, 2020
Capital Case Roundup — Death Penalty Court Decisions the Week of June 15, 2020
NEWS (6/19/20) — California: In one of the few capital trials to move forward during the COVID-19 pandemic, a San Jose jury acquitted Manuel Anthony Lopez of charges that he had raped and murdered his girlfriend’s two-year-old son. Lopez, who had been jailed four years awaiting trial, had consistently professed his innocence, and news reports said his lead defense counsel, Santa Clara County deputy public defender Michael Ogul, believed so strongly in…
Issues
Jun 12, 2020
Study: Dehumanizing Belief Systems Linked to Support for Gun Rights, the Death Penalty, and Anti-Immigration Practices
A new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has documented a strong link between individuals who hold dehumanizing belief systems and support for…
Issues
Executions Overview
,Jun 06, 2020
Capital Case Roundup — Death Penalty Court Decisions the Week of June 1, 2020
NEWS (6/5/20) — North Carolina: The North Carolina Supreme Court has struck down the state legislature’s attempted retroactive repeal of the state’s Racial Justice Act, restoring the rights of approximately 130 death-row prisoners to seek redress of death sentences that they had claimed were substantially affected by racial…
Issues
May 22, 2020
Former Georgia Death-Row Prisoner Reaches Deal Securing His Release After Serving 43 Years for a Murder He Says He Did Not Commit
Johnny Lee Gates (pictured) is free, 43 years after being sentenced to death in Georgia for a murder he has steadfastly maintained he…
Issues
Upcoming Executions
,May 15, 2020
As Blood Spatter Evidence Causes Jurors to Question His Guilt, Missouri Prepares to Execute Walter Barton
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit has vacated a stay of execution for Missouri death-row prisoner Walter Barton (pictured) who is scheduled to be executed on Tuesday, May 19, 2020. The court’s unsigned opinion, issued on Sunday, May 17, lifted a stay of execution that had been issued May 15 by a federal district court judge. The district court said a stay was necessary to afford it time to address a petition Barton had filed…
Issues
Native Americans
,Federal Death Penalty
,May 04, 2020
Appeals Court Questions Federal Use of Death Penalty Against Navajo Prisoner, But Turns Down Appeal
In a federal capital case with implications relating to tribal sovereignty, a federal appeals court has denied a Native-American prisoner’s appeal seeking to investigate racial bias in his case, while questioning the federal government’s pursuit of the death…
Issues
Mar 16, 2020
Georgia Supreme Court Votes 9 – 0 for New Trial for Former Death-Row Prisoner Johnny Gates
More than forty years after he was convicted and sentenced to death by an all-white Columbus, Georgia jury for the rape and murder of a 19-year-old white woman, Johnny Lee Gates (pictured) will be getting a new trial. On March 13, 2020, the Georgia Supreme Court unanimously held that DNA contained on physical evidence that police and prosecutors had withheld for decades raised“significant doubt” as to…
Issues
Mar 11, 2020
Timothy Hurst, Whose Case Struck Down Florida’s Death-Penalty Statute, Is Resentenced to Life
Former Florida death-row prisoner Timothy Hurst (pictured), whose case led the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down Florida’s death-penalty statute in 2016 and spurred the elimination of non-unanimous jury verdicts for death in Florida and Delaware, has been resentenced to life without parole. Hurst was officially removed from Florida’s death row after his capital resentencing jury did not reach a unanimous sentencing…
Issues
Jan 31, 2020
Florida Prisoner Sentenced to Life After Third Non-Unanimous Death Penalty Verdict
After nearly two decades of capital trials and death-penalty reversals, former Florida death-row prisoner David Snelgrove has been resentenced to life in prison without parole. His three sentencing trials provided a barometer of the impact of the United States Supreme Court and Florida Supreme Court decisions in Hurst v. Florida and Hurst v. State, and the lengths to which prosecutors were willing to go in attempts to keep…
Issues
Victims' Families
,Jan 29, 2020
Georgia Executes Donnie Lance Over Protests of Victim’s Children After Denying DNA Testing
Georgia executed Donnie Lance on January 29, 2020 after his requests for DNA testing and a plea for clemency supported by the children he and murder victim Joy Lance…
Issues
Jan 24, 2020
Florida Supreme Court Retracts Jury Unanimity Requirement, Reinstates Non-Unanimous Death Sentence
In a dramatic reversal made possible by changes in court personnel, the Florida Supreme Court has repudiated its prior decisions requiring that capital sentencing juries unanimously agree to the death penalty before a trial judge may sentence a defendant to death.“Our court … got it wrong,” the justices said, when it ruled in 2016 that death sentences imposed after non-unanimous jury recommendations for death violated the state and federal…
Issues
Federal Death Penalty
,Dec 13, 2019
Federal Appeals Court Hears Argument in Boston Marathon Bombing Case
Lawyers for Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (pictured) sought to overturn his conviction and federal death sentence on Thursday, arguing in a federal appeals court that he could not get a fair trial in a city still traumatized by the attack. During the two-hour argument before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston on December 12, 2019, they also claimed Tsarnaev was denied an impartial jury when the trial court prohibited him…
Issues
Nov 19, 2019
Civil Rights Groups File Class Action Lawsuit Against Mississippi Prosecutor Over Systemic Racial Discrimination in Jury Selection
Two civil rights organizations have filed a class action lawsuit against Mississippi prosecutor Doug Evans (pictured) seeking an end to what they describe as a“policy, custom, and usage of racially discriminatory jury selection.” The lawsuit, filed by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the MacArthur Justice Center on November 18, 2019 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi on behalf of black prospective…
Issues
Upcoming Executions
,Nov 18, 2019
Juror Admits Bias in Tennessee Case With Pending Execution Date
A Tennessee death-row prisoner who is facing execution in early December is seeking to reverse his 1992 conviction and death sentence in light of new information that a juror who served on his case failed to disclose that she was…
Issues
Oct 03, 2019
Jurors Report Experiencing Continuing Trauma After Serving in South Carolina Death-Penalty Trial
Jurors in South Carolina report that they are experiencing profound psychological effects from their exposure to graphically violent images, testimony, and argument during the death-penalty trial of Tim Jones, Jr. (pictured). Three months after the June 13, 2019 conclusion of the penalty phase of a trial in which jurors sentenced Jones to death for killing his five young children, nine of the 18 Lexington County jurors and…
Issues
Jul 19, 2019
California Supreme Court to Consider Petition to Halt Capital Prosecutions
Calling Governor Gavin Newsom’s moratorium on executions a“paradigm shift” in the death-penalty landscape, a defendant facing the death penalty in Los Angeles has petitioned the California Supreme Court to halt capital prosecutions in the state. On July 1, 2019, lawyers for Cleamon Johnson—whose death penalty trial is scheduled to begin in January 2020 — have filed a pretrial petition for review,…
Issues
New Voices
,Dec 02, 2016
OUTLIER COUNTIES: Dallas County, Texas Imposing Fewer Death Sentences After Years of Discrimination
With 55 executions since the 1970s, Dallas County, Texas, ranks second among all U.S. counties — behind only Harris County (Houston), Texas — in the number of prisoners it has put to death. It is also among the 2% of counties that account for more than half of all prisoners on death row across the country, and produced seven new death sentences and one resentence between 2010 and 2015, more than 99.5% of all U.S. counties…
Issues
Oct 03, 2015
Missouri Commutes Death Sentence of Kimber Edwards
On October 2, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon commuted the death sentence of Kimber Edwards to life without parole. Edwards had faced execution on October 6 for the alleged murder-for-hire killing…