Entries tagged with “Mitigating Evidence”

Dec 06, 2021

Advocacy Groups Call on Supreme Court to Summarily Reverse Texas Death-Penalty Decision that Flouted Earlier Court Guidance

Organizations advo­cat­ing for the rights of abused chil­dren and those with men­tal ill­ness and for fair process are urg­ing the U.S. Supreme Court to, for a sec­ond time, sum­mar­i­ly reverse a Texas Court of Criminal Appeals

Jun 14, 2022

After Initially Reversing Decision, Supreme Court Refuses to Review Texas Case of Gross Attorney Ineffectiveness a Second Time

The United States Supreme Court has declined to review a case in which the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA) flout­ed a pre­vi­ous Supreme Court rul­ing by deny­ing relief to a death-row pris­on­er a sec­ond time aft…

May 03, 2021

Capital Case Roundup — Death Penalty Court Decisions the Week of April 26, 2021

NEWS (4/​29/​21) — Oklahoma: The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals has vacat­ed the con­vic­tions and death sen­tences of two more death-row pris­on­ers who, the court found, had com­mit­ted their offens­es against Native Americans on trib­al lands. …

Dec 21, 2020

Capital Case Roundup — Death Penalty Court Decisions the Week of December 14, 2020

NEWS (12/​18/​20) — Texas: The Texas Supreme Court has over­turned a rul­ing by the state’s comp­trol­ler that had denied death-row exoneree Alfred Dew…

Feb 15, 2021

Capital Case Roundup — Death Penalty Court Decisions the Week of February 8, 2021

NEWS (2/​11/​21) — Alabama: In a splin­tered vote with three con­ser­v­a­tive jus­tices not­ing their dis­sents, the U.S. Supreme Court denied the Alabama Attorney General’s appli­ca­tion to vacate a …

Jun 28, 2021

Capital Case Roundup — Death Penalty Court Decisions the Week of June 21, 2021

NEWS (6/​25/​21) — Alabama: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit has affirmed an Alabama fed­er­al dis­trict court deci­sion dismissing 

Oct 26, 2020

Capital Case Roundup — Death Penalty Court Decisions the Week of October 19, 2020

NEWS (10/​22/​20) — Florida: The Florida Supreme Court has upheld the con­vic­tion and death sen­tence for Daniel Craven, Jr.

Nov 02, 2020

Capital Case Roundup — Death Penalty Court Decisions the Week of October 26, 2020

NEWS (10/​30/​20) — Florida: The Florida Supreme Court has upheld the con­vic­tion and death sen…

Jul 28, 2022

Federal Appeals Court Finds South Carolina Judge Ignored Uncontested Evidence of Mental Illness, Reverses Death Sentence

The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit has over­turned a South Carolina death-row prisoner’s death sen­tence after find­ing that the sen­tenc­ing judge in his case had ignored uncon­test­ed evi­dence of the defendant’s …

Feb 14, 2022

Federal Court Overturns Death Sentence of Alabama Death-Row Prisoner Whose Abandonment by Counsel Led to Supreme Court Ruling

Maples’ case reached the U.S. Supreme Court after Alabama’s state and fed­er­al courts refused to con­sid­er appel­late issues in his case because the vol­un­teer lawyers who were han­dling his case failed to noti­fy the state court that they had changed f…

May 10, 2021

Federal Court Reverses Death Sentence Imposed on Defendant Represented By Georgia Lawyer With History of Ineffectiveness and Racial Bias

A fed­er­al appeals court has reversed the death sen­tence of an African-American Georgia death-row pris­on­er who was rep­re­sent­ed at tri­al by a defense lawyer noto­ri­ous for his his­to­ry of sub­stan­dard rep­re­sen­ta­tion and racial bias in …

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 app…

Jan 05, 2022

Former U.S. Solicitor General: Supreme Court Must ​‘Uphold the Rule of Law’ that Texas Courts Ignored in Death Penalty Case

A for­mer con­ser­v­a­tive fed­er­al judge and U.S. Solicitor General has called on the United States Supreme Court to vacate a rul­ing by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA) that allowed a Texas death sen­tence to …

Feb 08, 2021

Harris County DA Seeks to Vacate Sentence for Nation’s Longest-Serving Death-Row Prisoner

The Harris County District Attorney’s office has asked the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to over­turn the death sen­tence imposed on Raymond Riles (pic­tured), the nation’s longest-serv­ing death-ro…

Jan 26, 2022

Kansas Supreme Court Rules that Death Penalty Does Not Violate State Constitution’s ​‘Inalienable’ Right to Life

The Kansas Supreme Court has upheld the state’s death penal­ty against two death-row pris­on­ers’ chal­lenges that cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment vio­lates the ​“inalien­able” right to life enshrined in the Kansas state con­sti­tu­tion. In sep­a­rate deci­sions re…

Nov 17, 2021

Nebraska Narrowly Avoids Sending First-Ever Woman to Death Row as 3‑Judge Panel Splits on Sentence for Bailey Boswell

Nebraska, which had no plans for hous­ing a female death-row pris­on­er, has nar­row­ly avoid­ed hav­ing to address that fail­ure, as a divid­ed three-judge pan­el on November 8, 2021 sen­tenced Bailey Boswell to life in pr…

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 th…

Aug 05, 2022

Oklahoma Board of Pardons and Parole Recommends Clemency for James Coddington

The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board has rec­om­mend­ed clemen­cy for James Coddington (pic­tured at his clemen­cy hear­ing), the first of 25 death-row pris­on­ers sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed in Oklahoma between August 2022 a…

Sep 22, 2021

Pennsylvania Court Denies Post-Conviction Relief to Death-Row Prisoner Albert Reid, Remands on Competency Issue

Mar 03, 2020

Sandra Lockett-Young, Whose Case Established a Capital Defendant’s Right to Present Mitigating Evidence, Has Died

Sandra Lockett-Young (pic­tured, right, with Sister Helen Prejean), whose case estab­lished a cap­i­tal defendant’s right to present a broad range of mit­i­gat­ing evi­dence con­cern­ing her char­ac­ter, back­ground, and record and the circums…

Oct 14, 2021

Supreme Court Hears Argument on Department of Justice Efforts to Reinstate Death Penalty in Boston Marathon Bombing Case

A United States Supreme Court sharply divid­ed along ide­o­log­i­cal lines heard oral argu­ment October 13, 2021 on the Department of Justice’s appeal of a fed­er­al cir­cuit court’s rul­ing over­turn­ing the death sen­tences imposed on 

Mar 07, 2022

Supreme Court Overturns Appeals Court Decision Reversing Death Sentence in Boston Marathon Bombing

The U.S. Supreme Court has over­turned a fed­er­al appeals court deci­sion that had reversed the death sen­tences imposed on Dzhokhar Tsarnaev for his role in the 2013 Boston Marathon bomb­ings that killed three people …

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 to death row. In an unpub­lished opin­ion issued on April 14, 2021, the TCCA h…

Feb 01, 2023

Texas Death Row Prisoner Commits Suicide

On January 21, 2023, Texas death row pris­on­er Terence Andrus hanged him­self at the age of 34, a lit­tle more than 6 months after the U.S. Supreme Court denied review of his case for a sec­ond time. His lawyer, Gretchen Sween, told the Los Angele…

Oct 19, 2020

U.S. Government Sets Two More Execution Dates, Seeking to Put to Death the First Woman and the Youngest Offender in More Than Six Decades

The fed­er­al gov­ern­ment intends to con­tin­ue its unprece­dent­ed exe­cu­tion spree into December, sched­ul­ing the exe­cu­tions of the first woman and the youngest offend­er put to death by fed­er­al author­i­ties in near­ly sev­en decades. In a Friday evening ann…

Dec 17, 2021

“Right Too Soon” Study: One in Seven Prisoners Put to Death in U.S. Had Legal Issues that Make Their Executions Unconstitutional

At least one in sev­en death-row pris­on­ers put to death in the United States since exe­cu­tions resumed in 1977 had legal claims in their cas­es that would ren­der their exe­cu­tions uncon­sti­tu­tion­al, a new Cornell University Law School study shows. …