Lawyers for Jerry Terrell Jackson, who is cur­rent­ly fac­ing exe­cu­tion in Virginia on August 18, recent­ly peti­tioned the U.S. Supreme Court to spare Jackson’s life, argu­ing that the jury in his 2003 tri­al did not receive suf­fi­cient evi­dence of the abuse he suf­fered as a child because his tri­al lawyers were inad­e­quate. Jackson’s cur­rent lawyers told the Court that this evi­dence could have con­vinced some jurors not to impose a death sen­tence: ​“This Court has repeat­ed­ly held that, before a defen­dant is sen­tenced to death, a jury must be giv­en the oppor­tu­ni­ty to con­sid­er and con­front avail­able mit­i­ga­tion evi­dence, includ­ing evi­dence of seri­ous child­hood abuse, rel­e­vant to assess­ing a defendant’s moral cul­pa­bil­i­ty.” Clinical Psychologist Dr. Matthew Mendel, who appears in a clemen­cy video pre­pared by Jackson’s lawyers (left), said of Jackson’s trau­ma, ​“People abused by par­ents or parental fig­ures are those with the poor­est prog­no­sis. Jerry Terrell Jackson was not some­one who was engaged in extreme mis­be­hav­iors to which the fam­i­ly respond­ed. Child pro­tec­tive ser­vices referred to what the par­ents did to him as ​‘planned, cal­cu­lat­ed beat­ings.’ ” A fed­er­al District Court judge pre­vi­ous­ly ruled that Jackson was enti­tled to a new sen­tenc­ing hear­ing, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit recent­ly reversed the rul­ing, hold­ing that fed­er­al review was restrict­ed to what had been pre­sent­ed in Virginia courts. Jackson also has a clemen­cy peti­tion pend­ing with Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell, who could com­mute Jackson’s sen­tence based on the evi­dence of fam­i­ly abuse that the jury nev­er heard. (Click image on the left to view video. Caution: por­tions of the video dis­cuss par­tic­u­lar­ly dis­turb­ing exam­ples of abuse.)

(“Appeal for Va. inmate fac­ing exe­cu­tion,” Associated Press, August 6, 2011). See Clemency, Representation, and Arbitrariness. For more infor­ma­tion on Jackson’s case, see Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.

Citation Guide