U.S. Supreme Court Reverses Another Alabama Death Penalty Case

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEmO7Sxl9DNil3OtfIhNzbcg4CS9MmIbPlCY081Za6toTAUDsYKD5Q6FttSoPxVp_51615DOufWFIcLGpNpVHL61I_6HPzHKLWngEf2t-Pcd1avkqpWBc-hg_l1RDk9H83OCrLpE8Aouc/s1600/welcome-alabama.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEmO7Sxl9DNil3OtfIhNzbcg4CS9MmIbPlCY081Za6toTAUDsYKD5Q6FttSoPxVp_51615DOufWFIcLGpNpVHL61I_6HPzHKLWngEf2t-Pcd1avkqpWBc-hg_l1RDk9H83OCrLpE8Aouc/s320/welcome-alabama.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">For the 4th time in 2 months, the United States Supreme Court today overturned an Alabama death penalty case in which EJI challenged the conviction and sentence affirmed by state courts. This time, the Court reversed because of concerns about racial bias in jury selection.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Christopher Floyd was tried by an all-white jury in Houston County, Alabama, where African Americans comprise 27 % of the population. The prosecutor, Doug Valeska, has a documented history of racial discrimination in jury selection. The prosecution marked African American potential jurors with a "B" on its list of jurors to remove, then removed 10 of 11 qualified black prospective jurors.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">1 of the black jurors barred from jury service provided answers to all of the prosecution's questions during jury selection, but the prosecutor said that she did not respond to any questions and so he could not provide a race-neutral reason for removing her. EJI argued on appeal that because the prosecutor's assertion was not true, relief was required. The state courts nonetheless refused to grant relief.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Supreme Court today granted Mr. Floyd's request for review, reversed the state court decision, and ordered the state court to re-examine the case. The Court referred to its recent decision in <i>Foster v. Chatman</i>, in which it held that Georgia prosecutors illegally barred African Americans from serving on Mr. Foster's jury because of their race.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Racial bias has been a longstanding problem in Alabama, where more than 2 dozen cases have been reversed after courts found that prosecutors engaged in intentional racial discrimination during jury selection. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Equal Justice Initiative has long argued that racial bias in jury selection is a serious problem in Alabama, particularly in capital trials, where too few prosecutors have ended the practice of unfairly excluding African Americans.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: Equal Justice Initiative, June 21, 2016</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">SCOTUS demands new look at race of jurors of death penalty conviction in Alabama</span></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The U.S. Supreme Court says lower courts in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi must re-examine 3 death penalty convictions for evidence of racial prejudice in jury selection.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The court ruled Monday in the cases of Christopher Floyd of Alabama, Jabari Williams of Louisiana and Curtis Giovanni Flowers of Mississippi.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The brief decisions followed the court's May decision to overturn the conviction and death sentence of a Georgia man because of evidence that prosecutors intentionally excluded black people from the jury.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The May decision broke no new ground in efforts to fight racial discrimination in jury selection, but underscored a 30-year-old high court ruling that took aim at the exclusion of minorities from juries.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Flowers was convicted after 5 previous trials over the slaying of 4 people in a furniture store.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: Associated Press, June 21, 2016</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /><br /><b><span style="font-size: large;">US Supreme Court orders Curtis Flowers Hearing</span></b><br /><br />The US Supreme Court orders Mississippi to re-examine Curtis Flowers death penalty conviction for evidence of racial prejudice in jury selection.<br /><br />Curtis Flowers has been on death row in the 1996 killing of Winona furniture store owner Bertha Tardy and 3 of her employees. The US Supreme Court threw out today the Mississippi high court's 2014 decision affirming Flowers conviction and death sentence and told the court to look again at Flowers' claim that African American jurors were excluded from his last trial in 2010 for racial reasons.<br /><br />The decision didn't throw out Flowers conviction and death sentence but ordered the State Supreme Court to re-examine whether African American jurors were purposely excluded from serving on Flowers trial which could win Flowers a new trial.<br /><br />Source: Delta News, June 21, 2016<br /><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">- Report an error, an omission:<a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com" target="_blank"> deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a></span> <span style="font-size: small;"> </span> <span style="font-size: small;"> - Follow us on <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> </b>and <b><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b></span></div></div>

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For the 4th time in 2 months, the United States Supreme Court today overturned an Alabama death penalty case in which EJI challenged the con...

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Alabama appeals court: Death sentence law constitutional

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0cj4foQQ9iYo_TfYh-9kaL6PFIPvGdkeEmy0rn9RPT6mSi2Ekr1WnS_YhY6WqnX1VuhP0v4JMLYo4rCoML_NraPN5NfcIa1QEEvjkflREs_z2hj8nohOTxO9zmZbtwyUTBwxVM7V41AU/s1600/Alabama.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0cj4foQQ9iYo_TfYh-9kaL6PFIPvGdkeEmy0rn9RPT6mSi2Ekr1WnS_YhY6WqnX1VuhP0v4JMLYo4rCoML_NraPN5NfcIa1QEEvjkflREs_z2hj8nohOTxO9zmZbtwyUTBwxVM7V41AU/s320/Alabama.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">An Alabama appeals court on Friday ordered a Jefferson County judge to vacate her rulings earlier this year that declared the state's capital punishment sentencing scheme unconstitutional.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In its order the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals says the state's capital sentencing scheme is constitutional and told Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge Tracie Todd to vacate her March 3 order in the pending capital murder cases of four men that says otherwise.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Alabama Attorney General's Office had filed four petitions for a writ of mandamus asking the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals to direct Todd to vacate her orders and allow the state to decide whether to seek imposition of the death penalty in those cases if it decides.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The cases involve Kenneth Eugene Billups, Stanley Brent Chapman, Terrell Corey McMullin, and Benjamin Todd Acton who were all indicted for various counts of capital murder. Chapman and McMullin are charged in the same case and the others in separate cases.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Before their trials, the men each filed a motion to bar imposition of the death penalty in their cases and to hold Alabama's capital-sentencing scheme unconstitutional based on the United States Supreme Court's decision in January declaring Florida's death sentencing system unconstitutional.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Todd agreed and declared the capital murder sentencing law unconstitutional in a 28-page order.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The Alabama capital sentencing scheme fails to provide special procedural safeguards to minimize the obvious influence of partisan politics or the potential for unlawful bias in the judiciary," Todd stated in her ruling. "As a result, the death penalty in Alabama is being imposed in a "wholly arbitrary and capricious" manner."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Court of Criminal Appeals, however, said Friday that the state's capital sentencing law is constitutional.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Alabama's capital-sentencing scheme is constitutional under (U.S. Supreme Court rulings) Apprendi, Ring, and Hurst, and the circuit court (Todd) erred in holding otherwise and prohibiting the State from seeking the death penalty in capital-murder prosecutions," the appeals court opinion on Friday states.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="http://www.al.com/news/birmingham/index.ssf/2016/06/alabama_appeals_court_death_se.html" target="_blank">Click here to read the full article</a></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: AL.com, Kent Faulk, June 17, 2016</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">- Report an error, an omission:<a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com" target="_blank"> deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a></span> <span style="font-size: small;"> </span> <span style="font-size: small;"> - Follow us on <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> </b>and <b><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b></span></div></div>

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Delaware court considers constitutionality of death penalty

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNx0tLl_qWhCjsGyUsEhBMItMO-eOhThs2rJGk8A8qvEoigUcyY_ab0v0aL2pKOiVgd5fOxAbgnYdqsFv3L3qIIIsRipizvZtFG0aKHaJ6pDkdI3lb8kR7KbpDAm7_vdChOhDR00uWQ3Y/s1600/Delaware.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Welcome to Delaware" border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNx0tLl_qWhCjsGyUsEhBMItMO-eOhThs2rJGk8A8qvEoigUcyY_ab0v0aL2pKOiVgd5fOxAbgnYdqsFv3L3qIIIsRipizvZtFG0aKHaJ6pDkdI3lb8kR7KbpDAm7_vdChOhDR00uWQ3Y/s320/Delaware.jpg" title="Welcome to Delaware" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A silent vigil was held outside the Delaware Supreme Court as the court weighs the constitutionality of capital punishment in Delaware.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The ongoing debate over Delaware's death penalty has made its way to the state's highest court.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">For nearly a year, the discourse has drawn protests and emotional pleas at Legislative Hall, but the issue, now sitting squarely before the Delaware Supreme Court, drew a much more pensive tone in a Dover courtroom on Wednesday, as the court heard arguments over whether the way people are sentenced to death in Delaware is constitutional.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The quandary before the court arose after the U.S. Supreme Court found in January that Florida's death penalty law was unconstitutional because it gave judges - not juries - the final say to impose a death sentence. Delaware and Alabama are the only other states that allow judges to override a jury's recommendation of life. Delaware judges, however, have not been using that power.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Confusion over the rulings implication in Delaware led the state's Supreme Court to agree to hear arguments and weigh in.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In front of a packed courtroom Wednesday, a prosecutor argued to the Supreme Court that the state's death penalty process avoids the pitfalls that made Florida's statute infirm, especially since juries make the initial decision about whether a defendant is eligible for the death penalty in Delaware. A public defender countered that the state violates the Sixth Amendment when juries are routinely told that their sentencing decision is merely a recommendation.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The most basic tenant of the [Florida] decision is that fact finding subjecting the defendant to the death penalty must be made by the jury," said Assistant Public Defender Santino Ceccotti "That does not occur in this state."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Delaware is 1 of 32 states with capital punishment. The last execution in the state was in 2012, when Shannon Johnson, 28, was killed by lethal injection.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">All pending capital murder trials and executions for the 14 men on death row are currently on hold while the state considers the constitutionality issue.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The process for sentencing someone to death in Delaware requires multiple steps. Once a person is found guilty of 1st-degree murder, the jury must unanimously agree that the evidence shows beyond a reasonable doubt that a least once of 22 statutory aggravating factors exists.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Then, each juror has to decide whether the aggravating factors outweigh the mitigating factors. That decision does not need to be unanimous, and the judge is not bound by those findings. The judge then has the final authority in sentencing someone to death.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On Wednesday, Deputy Attorney General Sean Lugg argued that Florida's death penalty process looks similar to an older version of Delaware's statute that existed before the General Assembly in 2002 changed it in response to another court ruling. The more recent ruling was a way to get Florida in line with the prior decision, Lugg said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ceccotti countered that legislative change is still needed for Delaware's law to pass constitutional muster. Delaware Supreme Court Chief Justice Leo E. Strine Jr. repeatedly questioned how, if the court were to find the statute unconstitutional, would the legislature write a new statute with a judge still involved in any aspect of the sentencing.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ceccotti responded, saying that to be in line with the Florida decision, the fact finding can not be in the hands of judges.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Florida and Alabama are also still grappling with the U.S. Supreme Court decision.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Last week, the Florida Supreme Court heard arguments over whether the death penalty statute lawmakers in Florida hurriedly passed after the January decision is now acceptable. Like Delaware, Florida's new law requires juries to unanimously determine at least one aggravating factor before defendants are sentenced to death. Alabama has been far less willing to act, but the U.S. Supreme Court has told the Alabama appeals court multiple times recently to reconsider its statute.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The state court's future decision will be significant for Delaware. A bill to abolish the death penalty failed in the state House of Representatives earlier this year, but instead of filing a motion for reconsideration of the bill, the bill's sponsors said in March they would suspend legislative action until the Delaware Supreme Court rules.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Abraham J. Bonowitz, Delaware's death penalty abolition coordinator for Amnesty International, said at a silent vigil with about 15 people outside the Supreme Court building Wednesday that the court's decision could help toward the goal of abolishing the death penalty.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"All of us here are praying that the Delaware Supreme Court finds ... that the death penalty is unconstitutional," he said. "And then it will be on the legislature to fix it, rather than end it. We should be able to stop a fix as it's always easier to stop bad legislation than to pass progressive legislation."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: delawareonline.com, June 15, 2016</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">- Report an error, an omission:<a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com" target="_blank"> deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a></span> <span style="font-size: small;"> </span> <span style="font-size: small;"> - Follow us on <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> </b>and <b><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b></span></div></div>

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A silent vigil was held outside the Delaware Supreme Court as the court weighs the constitutionality of capital punishment in Delaware. The ...

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Death penalty chaos around the country

<div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimYBP1BQaJwUCowTHuxQQorJRyiEcc6q7eX0TUJ5lX96FIQnguLq0khhNt3iMnMeazKt88AopltRg1vzEKFVywVEU6Mo_MSYp2OksGSjgLRUookvEU7xLU-b3cOwTFUuAO5F3ef2KECjY/s1600/death+penalty+eliminated.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="313" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimYBP1BQaJwUCowTHuxQQorJRyiEcc6q7eX0TUJ5lX96FIQnguLq0khhNt3iMnMeazKt88AopltRg1vzEKFVywVEU6Mo_MSYp2OksGSjgLRUookvEU7xLU-b3cOwTFUuAO5F3ef2KECjY/s400/death+penalty+eliminated.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>Nevada just became the ninth death penalty state to go a decade or more without an execution. Add those nine to the 19 states without capital punishment, and you have 28 states that have abandoned executions in either law or practice.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">And in the remaining states? The death penalty is in complete chaos.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Florida’s death penalty law has already been thrown out twice in 2016. The first ruling came from the U.S. Supreme Court in January. The Florida legislature then passed a “fix” to the law, and last month a Miami judge threw it out again. Alabama’s death penalty law is similar to Florida’s, and the Supreme Court sent a death sentence back for review for the third time this week because of those similarities.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Meanwhile, prosecutors in Georgia have come under fire for illegally keeping African Americans off the jury in a death penalty case. The Supreme Court overturned the sentence with a vote of 7-1. The defendant is one of many black men sentenced to die by an all-white jury across the south.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Lethal injection debacles continue as states struggle to find drugs, hide their processes in secrecy, or carry out executions with outright “systemic ineptitude.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Oklahoma is back at the heart of the lethal injection controversy. A grand jury released 106 pages of scathing critiques last month, citing “inexcusable failures” in the state’s execution process. According to the Washington Post, the grand jury:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“…paints these officials as careless and, in some cases, reckless. The missteps described by the grand jury include a pharmacist ordering the wrong drug for executions, multiple state employees failing to notice or tell anyone about the mixup and a high-ranking official in the governor’s office urging others to carry out an execution even with the incorrect drug.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The same secrecy and lack of oversight found in Oklahoma is common in other states, too, and has contributed to execution problems in Missouri, Georgia, and Ohio.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">And now Pfizer, the last remaining, FDA-approved supplier of lethal injection drugs, declared it no longer wants to be in the execution business. Pfizer announced sweeping new restrictions on the distribution of some if its drugs, preventing them from being used in executions.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The last death penalty holdouts show that the only way to have a death penalty is to accept bias, ineptitude, and arbitrariness. It’s only a matter of time before the death penalty is gone for good.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: <a href="http://ejusa.org/death-penalty-chaos-around-the-country/" target="_blank">Equal Justice USA</a>, Sarah Craft, June 7, 2016</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">- Report an error, an omission:<a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com" target="_blank"> deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a></span> <span style="font-size: small;"> </span> <span style="font-size: small;"> - Follow us on <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/Death-Penalty-News-206848499362906/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> </b>and <b><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b></span></div></div>

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Nevada just became the ninth death penalty state to go a decade or more without an execution. Add those nine to the 19 states without capita...

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For third time in 5 weeks, Supreme Court tells Alabama to reconsider death row case

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt5FO0j8E1rsTkzmdmm6hpLcjW8kBGxdEcQGWYNCrB-dJm_ZrnNuRuIB0Q27AP-Z6ZJgA8Je6wPRwhonre3KpMgL2X_3-rf-kR14vlC0cD06shE2tqcv1q8XYbPj3HZyhRfh-kK70YIIU/s1600/judge-gavel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt5FO0j8E1rsTkzmdmm6hpLcjW8kBGxdEcQGWYNCrB-dJm_ZrnNuRuIB0Q27AP-Z6ZJgA8Je6wPRwhonre3KpMgL2X_3-rf-kR14vlC0cD06shE2tqcv1q8XYbPj3HZyhRfh-kK70YIIU/s400/judge-gavel.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">For the 3rd time in 5 weeks, the U.S. Supreme Court has told an Alabama appeals court to reconsider an Alabama death row inmate's appeal in light of the Supreme Court's ruling earlier this year striking down Florida's capital punishment scheme.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">2 Alabama attorneys said Monday that the moves by the high court indicate justices may be looking at striking down Alabama's death sentencing scheme as unconstitutional.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Personally, I think it's crystal clear the Supreme Court has real concerns about the constitutionality of our current death penalty and is clearly putting us on notice of that fact," said Birmingham attorney John Lentine.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Bryan Stevenson, executive director and founder of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, also stated in an email to AL.com on Monday that "we believe it's now very clear that the U.S. Supreme Court recognizes that Alabama's death penalty scheme is called into question following the Court's ruling in <i>Hurst v. Florida</i> earlier this year. There have been serious flaws in Alabama's process of imposing the death penalty for several years and state courts are going to have to now confront these problems."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The court granted review of the case of Alabama death row inmate Bart Johnson, vacated the judgment, and sent the case back to the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals for review</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday remanded the case of Alabama Death Row inmate Ronnie Kirksey back to the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals for reconsideration of his appeal in light of the Hurst v. Florida decision in January.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The U.S. Supreme Court last month had also ordered the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals to reconsider its decision in the appeals of Corey Wimbley and Bart Johnson in light of the Florida case.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Wimbley was convicted in Washington County and sentenced to death in the death of 55-year-old Connie Ray Wheat at a grocery store in Wagarville. Johnson was convicted and sentenced to death in Shelby County for the 2009 slaying of Pelham police officer Philip Davis.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Kirksey, of Gadsden, was convicted in the death of 23-month-old Cornell Norwood. The jury in 2010 found Kirksey guilty and unanimously recommended he be sentenced to death. The judge agreed and sentenced Kirksey to death.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">At issue with Alabama's death penalty scheme is that Alabama permits judges to override a jury's recommendation for a life sentence and impose death. Alabama was 1 of only 3 states that allowed such an override. The others were Florida and Delaware.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Legislators in Florida's legislature re-wrote its capital punishment sentencing law this spring.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Jefferson County Circuit Judge Tracie Todd in March ruled in 4 of her capital murder cases that Alabama's capital punishment sentencing scheme is unconstitutional based on the Hurst case. The Alabama Attorney General's Office has appealed Todd's ruling.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The decision was spurred by the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in January that Florida's sentencing scheme allowing judges to override juries in death penalty cases is unconstitutional. Alabama has a similar sentencing scheme.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A number of attorneys around the state have challenged on behalf of their clients the constitutionality of Alabama's capital murder sentencing scheme based on the Florida ruling. All but Todd, however, denied those requests.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">District attorneys and Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange have said Alabama's law is not the same as Florida's.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">First, Alabama's sentencing scheme was ruled constitutional in 1995 by the U.S. Supreme Court, state prosecutors say. They also have pointed out that the high court held in the Florida case that a jury must find the aggravating factor in order to make someone eligible for the death penalty. Alabama's system already requires the jury to do just that, according to an Alabama Attorney General's statement.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: al.com, June 8, 2016</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">- Report an error, an omission:<a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com" target="_blank"> deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a></span> <span style="font-size: small;"> </span> <span style="font-size: small;"> - Follow us on <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/Death-Penalty-News-206848499362906/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> </b>and <b><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b></span></div></div>

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For the 3rd time in 5 weeks, the U.S. Supreme Court has told an Alabama appeals court to reconsider an Alabama death row inmate's appeal...

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U.S. Supreme Court to Hear Two Major Death Penalty Cases

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7XMgC_pg63z89Vkq5D_5-dexwvW118-hqVXU97xzM_Zdny_LO2ILwLqwBKbWNeNJND-hko1ol5qbLV1GNI04Ubb9raASvRxbHR87HV4od0CKOE2aOHng6D-3nhU7qMbnxRfhBGpfMto8/s1600/US+Supreme+Court.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7XMgC_pg63z89Vkq5D_5-dexwvW118-hqVXU97xzM_Zdny_LO2ILwLqwBKbWNeNJND-hko1ol5qbLV1GNI04Ubb9raASvRxbHR87HV4od0CKOE2aOHng6D-3nhU7qMbnxRfhBGpfMto8/s320/US+Supreme+Court.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear two cases raising major questions about the death penalty, including whether executing a condemned inmate more than 35 years after he was sentenced to death violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">That case, <i>Moore v. Texas</i>, No. 15-797, concerns Bobby J. Moore, who has been on death row since 1980 for shooting and killing an elderly Houston supermarket clerk, James McCarble, during a robbery. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mr. Moore’s case also raises questions about whether Texas uses outdated standards in assessing whether a defendant’s intellectual disability was severe enough to bar his execution.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The second case, <i>Buck v. Stephens</i>, No. 15-8049, concerns the role race may play in capital sentencing. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Duane Buck was convicted of the 1995 murders of a former girlfriend and another man. Texas law allows death sentences only if prosecutors can show the defendant poses a future danger to society.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">During the trial’s sentencing phase, Mr. Buck’s lawyer presented testimony from a psychologist who said that race is one of the factors associated with future dangerousness. I</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">n their petition seeking Supreme Court review, Mr. Buck’s new lawyers said his trial lawyer had been ineffective and that Mr. Buck’s death sentence was infected by racial bias.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/07/us/politics/supreme-court-to-hear-two-major-death-penalty-cases.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a>, Adam Liptak, June 6, 2016</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">- Report an error, an omission:<a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com" target="_blank"> deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a></span> <span style="font-size: small;"> </span> <span style="font-size: small;"> - Follow us on <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/Death-Penalty-News-206848499362906/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> </b>and <b><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b></span></div></div>

Inadequate counsel Inordinate delay Mental retardation mentally incompetent inmates Race SCOTUS Texas USA U.S. Supreme Court to Hear Two Major Death Penalty Cases

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear two cases raising major questions about the death penalty, including whether executi...

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