ABA Journal

Death Penalty

1249 ABA Journal Death Penalty articles.

Death row prisoner treated as ‘guinea pig,’ Sotomayor dissent says

Justice Sonia Sotomayor complained in a dissent early Friday that the U.S. Supreme Court should not allow Alabama to treat a death row inmate as a “guinea pig” to test its lethal injection process.

Weekly Briefs: New ethics rule considered in Virginia; name partner launches new firm

Virginia proposes ban on agreements limiting ethics complaints

A proposed ethics rule in Virginia would ban lawyers from making agreements with clients or former clients that limit their right to…

Supreme Court stays execution of inmate who won support from Oklahoma AG

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday stayed the execution of an Oklahoma inmate after the state attorney general said he supported vacating the conviction.

Florida now has nation’s lowest death-penalty threshold; second bill allows execution of child rapists

Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday signed a bill that allows juries to recommend capital punishment with an 8-4 vote.

Texas death row inmate can pursue challenge to DNA testing procedure, Supreme Court rules

A Texas death row inmate didn’t wait too long to challenge the state law governing postconviction DNA testing, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in a 6-3 decision.

Jackson dissent: SCOTUS should have heard case of death-row inmate who didn’t get co-defendant’s confession

Arizona governor won’t carry out lethal injection, despite execution warrant by top state court

Democrat Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs said Friday her administration won’t carry out an execution to allow for a review of the state’s death-penalty protocols.

Lawyer for Black man on trial for murder referenced ‘justifiable lynching’ in trial note, petition says

Updated: Racism pervaded the Texas murder trial of a Black man to such an extent that one of his lawyers appeared to suggest that he deserved to be lynched, according to a Jan. 30 habeas petition.

Weekly Briefs: Legal jobs increase in January; 11th Circuit doesn’t rule out execution by firing squad

Legal industry adds 2,400 jobs

The legal services sector added 2,400 jobs in January, according to preliminary and seasonally adjusted figures released Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.…

Law prof stirs controversy with tweet calling Scalia ‘basically a klansman’

Updated: A professor at the Emory University School of Law is under fire after he tweeted that the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was “basically a klansman.”

2022 could be called ‘the year of the botched execution,’ new report says

Seven of 20 execution attempts in 2022 were “visibly problematic” in 2022, according to a year-end report by the Death Penalty Information Center.

Justice Jackson’s second SCOTUS opinion is also a dissent to court’s refusal in death-penalty case

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson has issued a second U.S. Supreme Court opinion that, like the first, disagrees with the court’s refusal to get involved in a death-penalty case.

Supreme Court declines to block 4 executions in 2 days; 1 inmate spared, for now, because of vein issues

The U.S. Supreme Court this week declined to block four executions over the course of two days, rejecting petitions claiming incompetence for execution, difficulty inserting intravenous lines, lack of a clear policy on religious rights and new exculpatory evidence.

Liberal Philadelphia DA is impeached by Pennsylvania House; what are the allegations?

The Pennsylvania House of Representatives voted to impeach progressive Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner on Wednesday in a vote that largely followed party lines.

Justice Jackson writes her first Supreme Court opinion, says justices should have heard death-penalty case

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote her first Supreme Court opinion Monday—a dissent from the high court’s refusal to hear a death-penalty case.

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