Death Penalty

Cert petition says judge’s 89-page opinion was ghostwritten by prosecutors

An Alabama death-row inmate is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether federal courts may defer to an 89-page judicial opinion that was entirely ghostwritten by prosecutors. The state judge who adopted the ghostwritten opinion as his own didn’t even drop the word “proposed” from the title “Proposed Memorandum…

Jul 21, 2016 7:00 AM CDT

America’s 5 ‘deadliest’ prosecutors are named; is capital sentencing ‘personality driven’?

A report released on Thursday identifies the nation’s five “deadliest” prosecutors whose offices are collectively responsible for more than 440 death sentences in the last 40 years. The sentences obtained by the prosecutors represent about 15 percent of the current death row population, according to a press release announcing the…

Jun 30, 2016 11:40 AM CDT

ABA asks Supreme Court to review Virginia’s post-conviction process in capital case

The ABA is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case of a Virginia death-row inmate. The ABA wants the Supreme Court to review whether the state’s post-conviction process is adequate and when federal courts should defer to state court findings if no factual hearing is held, according to…

Jun 24, 2016 10:58 AM CDT

Louisiana governor signs law reallocating money from death penalty appeals to local public defenders

Amid high-profile problems with its indigent defense funding, the state of Louisiana is revamping how its existing funds are allocated. According to the New Orleans Times-Picayune, Governor John Bel Edwards signed a law on Monday that changes how Louisiana’s Public Defender Board allocates its funds. The law guarantees that at…

Jun 23, 2016 4:25 PM CDT

Case of law grad accused in slaying tests Delaware’s death penalty law

Corrected: The Delaware Supreme Court is considering the constitutionality of the state’s death penalty statute in a case involving a law grad accused of killing a former classmate. An assistant public defender, Santino Ceccotti, argued last Wednesday that the law should be struck down because it allows judges to weigh…

Jun 20, 2016 8:00 AM CDT

DA-turned-justice violated due process by refusing to recuse in inmate’s appeal, Supreme Court rules

Pennsylvania’s former chief justice created an unconstitutional risk of bias when he refused to recuse himself in the case of a death-row inmate, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in a 5-3 decision. Due process compelled the recusal of former Chief Justice Ronald Castille because he had approved the inmate’s…

Jun 9, 2016 10:22 AM CDT

Attorney who took over husband’s death-penalty case after he was killed is sued for malpractice

After a mentally ill man shot her husband to death outside his Kentucky law office in 2014, attorney Bethany Stanziano took over as lead counsel in a triple-murder case that Mark Stanziano had been handling. Now she is being sued for legal malpractice by Kenneth Allen Keith, following her withdrawal…

Jun 8, 2016 12:20 PM CDT

Supreme Court to consider standard used to evaluate death-row inmate’s intellectual disability

Revised and corrected: The U.S. Supreme Court agreed on Monday to consider the case of a Texas death-row inmate who claims the outdated medical standards used to evaluate his claim of mental disability violate the Eighth Amendment. The court granted cert in the case of Bobby James Moore, who was…

Jun 6, 2016 11:25 AM CDT

SCOTUS to consider case of death-row inmate whose case was ‘marred by racial overtones’

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to consider the case of a death-row inmate whose own defense expert testified he is statistically more likely to be dangerous in the future because he is black. At issue is whether the inmate, Duane Buck, was entitled a Certificate of Appealability to press…

Jun 6, 2016 10:41 AM CDT

Prosecutor is ‘pathologically enthralled’ with death penalty, motion says; ‘Death Row Marv’ is cited

A motion filed on behalf of a Georgia inmate contends the District Attorney who sent him to death row is “pathologically enthralled” with the death penalty. The motion filed on behalf of Rodney Young says DA Layla Zon pursues death sentences with zeal that is greater than any other DA…

Jun 6, 2016 6:10 AM CDT

Angry at killer’s lack of remorse, dad sprints across courtroom and makes flying leap, video shows

A wild courtroom scene was captured by a television news camera on Thursday, after the father of one of the victims of convicted Ohio serial killer Michael Madison turned to stare at the defendant during a victim impact statement at a sentencing hearing. “Right now, I guess we’re supposed to,…

Jun 3, 2016 9:10 AM CDT

Supreme Court refuses to consider constitutionality of death penalty; two justices dissent

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to hear a case contending that the death penalty violates the Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Justice Stephen G. Breyer dissented from the cert denial in an opinion (PDF) joined by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The same justices called for briefing…

May 31, 2016 9:43 AM CDT

US to seek death penalty in hate-crimes case against accused Charleston church shooter, Dylann Roof

Attorney General Loretta Lynch announced Tuesday that the United States will seek the death penalty in its hate-crimes case against Dylann Roof, the 22-year-old white man accused of gunning down nine people in a Bible study group at a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina, last year. Roof faces…

May 24, 2016 5:38 PM CDT

SCOTUS rules for black man who claimed prosecutors eliminated blacks from jury on basis of race

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled 7-1 on a behalf of a black man on death row who claimed Georgia prosecutors violated the Constitution by using their peremptory challenges to keep blacks off the jury. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote the majority opinion (PDF) finding prosecutors discriminated during…

May 23, 2016 9:36 AM CDT

Governor’s lawyer opposed execution stay despite drug mix-up, report says

The general counsel for Oklahoma’s governor opposed a last-minute stay of execution last September even though the doctor who was set to administer a lethal cocktail discovered a wrong drug was supplied, according to a grand jury report released on Thursday. The general counsel, Steve Mullins, told a deputy attorney…

May 20, 2016 7:38 AM CDT