Equal Justice Initiative

On Monday, October 20, 2008, EJI Director Bryan Stevenson will argue to a panel of the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta that Alabama death row prisoner Earl McGahee deserves a new trial because prosecutors eliminated jurors at his trial on the basis of race.

Next week, EJI Director Bryan Stevenson will argue in the California Court of Appeal on behalf of Antonio Nunez, who was sentenced to life imprisonment without possibility for parole for his involvement at age fourteen in a kidnapping offense in which no one was injured.

The federal Judicial Conference Committee on Defender Services recently released a preliminary Update on the Cost, Quality, and Availability of Defense Representation in Federal Death Penalty Cases focusing on the cost of legal representation in federal death penalty cases.

EJI has released a short preview version of the upcoming film, Cruel and Unusual: Sentencing 13- and 14-Year-Old Children to Die in Prison.

On September 17, 2008, EJI attorneys filed a complaint in Montgomery County Circuit Court alleging that the State of Alabama's application of the Community Notification Act's adult sex offender residency and notification requirements against Andrew Miller, a mentally retarded, visually impaired, and physically disabled man, violate his and his family's constitutional rights.

On September 17, 2008, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals struck down Alabama prisoner Herbert Williams's death sentence because his appointed lawyers failed to investigate and present basic facts about Mr. Williams and his life history, especially the extreme abuse inflicted on him as a child. The court also directed the federal district court to address the merits of Mr. Williams's claim that the prosecutor unconstitutionally excluded African Americans from his jury.

On Thursday, September 11, 2008, EJI Director Bryan Stevenson will testify before the United States House of Representatives Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security during hearings on H.R. 4300, the Juvenile Justice Accountability and Improvement Act.

In a decision released on Friday, September 5, 2008, the Alabama Supreme Court reaffirmed that juror misconduct claims may be raised for the first time in a Rule 32 petition.

The Dhamma Brothers documents the stories of inmates at the maximum-security Donaldson Correctional Facility in Bessemer, Alabama, as they enter into an intensive 10-day Vipassana meditation retreat. EJI supported the project and the film, which is now being screened across the country.

On August 29, 2008, Equal Justice Initiative attorneys filed a petition in the case of Alabama death row inmate Michael Carruth asking the Alabama Supreme Court to restore the right to counsel for death row prisoners on direct appeal.