Equal Justice Initiative

The United States Supreme Court on January 23, 2012, denied the State of Alabama's request for review in the case of Thomas Lane, who was granted a new trial by the Alabama appellate courts because he was denied his right to counsel.

Delaware Governor Jack Markell last week accepted a recommendation from the state Board of Pardons to commute Robert Gattis's death sentence to life in prison without parole. Gov. Markell, a supporter of the death penalty who rejected clemency petitions from two death row inmates when he sat on the pardons board, announced on January 17, 2012, that the execution scheduled for Friday, January 20, would not go forward.

The United States Supreme Court today held that Alabama death row prisoner Cory Maples cannot be denied federal court review of his conviction and death sentence because his volunteer lawyers abandoned him during state court proceedings. In a decision describing Alabama's failure to provide adequate counsel in capital cases, the Court found that Mr. Maples could not be blamed for his lawyers' failure to file a notice of appeal, concluding that "no just system would lay the default at Maples’ death-cell door."

New reports show that death sentences across the nation dropped dramatically in 2011. Executions also continued to decline. And in many states there is a growing discomfort with the death penalty as evidence continues to emerge about its high cost and unreliable imposition. Alabama, in contrast, continues to impose death sentences and carry out executions at a high rate.

Two recent decisions raise new questions about the ability of states to legally and humanely carry out executions using lethal injection. On December 20, 2011, the European Union announced new restrictions on the export of drugs used for lethal injection in the United States. And on December 9, 2011, a California judge ruled that the state's lethal injection protocol was invalid.