Inadequate Counsel
The failure to provide adequate counsel to capital defendants and death row prisoners is a defining feature of the American death penalty. Whether a defendant will be sentenced to death typically depends more on the quality of his legal team than any other factor. While some lawyers have provided outstanding representation to capital defendants, few defendants facing capital charges can afford to hire an attorney, so they are appointed attorneys who are frequently overworked, underpaid, and/or inexperienced in trying death penalty cases. In some cases, lawyers representing defendants in capital trials have slept through parts of trial, shown up in court intoxicated, and failed to do any work at all in preparation for the sentencing phase.
Alabama is the only state in the country without a state-funded program to provide legal assistance to death row prisoners. There is no state-wide public defender program in the state and, in some counties, defendants have been sentenced to death after trials where they were represented by a lawyer who did not meet even the minimum requirement of five years of criminal defense experience. Over half of the 200 people on Alabama’s death row were represented at trial by appointed lawyers whose compensation for out-of-court preparation was capped at $1000.
Unlike every other state in the country that uses the death penalty, Alabama does not provide legal assistance to death row inmates to challenge the inadequate representation they received at trial or other aspects of their conviction or sentence in post-conviction proceedings. EJI filed a class-action lawsuit challenging Alabama’s failure to provide counsel for Alabama death row prisoners for these critical appeals and continues to advocate for change in this area.
News
Alabama Supreme Court Holds Death Row Inmate Has Right to Prove His Postconviction Filing Should Be Considered
February 22, 2010Reasoning that a person who brings about a change in the law should be rewarded for his effort, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that death row inmate John Ward is entitled to a chance to prove that his state postconviction petition should be reviewed on the merits.
Based on Procedural Requirements, U.S. Supreme Court Upholds Death Sentence of Mentally Impaired Alabama Prisoner
January 20, 2010The United States Supreme Court today denied relief in Wood v. Allen, an Alabama case which asked the Court to address whether trial lawyers performed adequately when they failed to investigate and present evidence of mental retardation. The decision focused on the procedural rules that limit federal habeas corpus review and did not reach the merits of Mr. Woods's claim.
United States Supreme Court Reaffirms That Defense Counsel Must Investigate for Mitigating Evidence in Death Penalty Cases
December 1, 2009The United States Supreme Court reaffirmed this week in a case from Florida, Porter v. McCollum, that a defense lawyer must conduct a reasonable investigation to uncover mitigating evidence in preparation for a capital trial.
Former Alabama Death Row Inmate Herbert Williams Sentenced to Life Without Parole
November 24, 2009On November 12, 2009, Herbert Williams was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals struck down Mr. Williams’s death sentence last year after finding that his trial lawyer failed to provide effective representation because he did not investigate or present powerful evidence of abuse and psychological trauma at trial.
Alabama to Execute Max Payne Next Week, as States Across the Country Re-Examine Use of Death Penalty
October 1, 2009With state and local budget crises emerging and intensifying across the recession-wracked United States, jurisdictions are re-examining the death penalty's high price tag, growing evidence of unreliability and concerns about wrongful convictions. Alabama is a counter-example, as its execution rate increases and careful review of death penalty cases is being restricted.