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.

Today, the United States Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal filed by EJI which asks the Court to extend protections for children sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. In Jackson v. Hobbs, the Arkansas Supreme Court upheld a death-in-prison sentence imposed on a 14-year-old who was convicted of an unintentional killing where he was not the triggerman. In Miller v. Alabama, an Alabama appeals court upheld a sentence of life imprisonment without parole imposed on a 14-year-old convicted of intentional murder. Both sentences were mandatory and did not permit any consideration of the juvenile’s age or adolescent status.

The United States Supreme Court this week denied the Florida Attorney General's request for review in Ian Manuel's case, upholding the Florida Court of Appeal's decision that juveniles convicted of attempted murder cannot be sentenced to life imprisonment without parole.

The American Law Institute, an independent organization composed of 4000 prominent judges, lawyers, and legal scholars working to clarify, modernize, and improve the law, has called for banning the use of life imprisonment without parole for juveniles. Its new model code requires consideration of the child's age and reduced sentences for juveniles prosecuted in adult court.

Ronald Evans was sentenced to life in federal prison with no possibility of parole for drug offenses that occurred in Norfolk, Virginia, when he was 17. EJI last week won the right to challenge Ronald's sentence as a violation of the Supreme Court's decision in Graham v. Florida, which bans life-without-parole sentences for juvenile nonhomicide offenders.

Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley Jr., known as the "West Memphis Three," were 18, 16, and 17 years old, respectively, when they were arrested for killing three young boys in Robin Hood Hills, Arkansas, in 1993. Mr. Echols, a self-described Wiccan who wore all black and listened to heavy metal, was convicted and sentenced to death. Mr. Misskelley, a mentally challenged youth from whom police obtained a confession after a 12-hour interrogation, and 16-year-old Jason Baldwin, were sentenced to life imprisonment. All three consistently asserted they were innocent. On August 19, 2011, after new forensic testing showed that DNA evidence at the crime scene did not match any of the three, they appeared in court and continued to maintain their innocence while pleading guilty in exchange for time served.

Residents of Uniontown, Alabama, in rural Perry County filed a civil rights complaint last week against the Alabama Department of Environmental Management for permitting the Arrowhead Landfill - located in a majority-African American community - to take coal ash and other waste from majority-white communities that is hazardous to residents' health.

Business and economic development leaders in Alabama have joined calls for reform of the state's immigration law after a Tuscaloosa police officer arrested a Mercedes-Benz manager because he did not have his driver's license with him. The arrest of a German executive from the company that launched Alabama's thriving auto industry and is poised to expand its sizeable operations in Tuscaloosa County has prompted some lawmakers to acknowledge that the law has had "unintended consequences" and needs reform.

The Department of Justice is investigating whether Alabama's new immigration bill is denying children equal access to public education based on their immigration status, in violation of federal anti-discrimination and civil rights laws. Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange responded to the inquiry by questioning the Justice Department's legal authority to monitor and enforce federal law.

The State of Alabama continues to deny the right to vote to citizens who have served and completed sentences for felony convictions. Alabama's disenfranchisement rate of one in 14 residents is triple the national average.

A new investigative report published by The Huffington Post has generated national attention about guard-on-inmate violence in Alabama prisons. Last year, Rocrast Mack was brutally beaten to death by prison guards at Ventress Correctional Facility. The new report documents a history of violence by some of the officers involved and inadequate responses by state officials to staff violence directed at inmates.

The Justice Department announced today that Scottie T. Glenn, a former correctional officer at Ventress Prison in Alabama, pleaded guilty in federal court to civil rights and conspiracy charges arising from the beating death of inmate Rocrast Mack.

The State of Alabama continues to deny the right to vote to citizens who have served and completed sentences for felony convictions. Alabama's disenfranchisement rate of one in 14 residents is triple the national average.

The Alabama Attorney General has announced that former correctional lieutenant Michael Anthony Smith was arrested today for the murder of inmate Rocrast Mack at Ventress Correctional Facility in Barbour County on August 4, 2010.

Kilby Correctional Facility in Mt. Meigs, Alabama, has violated the civil rights of an inmate by prohibiting him from receiving Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II, EJI has charged in a civil rights lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama.

The United States Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered a new trial for Juan Smith, who was convicted of first-degree murder after New Orleans prosecutors illegally failed to disclose evidence that the prosecution's key eyewitness told police he could not identify anyone involved in the crime.

This week a federal court ruled that Alabama death row prisoner Billy Joe Magwood has been illegally sentenced to death and is now entitled to relief. The ruling from the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit comes after Mr. Magwood spent over three decades on Alabama's death row for the 1979 shooting death of an Alabama law enforcement officer. State and federal courts denied relief to Mr. Magwood for years until the United States Supreme Court ruled in 2010 that the case required closer review.

Manuel Valle spent 33 years on death row in Florida before he was executed on September 28, 2011, at the age of 61. In a dissent from the United States Supreme Court's decision not to review his case, Justice Stephen Breyer wrote, "I have little doubt about the cruelty of so long a period of incarceration under sentence of death."

The State of Alabama continues to deny the right to vote to citizens who have served and completed sentences for felony convictions. Alabama's disenfranchisement rate of one in 14 residents is triple the national average.