Legal Section
U.S. Supreme Court Holds Abuses by Louisiana Prosecutors Require New Trial
January 13, 2012The 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.
Alabama Man Wins Relief After 31 Years on Death Row
December 22, 2011This 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.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Says Lengthy Imprisonment Before Execution is Cruel and Unusual Punishment
November 16, 2011Manuel 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."
Disenfranchisement of the Formerly Incarcerated Remains Serious Problem in Alabama
November 14, 2011The 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.
African Americans Illegally Barred From Serving on Juries Sue Alabama Prosecutor Over Racial Discrimination
October 24, 2011On October 19, 2011, the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) filed a civil rights lawsuit contending that District Attorney Douglas Valeska has illegally excluded qualified African Americans from serving on Houston and Henry County, Alabama, juries in serious felony cases, especially capital cases, for decades. The lawsuit, filed on behalf of African Americans who were barred from serving on juries after being summoned to court, was filed in the federal district court in Montgomery, Alabama, and alleges violations of the U.S. Constitution and federal anti-discrimination laws.
EJI Wins New Trial for Minister Wrongly Convicted of Murder
October 3, 2011EJI won a ruling from the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals granting a new trial to Timothy Tillman, who was convicted of murder in the shooting death of his wife and sentenced to life in prison based on unrelated evidence that the State improperly used to shore up its weak case against him.
Appeals Court Orders New Trial For Death Row Prisoner
September 30, 2011The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals today reversed Montez Spradley's conviction and death sentence because the bulk of the State's evidence against him was improperly admitted, resulting in a "miscarriage of justice."
EJI Challenges Prison Officials for Banning Pulitzer Prize-Winning Book on Racial History
September 26, 2011Kilby 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.
Department of Justice and Alabama Churches File Lawsuits Against Alabama's New Immigration Law
August 2, 2011The United States Department of Justice yesterday filed a lawsuit challenging Alabama's extremely restrictive immigration law because it interferes with federal enforcement of immigration policy. "Today's action makes clear that setting immigration policy and enforcing immigration laws is a national responsibility that cannot be addressed through a patchwork of state immigration laws," said Attorney General Eric Holder. Earlier the same day, leaders of the Episcopal, Methodist, and Roman Catholic churches in Alabama filed a federal lawsuit to stop enforcement of the state's new immigration law, which when it goes into effect September 1 could criminalize ministry and service to known undocumented persons.
David Baldus, Author of Groundbreaking Study on Race and the Death Penalty, Dies
July 1, 2011David C. Baldus, a University of Iowa College of Law professor whose empirical research powerfully demonstrated racial bias in the application of the death penalty, has died.
