Equal Justice Initiative

Federal appellate Judge Boyce F. Martin Jr. has joined other state and federal judges in calling for renewed consideration of whether the death penalty is “worth what we are sacrificing to maintain it.” In an April 14 concurring opinion, the longtime judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit emphasized “how expensive the death penalty really is” and how little “the public is getting for its money.”

The United States Supreme Court today decided that it will review the case of Joe Sullivan, who was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole in Florida for an offense at age 13 that did not involve a killing.

On April 30, 2009, a California appeal court struck down a life imprisonment without parole sentence imposed on Antonio Nunez, a 14-year-old child convicted of aggravated kidnapping. The court declared the sentence to be cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment and the California Constitution.

On April 21, 2009, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama found that Alabama death row inmate Kenneth Thomas is mentally retarded and vacated his death sentence.

In an online poll by the Birmingham News last week, 78.8% of respondents said Alabama should abolish the death penalty altogether.

A Birmingham circuit court judge has ordered DNA testing in the case of Alabama death row inmate Tommy Arthur to assist her in evaluating another person's confession to the crime for which Mr. Arthur was convicted and sentenced to death.

The State of Alabama executed Jimmy Dill on April 16, 2009, in spite of serious concerns that he did not receive the adequate legal assistance necessary to ensure a reliable conviction and sentence in his case.

Photo by Steve Liss

The Equal Justice Initiative recently filed challenges in several states to sentences to life imprisonment without possibility of parole imposed on children for offenses at age thirteen or fourteen. In spite of a major loss of funding, EJI lawyers have filed cases in Mississippi, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Delaware in the past several weeks.

Kenneth Frazier (left) won the release of James "Bo" Cochran, who spent 19 years on Alabama's death row for a crime he did not commit.

One year after Oklahoma death row prisoner James Fisher, with help from EJI, won reversal of his capital murder conviction and death sentence because his trial counsel's performance failed to meet constitutional requirements, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the grant of relief and remanded Mr. Fisher's case for a new trial.