Equal Justice Initiative

On Monday, May 18, 2009, the United States Supreme Court granted Alabama death row prisoner Holly Wood's request for review in Wood v. Allen (No. 08-9156).

On Friday, May 8, 2009, EJI attorneys filed a motion asking the Alabama Supreme Court to stay the execution of Willie McNair because of questions about the validity of his sentence. Mr. McNair’s execution currently is scheduled for Thursday, May 14, 2009.

On Monday, April 13, 2009, EJI attorneys filed a motion asking the Alabama Supreme Court to stay the execution of Jimmy Dill, currently set for Thursday, April 16, 2009, because of unique and important problems in his case.

On Wednesday, April 1, 2009, the Supreme Court reversed the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Harbison v. Bell and held that federal law authorizes appointing counsel for indigent state death row prisoners seeking clemency. At issue was a federal statute that provides appointed counsel to indigent state death row prisoners when they appeal their convictions and sentences in federal court, and whether seeking clemency from state officials was covered by that statute.

The United States Supreme Court will hear oral argument next week in Caperton v. Massey about whether West Virginia Supreme Court Justice Brent Benjamin violated the Constitution when he cast the deciding vote in favor of his campaign contributors, who spent $3 million to get him elected to the appellate court.

Fast Company expert blogger Alice Korngold identified the Equal Justice Initiative as a Top Ten nonprofit organization.

Photo by Steve Liss

In oral argument at the Delaware Supreme Court in Dover on February 4, 2009, EJI's Bryan Stevenson argued that the court should strike down as unconstitutional life imprisonment without parole sentences imposed on fourteen-year-old children. EJI represents Donald Torres, who was sentenced to die in prison in Delaware for an offense that occurred when he was just fourteen years old.

The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed today that Alabama death row inmate Glenn Holladay cannot be executed because he is mentally retarded. EJI's Bryan Stevenson orally argued the case before the Eleventh Circuit in Atlanta last April. The decision makes Mr. Holladay the first death row prisoner in Alabama to win, over the State's opposition, a claim that the Constitution prohibits his execution because of his mental retardation.

After nearly thirty years on the bench, federal district court judge U.W. Clemon has announced that he will retire at the end of this month. Judge Clemon, 65, is the first African American to serve as a federal judge in Alabama.

On January 23, 2009, EJI won a ruling from the Alabama Supreme Court establishing that Alabama prisoners are entitled to credit towards their sentences for time spent incarcerated. The decision came in the case of former Alabama death row prisoner Wesley Quick and holds that Mr. Quick will get credit for the time he spent on death row before he was exonerated.