Equal Justice Initiative

The latest national Gallup poll on crime found that support for the death penalty in America is now at its lowest level in the past thirty years. From a high of 80% of Americans in favor of the death penalty in 1994, support dropped this year to 64%.

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Phillip Shaw is a free man today. He was released from prison in Missouri after his conviction and sentence to life imprisonment without parole -- for an offense at age 14 -- were overturned.

Analysis of votes cast for president on November 4, 2008, shows that the percentage of white Alabama voters who supported President-Elect Barack Obama was the lowest in the country, at only 10%.

The Maryland Commission on Capital Punishment, appointed by Governor Martin O'Malley to examine the state's death penalty, concluded on November 12, 2008, that Maryland's capital punishment system is too costly, makes too many mistakes, and fails to deter crime.

Election Day brought significant change to the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals. Two new judges were elected, and a third seat opened up when current criminal appeals judge Greg Shaw was elected to the Alabama Supreme Court.

On October 31, 2008, Equal Justice Initiative attorneys filed a brief in the Alabama Supreme Court on behalf of Alabama death row inmate Michael Carruth, in which it argued that Mr. Carruth is entitled to an out-of-time appeal because the lawyer appointed to represent him on the appeal of his conviction failed to file a mandatory petition for review in the Alabama Supreme Court.

On October 22, 2008, EJI's Bryan Stevenson argued in the California Court of Appeal for the Fourth District, Division Three, on behalf of Antonio Nunez, who was sentenced to die in prison for his involvement at age 14 in an offense that injured no one.

On October 21, 2008, EJI attorneys argued that the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals should order a new trial for death row prisoner David Wilson because the Houston County prosecutor at his trial illegally eliminated every black potential juror.

Racially discriminatory practices by Alabama prosecutors, including the elimination of African American jurors because they appeared to be of “low intelligence,” were examined by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Atlanta, Georgia, in oral argument on October 20, 2008. Bryan Stevenson argued on behalf of Earl McGahee, who was tried by an all-white jury in a majority-black county after the State excluded every African American from jury service.

On October 6, 2008, the Alabama Supreme Court agreed to review Wesley Quick's case, in which the Court of Criminal Appeals ruled that Mr. Quick was not entitled to any credit for over seven years he spent on death row before being acquitted of capital murder. In a brief filed on October 17, 2008, Equal Justice Initiative attorneys representing Mr. Quick argued that the Alabama Supreme Court should reverse the lower court's decision and get credit for the time he served in prison.