Capital Punishment
North Carolina v. Robinson
A North Carolina judge found intentional and systemic discrimination by state prosecutors against African-American potential jurors in capital cases and commuted the sentence of death-row prisoner Marcus Robinson to life in prison without the possibility of parole in April 2012. The decision is currently under appeal.
View Case
Learn About Capital Punishment
All Cases
60 Capital Punishment Cases

Arkansas
Apr 2017
Capital Punishment
Lee v. Kelly
Ledell Lee has filed a motion in federal court asking the court reopen his case due to the breakdown in counsel over his decades of review, particularly the failure of counsel to bring evidence of his intellectual disability. Lee has presented new evidence showing that he has fetal alcohol syndrome disorder, significant brain damage, and intellectual disability. These facts were concealed by the line of counsel plagued with conflicts of interests, substance abuse, serious mental illness, and gross incompetence.
Explore case
Arkansas
Apr 2017

Capital Punishment
Lee v. Kelly
Ledell Lee has filed a motion in federal court asking the court reopen his case due to the breakdown in counsel over his decades of review, particularly the failure of counsel to bring evidence of his intellectual disability. Lee has presented new evidence showing that he has fetal alcohol syndrome disorder, significant brain damage, and intellectual disability. These facts were concealed by the line of counsel plagued with conflicts of interests, substance abuse, serious mental illness, and gross incompetence.

Arkansas
Apr 2017
Capital Punishment
Ledell Lee v. State of Arkansas
Ledell Lee, an innocent man who had been on Arkansas death row since 1995, was executed on April 20, 2017, despite overwhelming evidence that he was intellectually disabled, evidence that had never been considered by any court due to two decades of repeated failures by the attorneys charged with protecting his life. In 2002, the Supreme Court outlawed the death penalty for people with intellectual disabilities, noting that they 鈥渋n the aggregate face a special risk of wrongful execution,鈥 Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U.S. 304.
Explore case
Arkansas
Apr 2017

Capital Punishment
Ledell Lee v. State of Arkansas
Ledell Lee, an innocent man who had been on Arkansas death row since 1995, was executed on April 20, 2017, despite overwhelming evidence that he was intellectually disabled, evidence that had never been considered by any court due to two decades of repeated failures by the attorneys charged with protecting his life. In 2002, the Supreme Court outlawed the death penalty for people with intellectual disabilities, noting that they 鈥渋n the aggregate face a special risk of wrongful execution,鈥 Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U.S. 304.

U.S. Supreme Court
Mar 2017
Capital Punishment
Moore v. Texas
Whether Texas is violating the Constitution by using a test to determine intellectual disability in death penalty cases that is inconsistent with both Supreme Court precedent and science.
Explore case
U.S. Supreme Court
Mar 2017

Capital Punishment
Moore v. Texas
Whether Texas is violating the Constitution by using a test to determine intellectual disability in death penalty cases that is inconsistent with both Supreme Court precedent and science.

U.S. Supreme Court
Mar 2017
Capital Punishment
Davila v. Davis
Whether, in federal habeas review of a Texas death sentence, procedural default of an ineffective assistance of appellate counsel claim may be excused when the cause of the default is initial-collateral review counsel鈥檚 own ineffectiveness.
Explore case
U.S. Supreme Court
Mar 2017

Capital Punishment
Davila v. Davis
Whether, in federal habeas review of a Texas death sentence, procedural default of an ineffective assistance of appellate counsel claim may be excused when the cause of the default is initial-collateral review counsel鈥檚 own ineffectiveness.