Equal Justice Initiative

Philip Alston, United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, visited EJI on June 24, 2008, as part of his official visit to the United States this month. Today he released a statement calling on the United States to ensure that the death penalty is applied fairly and justly in states like Alabama.

The United States Supreme Court ruled today in Kennedy v. Louisiana that the death penalty is unconstitutional for crimes that did not result, and were not intended to result, in the victim’s death. The decision struck down a Louisiana law that permitted imposition of the death penalty for rape of a child under age twelve.

On May 26, 2008, United Nations Special Rapporteur on racism Doudou Diene heard testimony from EJI Executive Director Bryan Stevenson as part of his field mission to examine racism in the United States. Mr. Stevenson detailed evidence of racial bias against African Americans, Latinos, and other racial minorities, from the administration of the death penalty to the treatment of children in the criminal justice system.

The State of Alabama has moved for execution dates for four Alabama death row prisoners since the United States Supreme Court ruled last month that Kentucky's lethal injection procedure does not violate the Constitution.

The Equal Justice Initiative examined death sentences imposed in Alabama counties since 1978 and found surprising differences between counties in the rate of sentencing people to death.

On April 8, 2008, EJI Executive Director Bryan Stevenson testified before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary's Subcommittee on the Constitution on "The Adequacy of Representation in Capital Cases." Using specific cases involving drunk, abusive, inexperienced and underfunded trial and appellate lawyers, he illustrated how inadequate legal representation undermines the reliability and fairness of convictions and sentences in death penalty cases.

On Monday, March 24, 2008, Oklahoma death row prisoner James Fisher won reversal of his capital murder conviction and death sentence because his trial counsel's performance failed to meet constitutional requirements.

On Monday, March 24, 2008, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri reversed the conviction and sentence of life imprisonment without possibility of parole imposed on Phillip Shaw for a crime that occurred when he was 14 years old.

Today on Pacifica Radio, Executive Director Bryan Stevenson talked about EJI's work to challenge the sentencing of 13- and 14-year-old children to life imprisonment without the possiblity of parole. EJI has identified dozens of young children sentenced to die in prison in 19 states across the country. The United States is the only country in the world to sentence children as young as 13 to imprisonment until death. Click to listen to the interview.

On March 17, 2008, EJI asked the United States Supreme Court to review the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals' decision denying relief to Eli Crawford, an Alabama inmate serving a life sentence for attempted murder. At his Birmingham trial, Mr. Crawford's court-appointed trial lawyer did not object when the judge forced Mr. Crawford to wear jail-issued clothing instead of the clothes his family brought for him, even though the Supreme Court has repeatedly held that a defendant's right to be presumed innocent is violated when he is forced to attend trial in a jail uniform.