Equal Justice Initiative

Over the objections of two Justices of the Alabama Supreme Court, John Parker was executed today afer courts refused to review the trial judge’s decision to sentence him to death even though the jury overwhelmingly decided he should be sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. EJI lawyers recently filed papers on Mr. Parker’s behalf at the Alabama Supreme Court and the United States Supreme Court asking for a stay of the execution because the trial court improperly overrode the jury’s verdict. Over dissents from Chief Justice Sue Bell Cobb and Justice Champ Lyons, the Alabama Supreme Court denied a stay yesterday and the United States Supreme Court denied a stay this afternoon.

Alabama death row prisoner John Parker faces execution on June 10, 2010. EJI lawyers have filed papers in the Alabama Supreme Court asking the court to stay the execution because the trial court improperly sentenced Mr. Parker to death even though his jury decided he should be sentenced to life in prison without parole.

On May 27, 2010, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit upheld a federal district court's ruling that Alabama death row prisoner Kenneth Thomas is mentally retarded and cannot be executed pursuant to the United States Supreme Court's decision in Atkins v. Virginia, which held it is cruel and unusual to execute people who are mentally retarded.

The Alabama Supreme Court recently granted EJI's request for review of Esau Jackson's capital murder conviction and death sentence. The case raises serious questions about whether Mr. Jackson was wrongfully convicted because the State presented improper evidence and argument.

Following the United States Supreme Court's ruling on May 17 banning life imprisonment without parole sentences for children convicted of non-homicides, editorials and op-eds supporting the ban have appeared in newspapers across the United States.

Decision Called “A Significant Victory for Children”

(Montgomery, AL) The U.S. Supreme Court today issued an historic ruling in Graham v. Florida that holds life without parole sentences for juveniles convicted of non-homicide offenses unconstitutional. Terrance Graham, sentenced to life without parole at 17, is now entitled to a resentencing hearing. Dozens of other juveniles sentenced to life without parole are now entitled to relief, including Joe Sullivan, whose case also was argued on this issue.

Today, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution does not permit a juvenile offender to be sentenced to life in prison without parole for a nonhomicide crime. The ruling creates a new categorical rule that invalidates Joe Sullivan's sentence to life in prison without parole for a nonhomicide crime at age 13.

On April 30, 2010, Alabama Governor Bob Riley signed a new law that limits incarceration in Alabama's overcrowded prisons for people on probation who commit no new offense but technically violate the terms of their probation. The new law gives judges more non-incarceration options for addressing technical probation violations.

United States Supreme Court Associate Justice John Paul Stevens told a judicial conference audience that DNA testing has revealed that the risk of wrongfully convicting and sentencing an innocent person is increased in death-penalty cases.

EJI lawyers have filed a brief in the Mississippi Court of Appeals challenging the conviction and life sentence imposed on Dante Evans, who had just turned 14 years old when he was accused of murder. EJI argues that serious constitutional errors at Dante's trial, including the removal from his jury of people who would consider Dante's young age, require that his conviction and mandatory life sentence be overturned.