Equal Justice Initiative

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 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 17, 2008, the Alabama Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision in the case of Anthony Ray Hinton, who has spent over 20 years on Alabama's death row for crimes he did not commit. The court ruled that the case must be sent back to the trial court to make findings about whether Mr. Hinton received the expert assistance to which he was entitled.

The federal Judicial Conference Committee on Defender Services recently released a preliminary Update on the Cost, Quality, and Availability of Defense Representation in Federal Death Penalty Cases focusing on the cost of legal representation in federal death penalty cases.

On September 17, 2008, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals struck down Alabama prisoner Herbert Williams's death sentence because his appointed lawyers failed to investigate and present basic facts about Mr. Williams and his life history, especially the extreme abuse inflicted on him as a child. The court also directed the federal district court to address the merits of Mr. Williams's claim that the prosecutor unconstitutionally excluded African Americans from his jury.

In a decision released on Friday, September 5, 2008, the Alabama Supreme Court reaffirmed that juror misconduct claims may be raised for the first time in a Rule 32 petition.

The Dhamma Brothers documents the stories of inmates at the maximum-security Donaldson Correctional Facility in Bessemer, Alabama, as they enter into an intensive 10-day Vipassana meditation retreat. EJI supported the project and the film, which is now being screened across the country.