Newsletter: May, 2020

Friday, May 29, 2020

Our newsletters are sent to members at the end of every month. They are composed of articles (usually US death penalty-themed) written by members for members.

We publish an abbreviated version here shortly after it is sent out. If you'd like to write for the newsletter and support us, click here to become a member.

Texas inmates on death row file lawsuit over prison conditions during COVID-19
On 1st May 2020, the Texas Innocence Network filed a class-action motion to join a lawsuit against the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ). The motion is on behalf of 208 inmates, currently held at the Allan B. Polunsky Unit in Livingston, Texas... Read more by becoming an Amicus Member

Despite a moratorium placing a pause on executions in Pennsylvania, an execution date is set for sniper Eric Frein
Eric Frein was convicted and given the death penalty in September 2014 after an ambush outside the Blooming Grove state police barracks in north-eastern Pennsylvania, during which he murdered Corporal Bryon Dickson II and badly wounded another trooper... Read more by becoming an Amicus Member

Case of Louisiana's Corey Williams to be focus of latest 'Death Row Stories' episode
HLN’s ‘Death Row Stories’ is a TV show that “explores the fallibility of the ultimate criminal penalty, capital punishment” and takes a deeper look into the stories of those affected in the United States. In a recently aired episode, the focus was on Corey Williams of Shreveport, Louisiana, a 16-year-old, intellectually disabled boy… Read more by becoming an Amicus Member

Judicial enforcement of constitutional rights in Texas
A study conducted by Eric Freedman and David Dow at the University of Houston Law Center has highlighted the decline in ‘judicial enforcement of constitutional rights in Texas death penalty cases’. The study used the recent increase in Supreme Court challenges to the Texas Court of Appeals to illustrate the declining enforcement of prisoners’ constitutional rights… Read more by becoming an Amicus Member

US dishonors Navajo with death penalty
Lezmond Mitchell is the only Native American on federal death row. He is one of five federal inmates, who had their executions scheduled in July of last year after the US government reintroduced the federal death penalty... Read more by becoming an Amicus Member

The execution of Walter Barton
Walter Barton was executed in the State of Missouri on the 19th April 2020, after 29 years of trials and appeals. Of his five trials, the first led to a deadlocked jury, and the third and fourth led to convictions that were overturned due to prosecutorial misconduct... Read more by becoming an Amicus Member