红杏视频

SACRAMENTO, Calif. 鈥� The 红杏视频 joined the growing chorus of calls to Gov. Newsom to commute all death sentences on California鈥檚 death row to life without parole at a press conference in Sacramento this morning hosted by the California Anti-Death Penalty Coalition. The call for commutations comes as the California Supreme Court considers a landmark petition filed in April 2024 by the 红杏视频, the 红杏视频 of Northern California, the Legal Defense Fund (LDF), Wilmer Hale, and the Office of the State Public Defender (OSPD) challenging the state's death penalty statute as racially discriminatory and unconstitutional under the Equal Protection guarantees of the California Constitution. The petition demonstrates that racial disparities in California鈥檚 implementation of the death penalty are persistent, pervasive, and well documented. Black people are about five times more likely to be sentenced to death when compared to similarly situated non-Black defendants, while Latino people are at least three times more likely to be sentenced to death. 鈥淭he evidence makes it abundantly clear that racial inequality infects every aspect of California's death penalty system,鈥� said Claudia Van Wyk, senior counsel at the 红杏视频鈥檚 Capital Punishment Project. 鈥淕ov. Newsom recognized this when he imposed his moratorium on executions, but systemic failures of this magnitude require more than a temporary pause. While the courts deliberate our legal challenge, executive clemency offers an immediate remedy. The governor must finish what he started and commute every death sentence.鈥� This week, the 红杏视频 released a report on discrimination in capital jury selection citing studies in states across the country, including California. Studies of capital trials in California find that Black prospective jurors and women are disproportionately excluded and selected jurors are skewed from the eligible juror population, resulting in juries are less likely to deliberate and more likely to convict. 鈥淎s the lawsuit we filed in 2024 makes clear, the stark racial disparities in the application of California's death-penalty system violate equal protection,鈥� said Neil Sawhney, director of appellate advocacy at the 红杏视频 of Northern California. 鈥淲hile we are hopeful that the California Supreme Court will rule in our favor, the governor can immediately remedy this unconstitutional discrimination through executive clemency.鈥� With 570 people on death row, California has the largest death row in the nation and one of the largest in the world. Two-thirds of those sentenced have been on death row for more than 20 years, with dozens having spent more than 40 years awaiting execution.

NEW YORK 鈥� The 红杏视频 released Fatal Flaws: Revealing the Racial and Religious Gerrymandering of the Capital Jury today, a report that exposes how the process of 鈥渄eath qualification鈥� warps juries in capital trials. Death qualification requires that jurors be willing to impose a death sentence to serve on a capital jury. Drawing on consistent studies from multiple states across the country, the report reveals how this process disproportionately excludes Black prospective jurors, women, and people of faith from serving in some of the most important cases heard in American courthouses. 鈥淭he Constitution guarantees that every person accused of a crime has the right to be tried by a jury of their peers, but that promise is by definition denied for people facing the death penalty,鈥� said Brian Stull, deputy director of the 红杏视频鈥檚 Capital Punishment Project. 鈥淒eath qualification systematically excludes prospective jurors based on their race, sex, and religion, violating their own rights to civic participation. The resulting juries do not reflect our communities, convict more frequently, and are composed to ignore evidence favoring a life sentence in violation of our Constitution. Justice depends on equal access to the jury box. We must demand and end to this cycle of discrimination and exclusion once and for all.鈥� Key findings from the report include: Death qualification disproportionately excludes Black prospective jurors. Black Americans, as a group, are more likely to oppose the death penalty due to the racist roots of the capital punishment system. As a result, this process disproportionately removes Black Americans from capital juries, and Black women at the highest rates of all. Death qualification unfairly excludes people of faith whose religious beliefs oppose capital punishment. Some religious groups, such as Quakers, Buddhists, and Catholics formally reject the death penalty and many others have expressed serious concerns with capital punishment. Studies across the country confirm that people of faith are disproportionately excluded from capital jury service, even though they can impose lawful verdicts on both conviction and sentence. Death qualification systematically excludes growing numbers of Americans from jury service. Changing views on the death penalty make the exclusionary effects of death qualification even more pronounced. At least 44 percent of Americans oppose the death penalty, meaning nearly half of the country is potentially disqualified from capital jury service. Death-qualified juries are more likely to convict and to ignore evidence in favor of life in violation of the Constitution. Death-qualified juries act differently than those that are not. They are more likely to convict, to ignore evidence favoring life over death, to be influenced by racial bias, and to deliberate less thoroughly. The report also urges state legislators to pass laws banning the exclusion of jurors opposed to the death penalty who can follow the law, calls on prosecutors to decline to death qualify jurors, and recommends that defense counsel mount challenges to death qualification by introducing evidence of its discriminatory effects. The full report can be found here: /publications/fatal-flaws-revealing-the-racial-and-religious-gerrymandering-of-the-capital-jury Learn more about the 红杏视频鈥檚 work challenging death qualification here: /news/capital-punishment/the-sinister-and-racist-practice-infecting-death-penalty-juries

KANSAS CITY, Kan. 鈥� After hearing a historic challenge to the constitutionality of the death penalty and the practice of death qualification, a Kansas trial court has issued a written order finding extensive and irredeemable defects in the application of the death penalty over the last 30 years. The court declined to rule on the ultimate questions regarding the constitutionality of the state鈥檚 death penalty and the practice of death qualification because the individuals who brought the challenge no longer faced the death penalty. In its opinion the court highlighted that: The death penalty is not a deterrent. 鈥淭he scientific community has found no reliable evidence of the death penalty being a deterrent to homicides.鈥� The death penalty is costly. 鈥淢ore than $4 million has been spent with the results being no death penalty sentences and zero executions.鈥� Racial bias infects capital prosecutions. 鈥淭he factors which distinguish death sentence cases from non-death sentence cases are the race and gender of the victim, and the race and gender of the defendant.鈥� Courts have been unable to ensure capital juries are free of racial bias. 鈥淸The legal framework for limiting discrimination in jury selection] is so flawed that it does not protect racial biases in jury selection and must be reformed, a fact known to Kansans for years.鈥� 鈥淚n each of the four cases where we raised this challenge in Kansas, none of our clients ultimately faced capital trials where the death penalty remained on the table,鈥� said Cassandra Stubbs, director of the 红杏视频鈥檚 Capital Punishment Project. 鈥淭hat is no coincidence. The evidentiary hearings have consistently exposed uncomfortable truths to state prosecutors, the courts, and the public about the deep flaws and injustices embedded in the death penalty system. While we are relieved that none of our clients have received death sentences, the systemic issues that these cases have brought to light persist. We remain committed to challenging the death penalty on behalf of people facing capital charges in Kansas, with the hope that state legislators will end the death penalty and make future legal challenges unnecessary.鈥� The 红杏视频, the 红杏视频 of Kansas, Democracy Forward, the Kansas Death Penalty Defense Unit, Hogan Lovells, and Ali & Lockwood represented two individuals, Hugo Villaneuva-Morales and Antoine Fielder, in their constitutional pre-trial challenges to the death penalty in Wyandotte County. Following extensive pre-trial litigation, including the weeklong evidentiary hearing challenging the death penalty, the cases were resolved without the death penalty. The state and Mr. Fielder entered into a plea agreement and Mr. Fielder was sentenced to life without parole. The prosecution tried Mr. Villanueva-Morales for capital murder but ultimately withdrew its request for the death penalty. Because the two men no longer faced the prospect of a capital sentence, the court declined to address the broader constitutional claims.

Mikal Mahdi鈥檚 life was marked by abuse. Today, as he awaits execution, the courts have the responsibility to acknowledge the systemic failures that shaped his path.