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Panel: Jurors Should Decide the Fate of Killers
An article in support of juries having the final say in death penalty cases. Says that judges should not have the ability to overrule a jury decision.
NACDL Co-Sponsors Death Penalty Conference
The article describes the Annual Capital Punishment Conference and the issues it deals with. It also tells of the Conference's lack of funding and how the NACDL (National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers) stepped in to sponsor the event. The…
Individual Rights and Responsibilities
An article about various bills and interests that the Committee on Individual Rights and Responsibilities in the Florida Bar supports.
Capital-Case Judges' Override Powers Trouble Lawyer
Attorney Jim Green supports a bill filed by Rep. James Burke that would overturn Florida's law which allows judges to issue death sentences against juries' recommendations.
Future executions hinge on Supreme Court case
This newspaper clipping is an article detailing how the undecided nature of the Supreme Court case, Lockhart v. McCree, has allowed Mello to successfully appeal for stays of execution for two of his clients on death row.
Court Refuses to Grant Delay in Execution
This source is about a man named Aubry Dennis Adams, who was given the death penalty after being convicted of murder. Mike Mello was his defense attorney, and was attempting to get Adam's case reheard on the grounds that the jury was biased.
Lawyers Argue Over Executing Young Slayers
An article on the execution of juveniles in the state of Florida by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Escambia Cases Show Examples
News article describing the death penalty, judicial override, and examples from past cases that had examples of these issues.
Florida Challenged on Determining Sanity of Condemned Inmates
Determining whether a person is competent to be executed should be left to judges and not governors. Psychiatrists have no real guidelines for examining the competence of a death row inmate.
Florida kills Viet Nam vet in electric chair
David Funchess was the first U.S. Vietnam Vet to be executed by a state.
Graham's gratitude
An article about Florida Gov. Bob Graham's speech at the dedication of the Vietnam memorial and how Graham ignored the last wishes of David Livingston Funchess, a veteran convicted to the electric chair.
Lynch law justice
A magazine article that discusses the United States Supreme Court's decision on attorneys' usage of peremptory challenges for minority jurors when the defendant is also a minority.
Death Row: Last Skirmish
A magazine article that discusses capital punishment in America and how lawyers are trying to get rid of it.
'Death court' creates bottleneck of execution appeals, critics say
A newspaper account of the frustration felt by death penalty advocates at the slow appeals process, which they felt played into death row inmates motivation to extend their lives using drawn out appeals. The focus is on the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of…
Second ruling, had it come earlier, may have saved some inmates, ex-public defender says
An article about a 1987 U.S. Supreme Court decision that allowed Florida courts to consider additional mitigating circumstances in death penalty cases.
Gridlock on Death Row
This Newsweek article uses the failed death row appeal of Warren McClesky by the Supreme Court to bring up complicated issues surrounding capital punishment. Writers argue that the Supreme Court and most in the legal system admit there is racial bias…
Slotnick for the Defense
An article about Bary Slotnick, defender of the subway vigilante.
Mistake Nearly Cost A Life
Joseph Green Brown alias "Shabaka," a wrongly convicted rapist and murder on death row for 14 years, released in 1987, now struggles to enjoy his freedom while he lives in a society that he believes is a failed justice system that has prejudice…