FRANKFORT, Ky. – On back-to-back days late last week, separate courts overturned convictions in two cases of men on Kentucky's death row.
Those reversals have amplified calls from critics of the state's death penalty system to at least place a moratorium on executions.
Retired law professor Linda Ewald was co-chair of an eight-person team of lawyers and retired judges that found a multitude of problems with Kentucky's death penalty system. The group’s American Bar Association report was issued in December 2011.
"I'm disappointed that the governor didn't suspend executions, although we haven't had an execution in many years," Ewald says.
In reversing the death penalty conviction of Michael St. Clair on Thursday, the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled evidence was "improperly admitted" during his trial. On Friday, a federal appellate court ruled in Roger Wheeler's case that a potential juror was "erroneously struck from the jury."
Ewald says the ABA report she coauthored uncovered 95 specific concerns about Kentucky's death penalty system.
"Well, I think it's a bit disconcerting that Kentucky has the death penalty and that we've assessed this in such a way to demonstrate that there are very serious problems in its administration," she states.
Ewald says she's encouraged by legislation (SB190) filed earlier this month by state Sen. Robin Webb, D-Grayson, which attempts to address lineups, interrogations, eyewitness testimony and biological evidence.
"I think it's a little misleading to say nothing has been done,” she says. “I think people are working on this. These are changes that are going to require legislation. They're going to require changes in court rules. They may require public hearings."
Ewald adds while Kentucky was at the forefront in passing a post-conviction DNA testing law, problems remain with how biological evidence is handled after a trial.
"Unfortunately, Kentucky doesn't have any uniform protocols for preserving and retaining evidence after a conviction,” she says. “And so, there's the risk that it's not being maintained properly. There's the risk that it's lost and won't be available. "
The ABA report called the system "broken and fatally flawed," but Ewald says it was not, in her words, "an abolition document."
She says the report did not address whether Kentucky should have a death penalty.
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Women are treated much differently than men by the criminal justice system, according to a new report detailing how and why mass incarceration is harmful to women in the U.S.
The report said nationwide, more than 190,000 women are behind bars, with the vast majority serving time in local jails.
Mike Wessler, communications director for the Prison Policy Initiative, said it includes about 29,000 women in Mississippi. He argued the system is particularly harsh toward women. One major challenge is receiving sufficient medical care.
"Women are frequently overdosed behind bars; they may have consumed drugs or alcohol at high level before they came to jail," Wessler noted. "And when they're there, the jails don't have the capacity to treat them. So, they often overdose or they detox without any assistance, and it costs them their lives."
Wessler pointed out about 82% of women who are entangled in the legal system are on probation or parole. The other 18% are in jail or prison. The Magnolia State has one of the higher incarceration rates, with more than 1,000 people per 100,000 residents behind bars.
Wessler emphasized around 58% of women who are incarcerated have minor children. Their families often cannot afford cash bail, which is one reason they are trapped in the legal system. Worse yet, he added, the women are typically the primary caregivers for their kids, which may cause their parental rights to be at risk.
"If you can't afford that, you're going to sit in jail until trial, and that can be months and months at a time, in which time you're likely to lose your job, lose your housing, lose custody of your children," Wessler outlined. "Women who are incarcerated don't make enough money to often pay that bail. The average bail in this country is about one year's salary for an incarcerated woman."
The report also echoed concerns about the stark racial disparities in locking people up. It said in Mississippi, white people are incarcerated at a rate of 386 per 100,000 residents. For Black people, the rate is 960.
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New York Gov. Kathy Hochul's five-point New York City subway safety plan is being met with backlash from some community advocates.
The plan calls for deploying National Guard troops to keep commuters safe. It comes after Mayor Eric Adams deployed an additional 1,000 police officers into the subways. Crime has heavily fluctuated on the subway since the pandemic but the moves come after a series of violent acts on several lines across boroughs.
Sala Cyril, organizer for the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, called the new plan "atrocious."
"It will increase racial profiling. It'll increase abuse. It'll increase the harassment of New Yorkers, and it won't make us safer," Cyril contended. "It creates a kind of terror in New Yorkers."
New York City police statistics show a 15% drop in crime from last year and from January to February 2024, 74 fewer crimes occurred on subways.
Cyril does not deny crime is a problem in the subway but feels there are more effective ways to create lasting results, including building more affordable housing and providing mental health services for those in need.
As a native New Yorker, Cyril believes Hochul's plan is similar to former Mayor Rudy Giuliani's "broken windows" approach to crime reduction; the strategy of addressing smaller crimes to make a bigger impact. The theory has often been challenged because crime remains in flux.
Cyril is concerned the presence of armed guards and policy alters a place of community for residents.
"People build community on the train. People feel connected to New York on the train," Cyril observed. "The kinds of things that change that are people having mental health issues, but being criminalized instead. People, you know, jumping the turnstile because they're poor and being criminalized."
Other elements of Hochul's plan include a new program bill permitting transit bans for people who've assaulted other passengers, adding new cameras to protect conductor cabs, and increasing the Subway Co-Response Outreach teams in the subway.
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A first-of-its-kind case in Johnston County could affect the futures of more than 100 people on death row in North Carolina. It's the Racial Justice Act case of Hasson Bacote.
Gretchen Engel, executive director of the Center for Death Penalty Litigation, said that what sets this hearing apart is that it's examining patterns and implications of racism in the death penalty for the entire state, rather than focusing solely on Bacote's individual case.
"This is a case that will allow the court to consider an unprecedented amount of evidence related to the question of whether the death penalty is administered fairly in North Carolina, or whether race affects who sits on the juries," she said.
Bacote was sentenced to death in 2007 for his role in a deadly robbery. Last week, Engel said, experts showed how racial disparities in jury selection disproportionately affect Black jurors across the state. This week, experts explored the history of the death penalty in North Carolina, and racism in Johnston County.
About 136 people are on death row in North Carolina; about 60% are people of color. According to the North Carolina Coalition of Alternatives to the Death Penalty, nearly half were sentenced by majority-white juries. By addressing the systemic issues that underpin capital punishment, Engel said, the evidence presented in this hearing could have far-reaching impacts.
"If the judge finds that there is discrimination across the state of North Carolina, not simply in Mr. Bacote's case," she said, "that could have implications for other people who are under sentence of death and residing on death row here in our state."
After Bacote's team presents its evidence, the state will present its case. North Carolina hasn't executed anyone since 2006 because of legal issues surrounding lethal-injection drugs. The governor is unable to schedule executions because of ongoing litigation related to the Racial Justice Act.
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