McCleskey v. Kemp: 25 Years Later

FILM

“McCleskey – The Film”
Michael Albanese & Rachel McDonald, Producers
The compelling true story of Warren McCleskey, a history-making death-row inmate that changed the life of a young Georgia boy through letters and an unprecedented prison visit.

PUBLICATIONS AND REPORTS

The Death Penalty Failed Experiment: From Gary Graham to Troy Davis in Context
Diann Rust-Tierney, 2012, by McKinney & Associates
In the second edition of McKinney & Associates’ eBook series, The Death Penalty Failed Experiment: From Gary Graham to Troy Davis in Context, activist Diann Rust-Tierney passionately argues that race, wealth and geography play a greater role in determining who faces capital punishment than the crime itself.

The Delaware Death Penalty: An Empirical Study
Sheri Lynn Johnson, Cornell Law School; John H. Blume, Cornell Law School; Theodore Eisenberg, Cornell University – School of Law; Valerie P. Hans, Cornell University – School of Law; Martin T. Wells, Cornell University – School of Law; March 11, 2012
A study of the operation of Delaware’s death penalty in the modern era of capital punishment. This article is part of a symposium that honors David Baldus, a great scholar and great man, a quiet man with a strong passion for justice.

“The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness“
Michelle Alexander, 2010
The New Jim Crow is a stunning account of the rebirth of a caste-like system in the United States, one that has resulted in millions of African Americans locked behind bars and then relegated to a permanent second-class status—denied the very rights supposedly won in the Civil Rights Movement.

“Illegal Racial Discrimination in Jury Selection: A Continuing Legacy“
Equal Justice Initiative, June 2010
Nearly 135 years after Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1875 to eliminate racial discrimination in jury selection, people of color continue to be excluded from jury service because of their race, especially in serious criminal trials and death penalty cases. This EJI report is the most comprehensive study of racial bias in jury selection since the United States Supreme Court tried to limit the practice in Batson v. Kentucky in 1986.

IN THE MEDIA

“Study Finds Blacks Blocked From Southern Juries“
The New York Times, June 1, 2010
“… today, the practice of excluding blacks and other minorities from Southern juries remains widespread and, according to defense lawyers and a new study by the Equal Justice Initiative, a nonprofit human rights and legal services organization in Montgomery, Ala., largely unchecked.”

Editorial: “Justice in the Jury Box”
The New York Times, June 5, 2010
In 1986, when the Supreme Court reached a landmark decision forbidding prosecutors from routinely excluding blacks from juries without a good explanation, Justice Thurgood Marshall warned it would not end racial exclusions. Some prosecutors, he wrote in a concurring opinion, would simply invent phony reasons. The grim truth in Justice Marshall’s prediction is illuminated in a new study by the Equal Justice Initiative, a nonprofit legal advocacy group. It shows how pervasive racial exclusions remain, particularly in the South.

“Study Finds Blacks Excluded From Southern Juries“
NPR, June 10, 2010
The United States criminal justice system guarantees a jury of one’s peers. But a new study of eight southern states found that widespread racial discrimination persists in jury selection, particularly in criminal trials. Bryan Stevenson, executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, says prosecutors often cite reasons other than race, but the statistics tell another story. And Alabama resident Brenda Green says she has been booted from several juries because she is black.

“Justice Stevens and the Death Penalty“
The New York Times, Dec. 11, 2010
… the retired Justice John Paul Stevens makes a compelling argument for abolishing the death penalty. He explains how it fails to meet the Supreme Court’s own standards for execution and persists only because of misguided political and cultural reasons. … Hanging over all of this analysis is the issue of race. Justice Stevens is convinced that the death penalty has been applied so unfairly that it cannot be defended.