Attorneys for Scott Panetti, a man with severe mental illness who has spent nearly 20 years on death row in Texas, are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to consider once again whether he is incompetent to be executed.
Category: U.S. Supreme Court
On July 21, 2014, eight retired federal and state judges petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to accept an appeal from Rodney Reed, who is scheduled to be executed on January 14, 2015. Among them are Royal Ferguson of Texas, a retired federal judge appointed by President Bill Clinton, and Judge Charles Baird, who served eight years on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and four years as a state district judge in Austin.
Today marks 38 years since the United States Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty and paved the way for the resumption of executions. The Court’s decision in Gregg vs. Georgia on July 2, 1976 found that the new death penalty laws of several states (including Texas) “promised” to make the process fairer and less arbitrary.
Today, attorneys for Robert James Campbell, who is scheduled to be executed at 6 pm CT tonight in Texas, filed a stay motion and an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court asking the Court to address the constitutionality of the secrecy surrounding Texas’ lethal injection drugs, particularly in light of the recent horrific botched execution in Oklahoma. Mr. Campbell seeks information about the source and testing of the drugs Texas plans to use in his lethal injection execution.
The State of Texas carried out the execution of Tommy Lynn Sells this evening, after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected his last appeal. Sells was convicted of killing thirteen-year-old Kaylene Harris […]
Despite serious questions about the compounded drugs obtained by Texas, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to stop tonight’s scheduled execution of Michael Yowell. The State of Texas proceeded with the execution, and Yowell was pronounced dead at 7:11 PM.
*Updated June 4, 2013* According to the Associated Press, the U.S. Supreme Court has ordered the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to review six Texas death penalty cases – […]
This afternoon, October 18, 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to consider a review of the case of Anthony Haynes, who was scheduled to be put to death today for the […]