An Innocent Man May Die Because of Illogical Deadlines
The U.S. Supreme Court will soon be hearing a case that will impact whether Texas executes Rodney Reed for capital murder— though another man has confessed to the crime.
Molly Greene Oct 05, 2022
Here’s How You Can Help People After Roe
Resources from organizations that have spent decades helping people access abortions and defending people who are criminalized for their pregnancy outcomes.
Meg O'Connor Jun 24, 2022
What To Expect Now That Roe’s Been Overturned
Most abortion bans criminalize providers by making it a felony to perform an abortion. But experts say people who obtain abortions can and will be criminalized for their pregnancy outcomes — they already have been even while Roe was still in place.
Meg O'Connor Jun 24, 2022
Supreme Court Overturns Roe, Opening Door for Mass Criminalization of Abortion
Police and prosecutors will now be tasked with enforcing state anti-abortion laws.
Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg Jun 24, 2022
Anti-Abortion Group Urges States to Pass Sweeping Criminalization Laws Post Roe
Model state legislation proposed by a leading anti-choice group would impose felony charges for a broad new set of activities related to abortion.
Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg Jun 22, 2022
Without Roe, Prosecutors Will Be The Abortion Police
Prosecutors across the country could soon be tasked with enforcing abortion laws that require people to reproduce against their will.
Meg O'Connor Jun 01, 2022
What Would the End of Roe v. Wade Mean for Pregnancy Behind Bars?
A Supreme Court decision overturning the constitutional right to an abortion could force thousands of incarcerated people to carry pregnancies to term.
Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg May 05, 2022
Georgia’s Unique Death Penalty Law Is Killing the Mentally Disabled
Georgia is the strictest state in America when it comes to proving intellectual disability in capital cases. This month, the Supreme Court could save the life of a man who says he is mentally disabled—or let the state kill him.
Lauren Gill Feb 23, 2022
His Attorneys Say He’s Intellectually Disabled. A ‘Reform’ Prosecutor Wants The Death Penalty
State Attorney Melissa Nelson is pushing for a death sentence even as more prosecutors reject capital punishment.
Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg Jan 22, 2021
Advocates Call On Biden To Change the Narrative on Immigration and Then Change Policy
President-elect Biden has a tough road ahead in reversing the Trump administration’s damage to the immigration system. Advocates say they’ll make sure he fulfills his promises.
Liz Robbins Dec 17, 2020
Supreme Court’s Decision To Bar Restrictions On Religious Services In New York Is An Ominous Sign
The Court’s willingness to infer discrimination against Judeo-Christian religions from poorly articulated remarks that accompanied a public health response to COVID-19 may make other laws and policies vulnerable to claims of religious discrimination as well.
Leah Litman Dec 09, 2020
Joe Biden Has to Be More Than the Man Who Defeated Trump
A Democratic president who politely listens to progressive rhetoric while failing to act on it is one who just watches the planet burn a little more slowly.
Jay Willis Nov 12, 2020
Mondaire Jones Is Bringing the Fight Against Systemic Racism to Congress
Jones has vowed to support expansion of the Supreme Court, back the Green New Deal, and push for criminal justice reform.
Lauren Gill Nov 04, 2020
Amy Coney Barrett’s Record on Criminal Justice Is ‘Deeply Troubling,’ Reform Advocates Say
In the midst of a national debate about changing the criminal legal system, Barrett is set to take a lifetime seat on the U.S. Supreme Court. Advocates see her addition as a potential setback to creating a more fair system.
Joshua Vaughn Oct 22, 2020
Democrats Could Flip the Ohio and Michigan Supreme Courts
Shifting control of the states’ highest courts next month will prove critical on a number of major issues, including redistricting in 2021.
Joshua Vaughn Oct 15, 2020
Abortion Could Be Criminalized in Arizona if Roe v. Wade Gets Overturned
The state’s pre-Roe abortion ban includes mandatory prison time for people who provide or obtain abortions. Candidates for top prosecutor in Maricopa County differ on whether they would prosecute such cases.
Meg O'Connor Oct 15, 2020
Federal Judges Were Once All Reliably Bad On Prisoners’ Rights Issues. COVID-19 Changed That.
President Trump has appointed a quarter of active federal appellate judges, and they have decisively hampered legal efforts to force prisons and jails to address the coronavirus.
Samuel Weiss Oct 06, 2020
Yes, Pack The Court – Pack It With Public Interest Lawyers
No intellect or doctrine can overcome a judiciary inclined to favor government and the powerful against the accused and the vulnerable. And that is the federal judiciary we now have.
Matthew Segal Sep 28, 2020
Expanding the Supreme Court Is Not ‘Radical’
Rebalancing the nation’s highest court is a reasonable, proportionate response to a system that failed a long time ago.
Jay Willis Sep 25, 2020
U.S. Executes Lezmond Mitchell Over Objections Of The Navajo Nation
It’s the first time in modern history that the federal government has executed a Native American for a crime committed against another Native American on tribal land, his attorneys say.
Lauren Gill Aug 26, 2020
Conservatives Are Winning The Supreme Court’s Most Important Fight: Suppressing The Vote
Enabling widespread voter suppression is shaping up to be the Roberts Court’s most consequential accomplishment, because every other aspect of the Republican agenda depends on it.
Jay Willis Jul 24, 2020
U.S. Completes Second of Three Executions Set for This Week
In a 5-4 ruling early today, the Supreme Court cleared the way for the lethal injection of Wesley Ira Purkey. Lawyers had argued that killing Purkey, who had dementia associated with Alzheimer’s disease, would represent cruel and unusual punishment.
Lauren Gill Jul 16, 2020
U.S. Government Carries Out The First Execution Of A Federal Prisoner in 17 Years
A late-night Supreme Court ruling cleared the way for the execution of Daniel Lewis Lee, despite his claims of innocence and his attorneys’ belief that DNA testing could show he was wrongly convicted.
Lauren Gill Jul 14, 2020
Supreme Court Blocks Trump Administration From Ending DACA, Handing A Win To ‘Dreamers’
The ruling thwarts the administration’s attempt to deport nearly 700,000 immigrants who were brought to the United States as children.
Liz Robbins Jun 18, 2020
DACA Workers Are Saving COVID-19 Patients’ Lives While Worrying About Their Own
The Supreme Court will soon decide the fate of 650,000 so-called Dreamers across the country. Lawyers say terminating protections for them during a pandemic would be ‘catastrophic.’
Liz Robbins Apr 24, 2020
Coronavirus: Voting And Abortion Rights Imperiled
People in nearly every state are under some form of a stay-at-home order because of the COVID-19 pandemic. But today in Wisconsin, residents must decide whether they want to protect their health or participate in democracy. The state’s Democratic governor tried to postpone in-person voting in the presidential primary and local elections, but Republican legislators and a […]
Sarah Lustbader Apr 07, 2020
Professors Propose A ‘Defender General’ To Level The Playing Field
State court is where everyday criminal justice gets meted out. Generally speaking, if you’re arrested for robbery, or assault, you’re getting arrested by local police and prosecuted in a state court, under state law. What does it matter what happens in fancy federal courts across the country? And what could be less relevant to the […]
Sarah Lustbader Jan 30, 2020
Decades-old Protections For Protesters Are In Jeopardy
After protests over the police shooting of Alton Sterling, DeRay Mckesson, the Black Lives Matter activist, was sued by a police officer.
Vaidya Gullapalli Dec 11, 2019
Louisiana Prosecutors Push To Retain Nonunanimous Jury Verdicts
In 2018, the state’s voters approved a constitutional amendment that requires unanimous jury verdicts in felony cases for crimes committed on or after Jan. 1, 2019. Now, the Supreme Court is considering the constitutionality of the nonunanimity rule—with prosecutors arguing that the U.S. Constitution does not require unanimous jury verdicts in criminal cases.
Joshua Vaughn Nov 15, 2019
Harmless Error: Explained
Under a legal doctrine called “harmless error,” appellate judges routinely affirm convictions tainted by legal error whenever they feel confident that the person appealing the conviction is guilty.
Gabe Newland Nov 11, 2019
Court-Packing Is The Tip Of The Iceberg
Spotlights like this one provide original commentary and analysis on pressing criminal justice issues of the day. You can read them each day in our newsletter, The Daily Appeal. At last night’s debate, the most sustained conversation about the courts was about the possibility of court-packing. Which is a fine thing to discuss, considering how effectively […]
Sarah Lustbader Oct 16, 2019
A Discriminatory Rule Even Justice Kavanaugh Opposes
Spotlights like this one provide original commentary and analysis on pressing criminal justice issues of the day. You can read them each day in our newsletter, The Daily Appeal. This week, the Supreme Court appeared ready to rule against convictions by nonunanimous juries. The Court heard arguments in Ramos v. Louisiana, a case that challenged the […]
Sarah Lustbader Oct 10, 2019
Spotlight: Scalia Called Stevens’s Evolution ‘Arrogance.’ It was the Opposite.
Just about every year while they were on the bench, the Supreme Court Justices John Paul Stevens and Antonin Scalia would take each other on. “These contests reflect the temperaments of the two men—Stevens’s cautious balancings against Scalia’s caustic certainties,” wrote Jeffrey Toobin for the New Yorker in 2010. Two years prior, in Baze v. Rees, the justices […]
Sarah Lustbader Jul 18, 2019
The Appeal Podcast: Qualified Immunity, A Roadblock to Reform
With Appeal contributors Amir H. Ali and Emily Clark of the MacArthur Justice Center
Adam H. Johnson Jun 20, 2019
For Some Local Prosecutors, the Post-Roe World is Already Here
As the potential demise of Roe v. Wade looms, past and current prosecutions of pregnant women illustrate what lies ahead.
Rebecca McCray Aug 10, 2018
How Criminal Justice Reformers Should Confront Justice Kennedy’s Retirement
First, look to local prosecutor elections.
Angela J. Davis, Whitney Tymas Aug 03, 2018
What Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court Would Mean for Criminal Justice
Trump’s pick to replace Justice Kennedy would most likely undermine the rights of criminal defendants and stall progress on solitary confinement, prisoners’ rights, and the death penalty.
Kyle C. Barry Jul 13, 2018
Lawsuit Tests the Supreme Court’s ‘Immunity Protection Program’ for Police Officers Who Kill
On May 23, 2013, Khari Illidge, a 25-year-old Black man in Lee County, Alabama, was face down and hogtied, with a 385-pound police officer kneeling on his back, when he suddenly went limp and a mixture of white froth and blood seeped from his mouth. Sheriff’s deputies had confronted Illidge while he was running in […]
Kyle C. Barry May 25, 2018
Houston Conviction and Death Sentence Goes to U.S. Supreme Court
Court watchers believe Justices will side with plaintiff
Larry Hannan Nov 04, 2017
When “Ambiguity” Can Mean Life in Prison
A Louisiana man’s request for a “lawyer dog” was deemed unclear by the state’s Supreme Court.
Rebecca McCray Oct 31, 2017