Marion Wilson’s life began in instability and violence long before it ended in a Georgia execution chamber. His case is often remembered for the crime that brought him to death row, but its legal significance lies elsewhere—in what the courts concluded could not be shown about his life, and what that failure ultimately cost him….
Florida has been on an execution spree—not of carrying out death sentences, but of handing them out. In recent years, the state has systematically expanded capital punishment, adding new eligible offenses including sexual abuse of children, mandating automatic death sentences for undocumented immigrants convicted of capital crimes, and reducing the jury threshold from unanimous to…
When people think about post-conviction litigation in criminal cases, they often think of claims of actual innocence — efforts to prove that someone who was wrongfully convicted did not commit the crime at all. But a different and equally important type of claim focuses not on innocence, but on fairness — whether the defendant received…