DP - Appeals

Before WW2, federal appeals were rare.

(indigent defendants, no legal help)

The two Scottsboro rulings in the 1930s were major exceptions (CPUSA attys)

(must have attorney, no all white juries)

DP - Appeals example

Feb 15, 1933, an Italian immigrant named

Giuseppe Zangara tried to assassinate Pres

Franklin D. Roosevelt in Miami, Florida - he

ended up shooting and wounding five people.

Two weeks later (March 3) one of those shot

(Anton Cermak, Mayor of Chicago) died.

17 days later (Mar 20) Zangara was executed

-- after two trials!!

DP - Appeals another example

The Sacco-Vanzetti case in Massachusetts in the 1920s was appealed for years.

(two radical immigrants falsely accused of a robbery - for political reasons )

They were eventually executed, too.

Appeals were almost never successful.

DP - Appeals

After World War 2

1950s

Numerous test cases relating to discrim -

one case at a time - appeals didn’t work.

Issues relating to sham trials were usually the basis of the appeals.

DP - Appeals

1960s

The Warren Court and “due process” revolution

Fed courts slowly intervening in criminal cases

Then they were flooded with cases by LDF

UGLY RACIST CASES

The DP quickly declined & execs ended

DP - Appeals

1970s

1972 - Furman v. Georgia

1976 - Gregg v. Georgia

Court promised to ensure fairness - by using appeals to oversee state DP systems.

** Habeas Corpus -- the “Great Writ”

** Colateral Review -- state & federal

DP - Appeals

1980s - morass of appeals stopped most executions under the new laws

States didn’t fix systems (racism and cost!)

More conservative Court refused to intervene

Result was “endless appeals” stalemate

DP - Appeals

1980s

Why “endless appeals”??

– Incompetent attorneys & sham trials

– Appeals and new evidence (better attorneys!)

– “Passing the buck” - collateral review shuffle

– (plus discrim, mistakes, and other issues)

DP - Appeals

1980s

In order to speed up appeals, Congress funded

a number of regional resource centers in the

1980s (eventually totalled 19 centers).

Lawyers at the centers won hundreds of cases (mainly because of sham trial problems).

Repub-dominated Congress de-funded the centers in 1996.

DP - Appeals

1988 - the Powell Committee

(biased comm apt by Renquist)

• “one bite at the apple”

• time limits for appeals judges

• appointed attys for appeals process

• opt-in by states

• IGNORED INADEQUATE TRIAL REP

DP - Appeals

1988 - ABA Committee

(honest comm with broad representation)

• one round of appeals

• longer time limits

• competent attys at both trial & appeals

DP - Appeals

Reports published in 1989 - and deadlock

• Democrats mostly supported ABA recs

• Republicans supported Powell recs

(appeals morass and gridlock continued)

DP - Appeals

1992 Bill Clinton elected

1994 Repub congress elected

1996 Compromise

“Anti-Terrorism and Effective DP Act”

(dp part based entirely on Powell Comm recs!!)

DP - Appeals

Reagan/Bush appointees on the Court

(by now very conservative and pro-DP)

“fast-tracked” and approved the Act

(Felker v. Turpin 1996)

States began to “opt-in” (mostly South)

DP - Appeals

BUT -

Remember the brilliant lawyers from the Moratorium Campaign - they were ready

** They challenged the opt-in process in the courts and tied that up in appeals!!

(basis was separation of powers)

Meanwhile the sham trials continued, death rows grew larger and larger, etc.

DP - Appeals

Then the bad publicity started to come in from

DNA testing - showed that there are many innocent

people on death rows.

A highly respected study from Columbia

Univ Law School refered to the whole DP

system as a “broken system.”

And discrimination remained rampant.

DP - Appeals

1997 - The ABA called for a moratorium on

executions until problems fixed.

ABA Report documented the whole range of

continuing problems.

DP - Appeals

After 2000 – a “Strange Irony”

Conservative pro-dp Republicans gained control of:

Presidency, Congress, most Federal courts, most state governors, and most state legislatures and courts

AND THE DP WENT INTO A RAPID DECLINE!!!

(dropping sentences, fewer exec, etc.)

WHY??

DP - Appeals

Dual impact of DNA?

Proved that mistakes are common – but offered

no solution to the problem – only about one

third of dp cases involve physical evidence.

Maybe more important, dna exonerations focused

attention on the “broken system” with its shoddy

trials and rampant class/race/ethnic discrim.

DP - Appeals

A broken system can’t stand scrutiny –

with few executions and only “inconclusive”

(and complicated!!) debates over problems

(like discrim, deterrence, etc.)

there is little public interest in the dp beyond

the abstract issue of “for or against”

With more execs and then the arrival of DNA

there is more attention and the flaws emerge

DP - Appeals

• The case of Illinois

• Outside the south in general

• The south (racism still driving force)

(but even here the dp seriously weakened)

“The classic death penalty case in Georgia remains a black person

prosecuted by a white district attorney before a white judge and an all-white jury for a crime against a prominent white person.”

Gary Parker, Georgia State Senator