The Supreme Court has just announced that it will hear two cases from Texas that could establish critical precedents in the administration of the death penalty in America.
One revolves around questions of racial bias, and the other addresses the treatment of intellectually disabled prisoners in the legal system. While the outcome of these cases may be complicated by the fact that the Supreme Court is still missing a justice, the court’s decision to review them reflects a growing interest in tackling the death penalty.
Just last month, the court ruled in another case that racial bias had tainted a defendant’s fair trial. Thirty years after his conviction, the man is finally free to pursue a new trial and one that will hopefully include an actual jury of his peers. The two new cases will probe more deeply into the nuances of the death penalty, which is still legal in 31 states.
The first case involves Bobby Moore, an intellectually disabled man who was found guilty of shooting a convenience store clerk and sentenced to death in 1980. He’s spent the ensuing 36 years in limbo on death row.
Moore’s attorneys argue that the state is applying an incorrect — and outdated — rubric for assessing his fitness for the death penalty. After all, the Supreme Court has already ruled that executing people with intellectual disabilities constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. They assert that were Moore to be reevaluated today, he would be found incompetent.
They also asked the court to take on the fact that Moore sat in prison for nearly 40 years without a resolution — especially given that he spent roughly half that time isolated in solitary confinement.
While the court originally agreed to hear that aspect of the case, it later reversed the decision — though several justices have said that the issue of solitary confinement should be considered in the court in the near future.
In the second case, that of Duane Buck, the court will address another question of racial bias. In Buck’s sentencing phase, psychologist Dr. Walter Quijano was asked to testify with respect to Buck’s “future dangerousness.” The following exchange between the witness and the prosecution illustrates why the case has been brought to the Supreme Court:
“You have determined that the sex factor, that a male is more violent than a female because that’s just the way it is, and that the race factor, black, increases the future dangerousness for various complicated reasons. Is that correct?”
“Yes.”
In Texas, where future dangerousness is a consideration in whether someone can be sentenced to death, testimony like this makes the difference between life and death for a defendant. Blatantly stating that an offender is more likely to reoffend because of his gender and race is clearly discriminatory — or at least, that’s what Buck’s attorneys hope to prove before the Supreme Court.
By accepting death penalty cases, the court indicates that it may consider increasing the restrictions on eligibility for the death penalty.
While some cases are clearly miscarriages of justice, they can also be used to establish precedents that will narrow instances in which the death penalty is legal. Justices like Ruth Bader Ginsburg have made comments in the past that suggest they’re also interested in exploring the constitutionality of the death penalty itself — a move that could have a profound impact on American jurisprudence.
States across the country may reconsider whether they wish to apply the the death penalty, but a Supreme Court ruling could abolish the practice entirely, as it did very briefly in 1972.
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
Last week, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy