• Briefs
• International Entities
• Guides
• General Resources
• General Statistics

The brief section is designed to provide practical examples of the legal arguments on a number of issues. Each brief/petition has been filed on behalf of a defendant who falls within one of the categories below. The general resources section is designed to provide general information on a number of topics. For resources regarding specific topics, please go to one of the following additional resource sections: juvenile, foreign nationals, or mental retardation.

• Briefs
• Juvenile

On March 1, 2005 in the case of Roper v. Simmons, the US Supreme Court, held in a 5-4 vote that the death penalty, as applied to those under eighteen years of age at the time of the crime, violates evolving standards of decency and is prohibited by the Eighth Amendment ban on "cruel and unusual punishment" of the US Constitution. For further information on the decision and context click here

• Napoleon Beazley (Amicus Curiae)
• Napoleon Beazley (Petition for Writ of Certiorari)
• Napoleon Beazley (Petition for Clemency)
• Beazley v. Johnson, Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, Amicus Curiae
• Ron Chris Foster (Petition for Writ of Certiorari-USSC)
• Scott Allen Hain (Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus - Trial Level)
• Scott Allen Hain - Petition for a Writ of Certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court (Habeas Corpus)
• Hector Huertas (Motion to Preclude)
• Toronto Markkey Patterson (Petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights)
• Christopher Simmons (Applicability of Atkins v Virginia Issues)
• Kevin Nigel Stanford (Amicus Curiae-American Society for Adolescent Psychiatry)
• Nanon Williams - Southern District of Texas - Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus
• Foreign National
• Javier Suarez Medina (Amicus Curiae- United Mexican States)
• Javier Suarez Medina (Petition for Writ of Certiorari-USSC)
• Gerardo Valdez (Motion for Evidentiary Hearing and Discovery)
• Mental Retardation
• Daryl Renard Atkins (Petition for Writ of Certiorari-USSC)
• Ernest McCarver- Amicus Curiae brief (U.S. Former Diplomats)
• Ernest Paul McCarver (Amicus Curiae-European Union) (McCarver was made moot by North Carolina legislation, the Court then addressed the same issue in Atkins. This same brief was filed on behalf of Daryl Atkins.)
• Mental Illness
• Abu-Ali Abdur'Rahman (Amicus Curiae- National Mental Health Association, et al.)
• Linroy Bottoson (Motion to Vacate and Request for Evidentiary Hearing)
• Daniel Colwell (Amicus Curiae- National Alliance for the Mentally Ill)
• International Entities
• Council of Europe
• International Court of Justice
• Organization of American States/ Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
• The European Union
• The United Nations
• Guides
• Juvenile Death Penalty: Representation Resource 2002 (International Justice Project & American Bar Association's Juvenile Justice Center) - for a copy of the resource guide, please contact the IJP.
• Juvenile Death Penalty: Representation Resource 2002 (Mitigation Supplement) (International Justice Project & American Bar Association's Juvenile Justice Center) - click here
• Equal Protection: Consular Assistance & Criminal Justice Procedures in the USA (International Justice Project & Human Rights Research)
• General Resources
• American Bar Association (ABA) Guidelines for the Appointment and Performance of Defense Counsel in Death Penalty Cases
• Amnesty International: Death by discrimination - the continuing role of race in capital cases
• The Department of Justice; Capital Punishment Report 2001
• Gross, Jacoby, Matheson, Montgomery & Patel, Exonerations in the United States (2004)

  This report was undertaken by the University of Michigan and is the result of a study into exonerations of defendants convicted of serious crimes in the United States between 1989 and 2003.

• International Human Rights Law and Instruments: An overview of international law concepts and pertinent resources.
• Methods of Execution
• Ring Decision and Implications

See also,

• Ethan Jacobs, Note, Is Ring Retroactive?, 103 Colum. L. Rev. 1805 (2003)
• Kermit Roosevelt III, Light from Dead Stars: The Procedural Adequate and Independent State Ground Reconsidered, 103 Colum. L. Rev. 1888 (2003).
• Seminal Case Decisions
• A Summary of the Clemency Procedures For All Executing States and Contact Information for State Governors and Boards of Pardon and Parole
• General Statistics
• Juvenile Statistics Table
• Minimum Ages for Application of Death Penalty in the United States
• States with Capital Punishment

Project Overview | Execution Calendar | Juveniles | Foreign Nationals | Mental Retardation
Mental Illness | Brief Bank, General Resources & Statistics | Training & Events | Externships

Terms of Use and Privacy Statement

Web Development and Maintenance by: