by Bert | Feb 1, 2018 | Alabama
In mid-December, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed a lower court’s decision to dismiss the murder indictment against George Martin because of extensive prosecutorial misconduct. We have featured Mr. Martin’s case a couple of times before, once when the...
by Bert | Jan 17, 2018 | Alabama
The Open File has previously covered Vernon Madison’s case on two occasions, and we now provide this (overdue) update. In our last post about the case, we brought attention to an Eleventh Circuit decision that—temporarily, it turns out—spared Mr. Madison from...
by Bert | Nov 20, 2017 | Alabama
It’s no secret prosecutors accused of discriminating against prospective jurors in jury selection usually get away with excluding the jurors they do not want to serve. What is remarkable, however, is that even prosecutors who document plans to strike jurors on the...
by Bert | Nov 9, 2017 | Alabama
It is difficult to let too many months pass without wading into the cesspool of prosecutorial misconduct that District Attorney Douglas Valeska cultivated for some 30 years. In the 20th Judicial Circuit of Alabama (covering Houston and Henry counties), Valeska’s 2016...
by Bert | Mar 22, 2017 | Alabama
Last week, the Eleventh Circuit decided the case of Vernon Madison—a man whose execution the court had stayed hours before it was set to take place last May in order to deal with urgent questions pertaining to his competency. The court determined that Mr. Madison is...
