Virginia Jurors Never Heard Critical Evidence of Childhood Abuse

Jerry Terrell Jackson

Lawyers for Jerry Terrell Jackson, who is currently facing execution in Virginia on August 18, recently petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to spare Jackson's life, arguing that the jury in his 2003 trial did not receive sufficient evidence of the abuse he suffered as a child because his trial lawyers were inadequate.

Jackson's current lawyers told the Court that this evidence could have convinced some jurors not to impose a death sentence: "This Court has repeatedly held that, before a defendant is sentenced to death, a jury must be given the opportunity to consider and confront available mitigation evidence, including evidence of serious childhood abuse, relevant to assessing a defendant’s moral culpability." 

Clinical Psychologist Dr. Matthew Mendel, who appears in a clemency video prepared by Jackson's lawyers, said of Jackson's trauma, "People abused by parents or parental figures are those with the poorest prognosis. Jerry Terrell Jackson was not someone who was engaged in extreme misbehaviors to which the family responded. Child protective services referred to what the parents did to him as 'planned, calculated beatings.'"  

A federal District Court judge previously ruled that Jackson was entitled to a new sentencing hearing, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit recently reversed the ruling, holding that federal review was restricted to what had been presented in Virginia courts. 

Jackson also has a clemency petition pending with Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell, who could commute Jackson's sentence based on the evidence of family abuse that the jury never heard. (Click here to view the video. Caution: portions of the video discuss particularly disturbing examples of abuse.)

Source: Death Penalty Information Center, August 10, 2011

Last chance to stay killer’s execution

Attorneys for death row inmate Jerry Terrell Jackson are scrambling to spare their client’s life as his scheduled execution next week nears.

A stay of execution and an appeal of an appellate court’s decision were filed Friday with the U.S. Supreme Court. A petition of clemency has also been submitted to Gov. Bob McDonnell, asking him to consider commuting Jackson’s death sentence to life. Jackson, 29, is scheduled to be executed on Aug. 18.

All of the legal maneuvers focus on the years of what Jackson’s attorneys call “sadistic abuse” their client endured as a child. They argue that had a jury been aware of the extent of the abuse Jackson suffered they may have issued a life sentence rather than death.

In 2002 a Williamsburg-James City jury convicted Jackson of capital murder, rape, breaking and entering, robbery and petit larceny for the 2001 killing of 88-year-old Ruth Phillips.

Jackson is said to have entered Phillips’ apartment in the Rolling Meadows complex off Longhill Road through an open window. He then raped Phillips before smothering her with a pillow.

He took money from her wallet and fled in her 1987 Dodge sedan. Jackson was connected to the crime by DNA evidence and fingerprints from Phillips’s wallet.

Jackson’s death sentence has been upheld against multiple appeals over the last seven years. Many of the appeals center on childhood abuse, including beatings and sexual assault Jackson says he suffered, and that his trial lawyers failed to present evidence of the extreme abuse. The jury did, however, hear some testimony regarding the abuse.

A federal judge in U.S. District Court ordered a new sentencing hearing for Jackson last year, but the 4th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals blocked that hearing in April.

In the stay of execution and the appeal, Jackson’s attorney argued that while some information regarding the abuse was read to jurors from medical and social service reports, the reports were never put into evidence. Jackson’s mother and step-father testified that abuse occurred, but the attorneys argued that the severity of the abuse was “minimized.”

The District Court ruled that “the reality was a boy living in terror, constantly physically and emotionally abused from a very young age.” The court also found that Jackson’s trial attorneys did not request jury instructions to consider age and background as mitigating factors when considering the death penalty.

The Court of Appeals ruled that because evidence of the abuse was presented at Jackson’s trial, additional testimony from his brother and sister about the abuse wouldn’t have had an impact on the jury’s decision.

The stay of execution is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to postpone Jackson’s execution so the court can review the Court of Appeal’s ruling.

“Because the jury never considered powerful mitigation evidence relevant to Jackson’s moral culpability and because Jackson is facing imminent execution, the court should intervene and grant a review,” the appeal states.

The clemency petition asserts that the omission of testimony from Jackson’s siblings could have changed the jury’s mind and therefore the governor should commute his death sentence to life in prison.

It is unclear when a decision on any of the filings may come. Joshua C. Toll, one of Jackson’s attorneys, said in an e-mail Tuesday the Supreme Court is unlikely to make a decision until the Virginia Attorney General’s Office files a response. He said so far no decision has been made by the governor with regards to clemency.

Source: The Virginia Gazette, August 10, 2011