Death Penalty News

Mass murderer Dylann Roof’s effort to remove the federal judge who presided over his trial from future steps in his appeal has been rejected. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals said Aug. 13 it would not force the recusal of U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel in Charleston. Roof is seeking a new trial 10 years after he murdered nine African American parishioners at the historic Emanuel AME Church. Roof’s appeal is based on his attorney’s admission that he made several mistakes during the trial, including eliciting harmful testimony.

A Texas appeals court has ordered a new trial for Randy Halprin because of antisemitic bias by the judge in his case A Texas appeals court ordered a new trial Wednesday for a Jewish man on death row — who was part of a gang of prisoners that fatally shot a police officer in 2000 after escaping — because of antisemitic bias by the judge who presided over his case. Lawyers for Randy Halprin have contended that former Judge Vickers Cunningham in Dallas used racial slurs and antisemitic language to refer to him and some of his co-defendants.

A federal judge has overturned the death penalty conviction of a Mississippi man, finding a trial judge didn’t give the man’s lawyer enough chance to argue that the prosecution was dismissing Black jurors for discriminatory reasons. U.S. District Judge Michael P. Mills ruled Tuesday that the state of Mississippi must give Terry Pitchford a new trial on capital murder charges.

“Mr. Murdaugh’s right to have his appeal heard by an impartial judge will be violated if Judge Newman proceeds to hear his motion for a new trial,” a new motion says. As Alex Murdaugh’s legal team pushes for a new murder trial, they have a bold request for the South Carolina Supreme Court: ban Judge Clifton Newman from having anything to do with the case. In a Wednesday filing, defense lawyers argued that Newman should be removed from future hearings related to Murdaugh’s double homicide case, claiming that the judge who presided over the murder trial cannot be impartial.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The Florida Supreme Court has publicly reprimanded the judge who oversaw the penalty trial of Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz for showing bias toward the prosecution. The unanimous decision Monday followed a June recommendation from the Judicial Qualifications Commission. That panel had found that Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer violated several rules governing judicial conduct during last year’s trial in her actions toward Cruz’s public defenders. The six-month trial ended with Cruz receiving a receiving a life sentence for the 2018 murder of 14 students and three staff members at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School after the jury could not unanimously agree that he deserved a death sentence.