Death Penalty News

“This is unreal," civil rights lawyer says of assurances that jurors will be kept at a safe distance and their spaces disinfected The death penalty trial against Dreion Dearing is currently expected to go on despite a Colorado Supreme Court order suspending normal state court operations as a precaution against the coronavirus. Dearing, 24, is accused of killing Adams County Deputy Heath Gumm in January 2018. The showdown playing out between Dearing’s public defenders and Adams County’s 17th Judicial District judges pits the constitutional right to a speedy trial against the constitutional rights to a public and fair trial. All this at a time when the state legislature just passed a bill to repeal the death penalty, which Gov. Jared Polis is expected soon to sign into law. “From what I’ve read and seen, the 17th Judicial District and state judicial (branch) have failed in their obligation to ensure a safe environment for jurors and all involved individuals in ord...

Kharon Davis was 22 when he was charged with capital murder and booked into the county jail. 10 years later, he is still there, awaiting trial. He has had 2 judges, 4 teams of lawyers and nine trial dates, the 1st of which was in 2008. His case has outlasted a district attorney who served for nearly 3 decades. It defies any common understanding of the right to a speedy trial. As the case has languished, Mr. Davis, whose only prior offense was driving without a license, has been segregated from the jail's general population for minor transgressions like unauthorized peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches, and a couple of more serious ones, like fighting. His mother, Chrycynthia Davis, says she has been allowed to visit him just once in the last 3 years. Though he has not been found guilty, Mr. Davis has already served half of the minimum sentence for murder. The case, State of Alabama v. Kharon Torchec Davis, underscores how the country's justice system can founde...