News and Developments: Clemency

NEW VOICES: 30 FBI Agents Call for Pardon in VA Case with Death Penalty Implications

Posted: November 17, 2008
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On November 10 in Richmond, Virginia, thirty former FBI agents held a press conference calling for the pardon of four sailors, known as the Norfolk Four, who were convicted of rape and murder. Their convictions were based mainly on their own confessions, which were apparently made out of fear that they might otherwise receive the death penalty. The FBI agents pointed out that DNA and forensic evidence now points to a prison inmate who has confessed as the sole perpetrator of the crimes. They asked Virginia Governor Tim Kaine to pardon the men. “After careful review of the evidence we have arrived at one unequivocal conclusion: The Norfolk Four are innocent,” said Jay Cochran, a former assistant director of the F.B.I. and former special agent who served at the bureau for 27 years. “We believe a tragic mistake has occurred in the case of these four Navy men, and we are calling on Governor Kaine to grant them immediate pardons.”

“We are not bleeding hearts, and we don’t take this type of public action lightly,” said Cochran. “However, we also believe that law enforcement has an obligation to protect the most innocent from wrongful conviction.” The agents joined a long list of notable people calling for a pardon, including 4 former Virginia attorneys general, 12 former state and federal judges and prosecutors, and a past president of the Virginia Bar Association.

Georgia Execution Stayed to Allow a Parole Board Hearing

Posted: September 15, 2008
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UPDATE: Parole Board Denied Clemency on Sept. 16 and Jack Alderman was executed.

On September 15, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Melvin Westmoreland granted a stay of execution for Jack Alderman in Georgia. Judge Westmoreland stayed the execution, scheduled for Sept. 16, until Alderman receives a “meaningful” meeting with the state’s Board of Pardons. The judge stated: “If the state’s going to impose the extreme penalty of death … due process of the law is never more important.” Alderman was sentenced to death in 1975 for the murder of his wife a year earlier.

The Board of Pardons had denied Alderman's request for a hearing, saying they had enough information on the case. The judge asked, “How hard, how difficult would it before the state takes someone’s life, as a matter of grace … for you to have this hearing?”

Upcoming Arkansas Execution In Doubt Because of Lethal Injection Problems and Clemency Recommendation

Posted: September 02, 2008
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A state judge in Arkansas has thrown further doubt on whether the upcoming execution of Frank Williams will be carried out on September 9 because the state did not follow proper procedures in adopting its lethal injection protocol.  Pulaski County Circuit Judge Timothy Fox barred the Arkansas Department of Correction from using the protocol in its execution of Frank Williams, Jr. because the new execution procedures should have been subject to public comment before implementation.

Executions Since Supreme Court's Upholding of Lethal Injection

Posted: August 10, 2008
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On April 16, 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Kentucky's lethal injection process in Baze v. Rees, thereby opening the door to a resumption of executions which had been on hold since September 2007. Since then, there have been 18 executions:

  • 100% have been in the South
  • 33% have been in Texas
  • All but one have been by lethal injection.

Of the 18 defendants executed:

  • 8 were white
  • 8 were black
  • 2 were Hispanic.

Of the 25 victims in the underlying murders:

Arkansas Parole Board Recommends Life Without Parole for Mentally Disabled Man

Posted: August 06, 2008
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In a 4-3 vote, the Arkansas Parole Board recommended that Frank Williams' death sentence be commuted to life without parole. The Board had received petitions for clemency from 13 state, national, and international organizations and developmental disabilities experts which concluded that Mr. Williams suffers from mental retardation based on his sub-average adaptive functioning and the diagnosis of psychological experts.

Mental Retardation Group Pleads for Clemency for Mentally Disabled Man in Arkansas

Posted: August 01, 2008
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Arkansas’ leading advocacy organization for people with mental retardation, Arc Arkansas, delivered a letter to Governor Mike Beebe and the Arkansas Parole Board urging clemency for Frank Williams, Jr. because of his mental retardation. He is scheduled for execution on September 9 and the Arkansas Parole Board is holding a clemency hearing on his case on August 4. The letter notes that executing a mentally retarded person is unconstitutional based on both Arkansas’ 1993 statutory ban and the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2002 ruling in Atkins v. Virginia.