Edward Bell, a Jamaican immigrant convicted of killing a police officer, is scheduled to be executed in Virginia on February 19 despite a conclusion by a federal District Court that his lawyers failed to present any mitigating evidence at his trial. Judge James Jones of the Eastern District of Virginia held that the representation Bell received violated constitutional standards. However, a new sentencing hearing to explore the ample mitigating evidence that existed was never granted. According to the clemency petition filed for Bell, "Judge Jones said in a colloquy with the representative of the Attorney General, 'You’ll agree that there was zero mitigation evidence presented in this case. The brief testimony that was presented, again, as I think the witnesses have agreed, really probably hurt Bell more than they helped him. Certainly those witnesses, there was nothing elicited from them that did anything to shed any light on Bell or his character or motives or background.' Again speaking to the representative of the Attorney General, Judge Jones summarized the situation: defense counsel 'present[ed] no mitigating evidence, zero mitigating evidence. The prosecutor said it, you agree, I agree. The defense counsel presented zero.'"
On May 18, the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari in two death penalty cases. Both cases are likely to be argued in the fall. The Court accepted the defendant's petition in Wood v. Allen (No. 08-9156), a case from Alabama. Holly Wood claimed ineffective assistance of counsel, mental retardation, and discrimination in the jury selection process during his trial. After the trial, state and defense experts found that Wood, with an IQ below 70, had serious deficits in intellectual functioning and in at least one area of adaptive functioning--clear evidence of mental retardation. However, despite obvious pre-trial indications of this disability, the defense attorney presented no mitigating evidence on this issue to the jury during the penalty phase of the trial. The novice attorney had no experience in death penalty cases or in any criminal law. In federal habeas proceedings, the District Court vacated Wood’s death sentence due to ineffectiveness of counsel, stating that “[c]ounsel’s failure to investigate and present any evidence of intellectual functioning…is sufficient to undermine confidence in the application of the death sentence.”
Across the state of Florida, public defenders and prosecutors are facing furloughs due to a budget shortfall, potentially leaving the criminal court system at a standstill during some of the next three months. "As we have hung to the cliff by our fingernails, this 15 percent [budget] cut is the boot stomping our hands," the Florida Prosecuting Attorneys Association wrote to Gov. Charlie Crist recently. Public defenders say they will not be able to take any new cases, though they will still come to court on days they are not paid so their clients are not arrested or stay in jail longer. "We feel like it's come to the point where I can't ask the lawyers to do any more cases," said Howard "Skip" Babb, president of the Florida Public Defender Association. The furloughs will likely create a backlog in the courts and in the offices of prosecutors and public defenders. The results could affect the entire system, from an increase in jail populations to a decrease in time spent on each case due to larger caseloads for attorneys and judges. 
On April 1, the U.S. Supreme Court held in Harbison v. Bell that federally appointed counsel can represent indigent capital clients in state clemency procedures. The case, which was argued before the Supreme Court in January 2009, asked whether a federal law that provides lawyers to indigent state death row inmates for parts of their appeal guarantees them the continuation of that representation through the state clemency process. The law says that such lawyers are to represent their clients in "all available post-conviction process," including "proceedings for executive or other clemency." Federal appeals courts had been divided over the interpretation of the law, with one side saying that the law applies only to federal clemency proceedings.
Several legal authorities and public officials are calling on Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear to suspend the death penalty pending resolution of the state's budget crisis. Kentucky's public defender system will exhaust its current budget by May 21 with two months remaining in the fiscal year, forcing it to shut down. “The budget shortfall creates a likelihood that counsel will be unavailable or unable to properly proceed, thereby jeopardizing prosecutions and resulting in flawed, unreliable outcomes, expanded litigation and reversal of convictions,” said Daniel T. Goyette, Chief Public Defender for Jefferson County and an Adjunct Professor at the Brandeis School of Law at the University of Louisville. “As a former Commonwealth’s Attorney, I see insurmountable legal obstacles to prosecuting death penalty cases when the defendants are not adequately represented by counsel for any reason, including a budget crisis,” added Marc S. Murphy, former Jefferson County Commonwealth’s Attorney. “The constitution guarantees an accused defendant the right to have effective assistance of counsel” said Robert G. Lawson, former dean of the University of Kentucky College of Law, who has been extensively involved in law reform efforts in Kentucky as principal drafter of the Kentucky Penal Code. “We are hearing from the people in the defender system that they are unable to render effective assistance due to the budget cuts. I support a moratorium on executions at this time.”