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NEW RESOURCES: The Absence of Adequate Counsel in Alabama Death Penalty Appeals

By Death Penalty Information Center

Professor Celestine Richards McConville explores the plight of inmates on Alabama's death row who face execution despite being denied adequate representation for key parts of their appeal in her law review article, "The Meaninglessness of Delayed Appointments and Discretionary Grants of Capital Postconviction Counsel. The article is part of a University of Tulsa Law Review symposium issue on "The Death Penalty and the Question of Actual Innocence." The article points out that Alabama s courts will not grant counsel to a death row inmate in post-conviction appeals until after the petitioner files the petition and survives a challenge from the state for summary dismissal of the appeal. Prof. McConville argues that those are two very difficult tasks to accomplish without representation.continue to full post

Full post as published by Death Penalty Information Center on September 24, 2008 (boomark / email).