Press Releases
TN Indigent Defense Attorneys Receive Less than Half the Dollars Allocated to the Prosecution
A new report on prosecution and indigent defense funding in Tennessee has uncovered disturbing evidence of a significant and unfair imbalance of financial and other resources between the prosecution and indigent defense functions. The report is the first comprehensive analysis of indigent defense and prosecution resources in the state, and indicates that Tennessee’s indigent defense system is in dire need of reform. The Spangenberg Group, one of the nation's leading experts on state criminal justice systems, authored the new study, which was commissioned by The Tennessee Justice Project.
June 27, 2007
US Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Tennessee Death Row Inmate
In an opinion issued today in the case of House v. Bell, the United States Supreme Court ruled 5-3 that Tennessee death row inmate Paul House is entitled to a new hearing in federal court because post-conviction DNA testing invalidated the prosecution’s theory that he raped and then murdered a woman more than 20 years ago.
June 12, 2006
Tennessee Lethal Injection Protocol Challenged
In a petition filed today for a writ of certiorari to the United States Supreme Court, Abu-Ali Abdur’Rahman challenges the Tennessee Supreme Court’s decision upholding the constitutionality of the Tennessee lethal injection protocol. Abdur’Rahman argues that the protocol, and the use of the drug Pavulon, in particular, is unconstitutional under the Eighth Amendment because of the risk that it will result in his suffering inhuman pain at the time of his execution.
February 15, 2006
