Posted By: chrismaslen February 27, 2021 @ 9:29 am Local News, News
The ACLU of Kansas was joined by multiple groups in their filing of an amicus brief that urged the Supreme Court to end the death penalty.
The diverse coalition included the organization Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty, family members of murder victims, former correctional and law enforcement officers, and faith-based organizations.
The brief was a response to the Kansas Supreme Court’s grant of oral arguments regarding whether or not the Kansas Death penalty is constitutional.
The ACLU of Kansas said that the death penalty has been applied in ways that are neither swift nor fair; adding that in the 27 years since the state adopted the death penalty, the promise of swift, certain and accurate justice it would provide is merely an illusion.
Tony s Kansas City
Sunday, February 21, 2021
Mr. Coones spent 12 years in prison for a double murder he did not commit.
Here s a worthwhile glimpse at his story that reminds us neither law enforcement nor the criminal justice system are infallible.
Read more of a remarkable person who passed away only 108 days following his exoneration . . .
WYANDOTTE COUNTY, KS (KCTV) Pete Coones died from cancer this weekend. He was 64 years old. His legal team confirmed the news in this statement: It is with great sorrow and outrage that the Midwest Innocence Project and the law firm of Morgan Pilate announce that exoneree Olin Pete Coones, Jr., passed away on February 21, 2021, just three and a half months after his exoneration and return to freedom on November 5, 2020.
Pete Coones, man wrongly convicted for murder, died Sunday kshb.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from kshb.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Exonerated Man Seeking Accountability in Wrongful Conviction By Mackenzie Clark | December 14, 2020
LAWRENCE, Kan. Brynlee Alice Jean Bledsoe is still too young to know the significance, but someday she’ll understand that her middle names are in honor of two of the women who helped free her father from prison in 2015.
Brynlee, who will turn 2 next month, and her two big brothers are making the time pass by much more quickly for Floyd Scott Bledsoe than it did as he spent almost 16 years behind bars.
This Tuesday, Dec. 8, will mark five years since Bledsoe, now 43, was released from prison after DNA and other evidence proved he did not murder his 14-year-old sister-in-law in 1999, the Lawrence Journal-World reports.
Drake, state public defender create clinic to represent wrongfully convicted Friday, December 11, 2020 2:17 PM Drake Law School and the state Public Defender’s Office are collaborating to create a Wrongful Convictions Clinic. The clinic, slated to begin in January 2021, will be led by the Iowa Public Defender’s Wrongful Convictions Division. The clinic will allow student attorneys to represent people convicted of serious felonies in post-conviction proceedings. According to State Public Defender Jeff Wright, the Wrongful Convictions Division works closely with the Midwest Innocence Project to assist people who claim they are innocent of a crime for which they were convicted. “Not only will this collaboration greatly increase our capacity to review and investigate meritorious claims from Iowa inmates, but it will also help identify policies that contribute to wrongful convictions,” Wright said in a news release. Erica Nichols Cook, a 2009 Drake