Help save a life in Arizona

Jeffrey Landrigan is scheduled to be executed in Arizona on Tuesday morning, October 26. Amnesty International (AI) has issued an Urgent Action appeal for commutation.

According to AI, "Thirteen federal judges have argued that he should have had a hearing into his claim that he was inadequately represented at his 1990 trial. In 2007, the trial judge said that she would not have passed a death sentence if she had heard the mitigating evidence."

More details from AI:

"The lawyer had not presented, or sought to present, any expert testimony on Jeffrey Landrigan's background. In 1998, a neuropsychologist concluded that a combination of inherited factors, prenatal exposure to drugs and alcohol, early parental rejection and troubled relationships with his adoptive family had 'severely impaired' Jeffrey Landrigan's ability to function in society. In 1999, a federal District Court judge refused to hold an evidentiary hearing into the claim that the trial lawyer had been constitutionally ineffective by failing to investigate and present mitigating evidence of Jeffrey Landrigan's background of deprivation and abuse. In 2005, by nine votes to two, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit concluded that the District Judge had abused her discretion by denying such a hearing. The majority concluded there was a reasonable probability that if the trial judge had heard the mitigating evidence that had been presented on appeal she would not have passed a death sentence (which the trial judge has herself since said). Even the two judges who voted against ordering the District Court to hold an evidentiary hearing agreed that the trial lawyer's preparation for the sentencing 'fell below' professional standards.

"In 2007, by five votes to four, the US Supreme Court overturned the Ninth Circuit's ruling, on the grounds that Jeffrey Landrigan would not have allowed his lawyer to present any mitigating evidence that he might have uncovered. The four dissenting Justices accused their colleagues of 'pure guesswork'."

This is not justice.

What you can do:

>> Ask Governor Janice Brewer to commute Landrigan's death sentence.

For more information:

>> Download AI's Urgent Action sheet on the case.