Barry Jones is Running out of Options. Will He Ever Leave Death Row?
The Intercept_, October 2, 2022: Barry Jones is Running out of Options. Will He Ever Leave Death Row?
“Barry Jones sat quietly in an orange prison jumpsuit, his surroundings familiar yet disorienting. He was once again at the federal courthouse in downtown Tucson, Arizona. Five years earlier, in the same building, his lawyers had presented new evidence that convinced U.S. District Judge Timothy Burgess to vacate Jones’s conviction. More than two decades after Jones was sent to death row for a crime he swore he did not commit, Burgess concluded that his trial had been fatally flawed — and that Jones should be retried or released.
“But that never happened. Jones’s moment of victory instead gave way to a whole different nightmare. The Arizona Attorney General’s Office fought to undo Burgess’s order, appealing all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. In May, the justices ruled in the case, known as Shinn v. Ramirez. They found that Burgess should never have used the new evidence to overturn Jones’s conviction, reinstating his death sentence. Burgess, who announced his retirement last year, returned to Arizona from his home in Alaska in early September for a hearing to decide what should happen next.”
Additional reading:
Vox, May 23, 2022: The Supreme Court just condemned a man to die despite strong evidence he’s innocent
Death Penalty Information Center, December 6, 2019: Federal Appeals Court Grants New Trial to Arizona Death-Row Prisoner Who May Not Have Committed Murder
Public Defenseless Podcast, June 17, 2022: The Innocence of Barry Jones and the Impacts of Shinn vs Ramirez with Sylvia Lett and Andrew Sowards
