Deborah Denno comments to the Burlington Free Press on the decision of U.S. District Judge William Sessions III to giver federal prosecutors the go-ahead to pursue the death penalty in the Michael Jacques case and his ruling to throw out some evidence the government planned on using to convince a jury Jacques should be executed.
“That could be a very significant ruling,” said Deborah Denno, a Fordham University law professor whose writings about the death penalty have been cited by five sitting U.S. Supreme Court justices.
Denno’s critique focused on a section in Sessions’ 79-page death penalty ruling that forbids prosecutors from telling jurors about certain evidence. That evidence relates to allegations that Jacques, as a teenager, had improper sexual contact with three underage girls. Sessions said the material was inadmissible because Jacques was never convicted of a crime in connection with the case.
Denno, Campbell and others contacted by the Burlington Free Press last week said the government case against Jacques remained largely intact following Sessions’ ruling. The trial is scheduled to get under way in September.
Read the entire Burlington Free Press story.