Report No. 210 (2020) IACHR. Case No. 13.361 (Estados Unidos de America)

• Case Number: 13.361
• Report Number: 210
• Petition Number: 13.361
• Case Type: Merits
• Respondent State: United States
• Court: Inter-American Comission of Human Rights

REPORT No. 210/20

CASE 13.361

REPORT ON ADMISSIBILITY AND MERITS (PUBLICATION)

JULIUS OMAR ROBINSON

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Approved electronically by the Commission on August 12, 2020

OEA/Ser.L.

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D.. 224

August 12, 2020

Original: English

Cite as: IACHR, Report No. 210/20. Case 13.361. Admissibility and Merits (Publication). J..

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O.R.. United States of America. August 12, 2020

www.cidh.org

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INDEX

I. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................................ 3

II. POSITIONS OF THE PARTIES .......................................................................................................................... 3

A. Petitioners ....................................................................................................................................................... 3

B. State ................................................................................................................................................................ 4

III. ADMISSIBILITY .............................................................................................................................................. 5

A..C., duplication of procedures and international res judicata.......................................................... 5

B. Exhaustion of domestic remedies and timeliness of the petition .................................................................... 5

C. Colorable claim ................................................................................................................................................ 6

IV. FINDINGS OF FACT ........................................................................................................................................ 6

A. The federal death penalty system ................................................................................................................... 6

B. Race and the federal death penalty in Texas .................................................................................................. 7

C..J. selection process ...................................................................................................................................... 7

D..F. background, trial and death sentence ................................................................................................ 7

E. Post-conviction proceedings ............................................................................................................................ 9

F. Legal proceedings regarding the lethal injection protocol ............................................................................ 13

V. ANALYSIS OF LAW ....................................................................................................................................... 13

A..P. considerations ............................................................................................................................ 13

B..R. to equality before the law and access to an effective remedy ............................................................. 14

1. General considerations regarding equality before the law ...................................................................... 14

2. Race and equality before the law in the application of the death penalty in the United States ............. 15

3. A. of the case .................................................................................................................................. 17

C..R. to a fair trial and right to due process of law ....................................................................................... 19

1. Use of unadjudicated offenses and future dangerousness in the imposition of the death penalty ........ 19

2. I. assistance of court-appointed counsel ................................................................................... 21

D. The right to access to informationwith respect to the death penalty dec ision-making process and the lethal

injection protocol .................................................................................................................................................... 23

E. Right not to receive cruel, infamous or unusual punishment ........................................................................ 24

1. Method of execution ................................................................................................................................ 24

2. The deprivation of liberty on death row and the right of protection against cruel, infamo us or unusual

punishment ........................................................................................................................................................ 25

F. R. to life and to protection against cruel, infamous or unusual punishment with respect to the eventual

execution of J.O.R. ......................................................................................................................... 26

VI. REPORT No. 162/19 AND INFORMATION ABOUT COMPLIANCE.................................................................. 26