R.I.P. Leroy White

Roman Colosseum lit to protest an execution

On January 13, 2011, Alabama  executed Leroy White for the 1988 murder of his estranged wife.  His federal appeal was rejected because his lawyers missed a crucial filing deadline.  His subsequent attorney, the great Bryan Stephenson, stated that White was executed "because he was too poor to get the legal assistance he needed at trial and thereafter for his post-conviction appeals."  Stephenson said:  "This is a case where the trial prosecutors did not believe the death penalty was appropriate, the jury did not believe the death penalty was appropriate, and the victim's family does not believe the death penalty is appropriate."   This was the third execution in 2011.