Case Update: Billie Allen

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Case Update: Billie Allen

Amnesty International welcomes President Biden’s decision to commute 37 federal death sentences, including Billie Allen.

We collected nearly 100,000 signatures urging President Biden to commute Billie Allen’s death sentence along with all the others on federal and military death row.

Billie Allen continues to fight for justice

Billie Jerome Allen spent more than half of his life on federal death row. Now 47 years old, he was just 19 when he was sentenced to death in 1998 for a crime that he maintains he did not commit. His case raises serious concerns about racial bias, his young age at the time, and a lack of evidence linking him to the crime.

The jury in Allen’s case consisted of 10 white jurors and only 2 Black jurors. This is especially striking given that St. Louis, where the crime took place, has a Black population of about 46%. Since his case was prosecuted under federal law, the jury pool was drawn from a larger area which included a higher number of white neighborhoods.

In 2009, Billie Allen’s appeal lawyers asked for a hearing to address racial bias in his case. They cited data showing that of the 460 federal defendants facing the death penalty, 119 were white and 341 were from minority groups, including 237 Black people. The government argued that Billie’s claims of racial bias did not meet the requirements set by the Supreme Court in the 1987 case McCleskey v. Kemp. This ruling makes it hard to prove claims of racism in death penalty cases.

Without changes to the law, the U.S. cannot fulfill its commitments under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, which requires countries to work against all forms of discrimination.

Billie Allen’s lawyers have sought DNA testing they believe could clear him, but the government has refused for years. Police found blood evidence on a bulletproof vest worn by one assailant. DNA testing excluded both the murder victim and Billie Allen as sources of the blood. The government stated that this blood evidence was not compared to Billie Allen’s co-defendant’s DNA profile. They presumed that further DNA testing would only produce more evidence against the co-defendant. Billie Allen has identified another man, who died in 1998, as the likely second assailant. If DNA testing identifies this individual, it would strengthen his case for innocence. Learn more about Billie’s case.

President Biden’s commutation of the sentences of most of the men on federal death row is a significant step towards meeting his campaign pledge, however, three men remain on federal death row with four additional men remaining on military death row.

Statistics on the U.S. Federal Death Penalty

The US Government has carried out 16 executions since 1976 – three under President George W. Bush in 2001 and 2003 and 13 under President Donald Trump in 2020 and 2021.

Eleven of the 16 executions (69%) were of individuals tried and convicted in the South, the region where 82% of those executed at state level since 1976 were sentenced to death. Six of the 16 (37%) were tried in Texas, which accounts for 38% of all state executions in the USA since 1976.

Of the 43 people on federal death row in March 2023, 19 were white, 17 were Black, six were Hispanic and one was Asian. Of the 43 individuals, 31 (72%) were tried in federal court in the South, Texas alone accounting for seven of the 42 (16%). Seventeen of the 43 (40%) were tried in federal court in three states – Texas (seven), Virginia (six) and Missouri (four). These three states account for half of all state executions in the USA since 1976.