[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----PENN., N.C., GA., FLA., ALA., LA.

[Rick Halperin]

March 6



PENNSYLVANIA:

Trial begins in Whitehall baseball bat homicide



Prosecutors on Monday described a Montgomery County man accused of killing a 
romantic rival with a baseball bat in Whitehall Township in 2016 as "cold, 
calculating and controlling," and said he tried to force others to lie for him 
in an attempt to manipulate the justice system.

Larry Ray Yaw's defense attorney conceded that the attack occurred, but told 
jurors that Yaw committed the crime in a blind rage and didn't intend to kill 
the the victim.

"This is not a whodunnit," attorney Matthew Potts said. "Larry lost control."

Yaw, 34, of Gilbertsville is standing trial for the April 3, 2016, killing of 
Brian Frank, 44. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

Police say Yaw burst into Frank's apartment in the 900 block of Third Street 
just before 8 a.m. carrying a handgun and aluminum baseball bat.

Senior Deputy District Attorney Michael Edwards told the jury that Yaw is 
guilty of 1st-degree murder. He said Yaw kicked down Franks's bedroom door and 
savagely attacked him with the bat.

"He didn't just take his gun and shoot Mr. Frank. He didn't make it quick. He 
wanted to make Mr. Frank suffer," Edwards said.

After kicking in a bedroom door that turned out to belong to Frank's roommate, 
police say Yaw went into Frank's bedroom. The roommate then heard loud noises 
and Frank screaming in pain, police say.

Yaw allegedly warned the roommate, "If you tell the cops I was here, I will be 
back for you."

After Yaw fled, police were called to the apartment. Officers found Frank 
bleeding from the face and the back of his head, convulsing and in obvious 
pain. Frank was unable to speak and was taken to an area hospital. He died the 
next day.

"He was moaning and writing in pain," said Whitehall Township police officer 
Raymond Seiling, the first responder on the scene. "He was flopping around in 
his bed like a fish."

Yaw has pleaded not guilty. He is charged with homicide, aggravated assault, 
burglary, kidnapping and a firearms offense. He's being held in the county jail 
without bail.

Jurors were selected last week. The trial before Lehigh County Judge Maria L. 
Dantos in Allentown is expected to last several days.

(source: Allentown Morning Call)








NORTH CAROLINA:

NC Supreme Court reviews racial bias in death penalty cases----4 inmates' 
sentences commuted, then reinstated



The North Carolina Supreme Court will hear cases that will decide whether 
racial bias is enough to move felons from death row.

Marcus Robinson, Quintel Augustine, Tilmon Golphin and Christina Walters were 
the first inmates to prove under the North Carolina Racial Justice Act that 
racial discrimination led to their death sentences, which were reduced to life 
without parole. Superior Court Judge Gregory Weeks' 2012 decision was 
overturned, and they were returned to death row. All four defendants are black.

"These Racial Justice Act cases are every bit as important to our state's 
progress on civil rights issues," said Charlotte civil rights attorney James 
Ferguson, who represents Augustine.

Weeks said the defendants proved prosecutors removed black people from jury 
service at double the rate of other potential jurors.

The defendants also argued prosecutors' own notes, training materials, and 
testimony showed bias. A Cumberland County prosecutor, for example, wrote notes 
such as "blk wino," "thug," and "black, high drug" to describe prospective 
African American jurors in a capital case.

"The decision to hear these cases is an encouraging sign that the North 
Carolina high court will act on the widespread bias tainting capital cases," 
said Cassandra Stubbs, 1 of Robinson's attorneys and director of the ACLU's 
Capital Punishment Project. "The state court's action comes on the heels of 
recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions - Foster v. Chapman and Pena-Rodriquez v. 
Colorado - that emphasize the constitutional imperative to guard against racial 
bias. If North Carolina rules in the defendants' favor, it will join a spate of 
recent state court decisions rejecting discrimination as part of jury 
selection."

In his ruling, Weeks, an African American, found "a wealth of evidence showing 
the persistent, pervasive, and distorting role of race in jury selection 
throughout North Carolina." Under the Racial Justice Act, which prohibited 
racial discrimination in sentencing in capital cases, Weeks removed Robinson, 
Augustine, Golphin and Walters from death row in 2012 and sentenced them to 
life without parole. In 2015, the North Carolina Supreme Court overturned 
Weeks' decision, saying the hearings should be done over because the state 
wasn't given enough time to prepare and that 3 of the defendants, who were 
tried together, should have their own separate hearings. The defendants were 
sent back to death row.

In January 2017, Superior Court Judge Erwin Spainhour threw out all 4 cases, 
saying the defendants could no longer use the RJA because it was repealed by 
the General Assembly in 2013. The Supreme Court will decide whether to uphold 
or reverse Spainhour's decision. The 4 defendants join death row prisoners 
Rayford Burke and Andrew Ramseur, who have a related claim. In those cases, the 
court will decide whether death row inmates who filed RJA claims but have not 
yet had hearings have the right to present evidence in court.

"All we want is for the courts to look at the facts and make a fair decision," 
Ferguson said. "When you really look at the evidence, it's clear that race is 
influencing how we use the death penalty in North Carolina. This is a chance 
for the state's highest court to declare, definitively, that racial bias in the 
death penalty is an urgent civil rights issue that cannot be swept under the 
rug."

(source: The Charlotte Post)








GEORGIA----impending execution

5 things to know: death row and the death penalty in Georgia



As Georgia prepares for the March 2018 execution of Carlton Gary, the "Stocking 
Strangler" convicted of raping and murdering 3 elderly women in Columbus in the 
late '70s, we take a look at some facts about Georgia's death row and the death 
penalty in the state.

1. Death row inmates make up a miniscule portion of the Georgia prison 
population.

There are currently 55 men awaiting execution on Georgia's death row. In 2017, 
the Georgia Department of Corrections counted 56,275 persons in all its 
facilities.* So death row inmates account for 0.097% of the Department of 
Corrections' overall day-to-day population.

*NOTE: To see the variety of Ga. DCOR facilities, see: 
http://www.dcor.state.ga.us/sites/all/themes/gdc/pdf/Avg_Daily_Pop_By_Facility_Type_CY2017.pdf

2. Only 3 crimes in Georgia are punishable by death: Treason, aircraft 
hijacking and murder (with 1 of the aggravating circumstances listed below):

The offender has a prior capital conviction.

The offender was in the process of committing another capital crime, aggravated 
battery, burglary, or arson.

The offender used or possessed a weapon or device capable of causing 
significant harm to more than 1 person simultaneously.

The offender committed offense for monetary gain.

The victim was or had been a judicial officer, district attorney, or solicitor 
general, and was murdered for reasons relating to their employment as such.

The offender hired another to commit the murder or committed it for hire.

The victim was tortured.

The victim was a law enforcement officer or firefighter and was performing 
his/her official duties.

The offender was in the custody of, or had escaped from, law enforcement or a 
correctional facility.

The offender was resisting arrest.

The offender had a prior conviction for rape, aggravated sodomy, aggravated 
child molestation, or aggravated sexual battery.

Everyone currently on Death Row in Georgia has been convicted of murder with 
aggravating circumstances.

3. Death penalty cases in Georgia have become rare.

Sentences of death must be decided by juries and must be unanimous. If a single 
juror opposes a death sentence, resulting in a hung jury during the trial's 
penalty phase, a life sentence is issued. But, as the AJC's Bill Rankin wrote 
in 2016, "prosecutors almost never seek the death penalty anymore, and juries 
refuse to impose it when they do."

4. Georgia has executed a total of 70 people since 1976.

Our state has been noted nationally for the number of death row inmates 
executed in recent years. In 2016, Georgia led the nation with 9 executions, 
but in 2017 the state carried out only 1 death sentence. The states ahead of 
Georgia in total executions are Texas (548), Virginia (113), Oklahoma (112), 
Florida (96) and Missouri (88).

5. Georgia has been the key state involved in both landmark U.S. Supreme Court 
death penalty decisions.

The U.S. Supreme Court struck down the death penalty nationwide with its 5-4 
decision in Furman v. Georgia (1972). The Court held that the death penalty in 
Furman (joined with 2 other cases, Jackson v. Georgia and Branch v. Texas) 
constituted cruel and unusual punishment, violating the Eighth and Fourteenth 
Amendments. This rendered the existing death penalty in the U.S. as 
unconstitutional, which put all executions on hold. But in the case that 
reinstated the death penalty nationally, Gregg v. Georgia (1976), the Court 
ruled that "capital punishment does not violate the Eighth or Fourteenth 
amendments of the United States Constitution provided it is set forth in a 
carefully drafted statute that ensures the sentencing authority has adequate 
information and guidance in reaching its decision." In other words, states 
cannot impose the death penalty in an "arbitrary and capricious" manner; 
specific aggravating factors must be clearly set forth. Georgia did this by 
specifically revising its death penalty statute to include the aggravating 
circumstances listed above for murder.


(source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution)








FLORIDA:

Death penalty trial delayed in 2012 West Palm Beach stabbing death



A defendant's trip to the hospital on Monday postponed what was supposed to 
mark the start of his death penalty trial for the 2012 death of a girlfriend he 
stabbed while her 9-year-old daughter played outside.

Louis Crawford, 47, of West Palm Beach, was headed to court Monday for the 
start of jury selection in his 1st-degree murder trial when he suffered a 
health ailment that caused him to be rushed to the hospital. The 
hospitalization comes just 4 days after he rejected a plea deal that would 
allow him to plead guilty to a lesser 2nd-degree murder charge.

Then, Palm Beach County Circuit Judge John Kastrenakes, who was to preside over 
Crawford's trial, later revealed in court Monday that he had just learned that 
his baby grandson had suddenly died and he would be traveling to be with 
relatives.

Kastrenakes set Crawford's case for a calendar call April 25, and Assistant 
State Attorney Aleathea McRoberts and defense attorney Edward Reagan and Robert 
Gershman will begin picking jurors the following week.

Crawford is charged with 1st degree murder in the December 2012 death of his 
36-year-old ex-girlfriend, Shandreka Wilkerson.

According to arrest reports, Wilkerson at the time of her death had recently 
moved into an apartment on 20th Street after she moved out of the home she 
shared with Crawford. She contacted police just 2 days before her death trying 
to get a restraining order because Crawford was allegedly posting threats 
against her on Facebook.

Just hours before her Dec. 14 death, Wilkerson called police again and told 
them she feared Crawford would find her because he had called the leasing 
office of her apartment complex posing as a worker with the Urban League of 
Palm Beach County who needed her exact address. Wilkerson told police someone 
from the office had called to warn her that a secretary in the office had in 
fact given the caller the address.

Wilkerson's then 9-year-old daughter later told police that her mother warned 
her that Crawford may have found them and told her to be careful when she went 
out to play. The girl went to play, and when she returned, found her mother 
bleeding profusely from her chest.

Investigators say Wilkerson identified Crawford, who she called "Justin" as her 
killer before she died. Crawford later told police that he and Wilkerson got 
into an argument in the kitchen of her apartment and said he used a kitchen 
knife to stab her.

(source: Palm Beach Post)

***************

Florida death penalty: Is it fair, accurate and impartial?



The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday denied Wellington polo club founder John 
Goodman's appeal concerning blood samples in his DUI manslaughter case. Goodman 
had already lost a separate appeal over his 2014 retrial conviction and 16-year 
prison sentence for the 2010 death of Scott Patrick Wilson, 23.

Sometimes profiles in courage and effective leadership go unnoticed. A notable 
outcome in the Florida Legislature last week didn't necessarily generate much 
attention given other high-profile matters, including firearm-safety 
legislation.

By a vote of 11-1, the Senate Rules Committee passed Senate Bill 870, Sen. 
Randolph Bracy's capital felonies bill, without a House companion. Bracy, a 
Democrat who represents parts of Orange County, chairs the Senate Criminal 
Justice Committee, where his bill passed 3-2 last month, demonstrating 
bipartisan support given the strong Republican majorities on these committees.

The bill addresses what some characterize as a fundamental fairness issue.

The concern arises out of a Florida Supreme Court opinion that determined the 
extent to which prior death sentences are subject to review after the U.S. 
Supreme Court's opinion in Hurst v. Florida, holding that Florida's 
capital-case sentencing process violated "the Sixth Amendment [which] requires 
a jury, not a judge, to find each fact necessary to impose a sentence of 
death," in light of its opinion in Ring v. Arizona.

Ring was the 1st U.S. Supreme Court case to decide that all facts enhancing a 
defendant's sentence must be decided by the jury.

In Hurst v. State, the Florida Supreme Court also rejected a key aspect of the 
Legislature's 2016 fix that, among other things, increased the minimum 
requirement for penalty-phase jury recommendations of death from what had been 
a simple majority (7 of 12) to 10 (of 12), instead requiring the same unanimity 
necessary for conviction. Bracy stewarded the responsive legislation last year.

As the Senate Rules Committee staff analysis advises, Florida's high court 
adopted the date Ring vs. Arizona was decided, June 24, 2002, as its bright 
line for determining Hurst's retroactivity. Therefore, death sentences rendered 
prior to that date aren't deemed to violate Hurst, but those that became final 
afterward do.

The fairness, accuracy and impartiality of Florida's death-penalty process 
should concern both supporters and opponents of capital punishment. -- Raoul 
Cantero, Roberto Martinez and Mark R. Schlakman

The concept of retroactivity - the application of a newly decided judicial 
opinion to cases that had already become final - can be complex. Apart from the 
implications of requiring substantial numbers of new penalty-phase proceedings 
within a reasonable time - especially those involving inmates who've been on 
death row for long periods, other practical problems abound. These include the 
unavailability or unwillingness of witnesses to testify years later, as well as 
recollection issues.

As a jurisprudential matter, the Florida Supreme Court drew a logical line at 
the date of Ring, though the fundamental fairness of drawing any line is 
arguable.

Bracy's bill provides legislative intent that all similarly situated death 
sentences involving less than a unanimous penalty-phase jury recommendations - 
not just those that became final after Ring - should be reviewed. The bill's 
next stop is the Senate floor; if it passes there, the onus shifts to the 
House.

Hurst retroactivity aside, when Bracy presents his bill on the Senate floor 
this week, we understand he also may underscore that a range of other issues 
involving the fairness, accuracy and impartiality of Florida's death-penalty 
process should concern both supporters and opponents of capital punishment.

For perspective, The Florida Bar Criminal Law Section's Executive Council 
(comprised of judges, prosecutors and defense counsel) recommended 
comprehensive review of Florida's entire death-penalty process by all branches 
of government by a vote of 23-3. This would be a reasonable means to evaluate 
process concerns, especially given that the legislature abolished the only 
statutory entity charged with monitoring Florida's death penalty process in 
2011 - purportedly as a cost-avoidance measure.

As a former Florida Supreme Court justice appointed by Gov. Jeb Bush who 
authored the majority opinion in State v. Steele (2005) urging the Legislature 
to require unanimity for jury recommendations of death in penalty-phase 
proceedings; a former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida 
appointed by President George H.W. Bush more recently appointed by the Florida 
Supreme Court chief justice to the Florida Constitution Revision Commission; 
and a former special counsel to Gov. Lawton Chiles who initially assisted the 
governor with review of death-penalty cases and subsequently was invited to 
serve on the American Bar Association's Florida Death Penalty Assessment Team, 
we commend Bracy for his leadership.

And we agree that meaningful review of Florida's entire death-penalty process 
as framed by the Bar's Criminal Law Section is necessary and in the best 
interests of all Floridians.

(source: Commentary; Raoul Cantero is a former Florida Supreme Court Justice. 
Roberto Martinez is a former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of 
Florida. Mark Schlakman is a former special counsel to Gov. Lawton 
Chiles----Orlando Sentinel)








ALABAMA:

Alabama death row inmate who survived execution date asks judge to halt future 
attempts



An Alabama death row inmate who survived a lethal injection execution attempt 
last month is asking a federal judge to block the state from trying a 2nd time 
to kill him.

Doyle Lee Hamm's attorney stated in federal court documents filed Monday that 
Hamm was "tortured," citing a doctor's exam of the inmate following the Feb. 22 
failed execution. That exam showed 11 puncture marks, according to the doctor's 
report.

"The defendants (Department of Corrections) acted deliberately in the face of 
numerous and fair warnings when, after months of litigation that put the 
defendants on notice about Doyle Hamm's medical conditions, they nonetheless 
attempted and failed to accomplish intravenous lethal injection, thereby 
subjecting Doyle Hamm to several torturous and traumatic hours in the execution 
chamber." Bernard E. Harcourt, professor of law and political science at 
Columbia University in New York and Hamm's long-time attorney, stated in the 
complaint.

"To attempt another execution, particularly in light of the torturous 
circumstances inflicted on Doyle Hamm during the first attempt, would be cruel 
and unusual, and thus unconstitutional," Harcourt states. To try again also 
would violate Hamm's rights against double jeopardy, he adds.

Harcourt states that the failed execution didn't happen by accident because 
they had warned the DOC and court for months that Hamm's veins were too weak 
for a lethal injection. A federal judge had ruled that the DOC could only use 
veins in Hamm's lower extremities before the execution attempt - a process the 
state had never tried.

Hamm, 61, who was convicted of killing Cullman hotel clerk Patrick Cunningham 
in January 1987, has lymphatic cancer and carcinoma and also has Hepatitis C, a 
history of seizures and epilepsy, multiple significant head injuries, and 
severely compromised veins due to years of intravenous drug use, according to 
court documents filed by Harcourt.

Harcourt stated in an email to AL.com that they are filing a petition to the 
circuit court of Cullman County based on double jeopardy and will soon file for 
a rehearing to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The complaints included a report filed by Mark J. S. Heath, a medical doctor 
with a practice in anesthesiology at the New York-Presbyterian/Columbia 
Hospital in New York City. Heath examined Hamm on Feb. 25 at the Holman 
Correctional Facility where most of the state's death row inmates are held.

That exam, according to a report filed with Monday's complaint, found a total 
of 11 lower extremities and right groin puncture wounds. Sudden bleeding by 
Hamm that occurred during the procedure while Hamm was strapped to the gurney 
in the death chamber was consistent with arterial puncture and penetration of a 
ureter, the bladder, the prostate gland, or the urethra, the report states.

Since the failed execution Hamm has suffered not only physically but also 
emotionally, according to the federal complaint. "He has had nightmares and 
flashbacks in which he pictures himself lying on the gurney again, being 
subjected again to the torturous pain that occurred on February 22, 2018. Doyle 
Hamm has been traumatized and lives in fear that ADOC will subject him to 
another painful and botched execution," the complaint states.

The night of the scheduled execution the U.S. Supreme Court had delayed the 
start of the lethal injection procedure but gave the go ahead about 9 p.m. and 
the DOC began prepping Hamm. It was after 11:30 p.m. when word came that the 
execution had been called off. The death warrant expired at midnight and the 
state would have to ask the Alabama Supreme Court to set another date.

Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner Jeff Dunn said medical personnel 
had advised officials that there wasn't enough time to ensure that the 
execution could be conducted in a humane manner. However, Dunn declined to 
detail the exact medical factors behind the decision, and said he didn't want 
to characterize them as a problem.

(source: al.com)

**************

Doyle Lee Hamm wished for death during botched execution, report says



Death-row inmate Doyle Lee Hamm told a doctor that an attempt to execute him 
last month was so painful that he wished for a quick death, according to a 
medical report filed on Monday.

Alabama prison officials called off Hamm's lethal injection Feb. 22 because 
they could not find a viable vein as the clock ticked down to midnight, when 
the death warrant was set to expire.

Hamm's attorney, Bernard Harcourt, said the procedure amounted to torture, with 
an intravenous team repeatedly puncturing his legs before another medical 
worker tried to put a central line in through his groin.

"During this time Mr. Hamm began to hope that the doctor would succeed in 
obtaining IV access so that Mr. Hamm could 'get it over with' because he 
preferred to die rather than to continue to experience the ongoing severe 
pain," Dr. Mark Heath, who was retained by Harcourt to examine Hamm, wrote in 
his report.

"At one point a large amount of blood began to accumulate in the region of Mr. 
Hamm's groin. The blood soaked a pad or drape, and another one was applied."

Heath examined and interviewed Hamm after the execution attempt. Photos he took 
show puncture wounds on the convict's legs and groin, and heavy bruising. Hamm 
has been on death row for 3 decades for the murder of a motel clerk in 1987.

The report, based on Hamm's account of the execution, describes a frantic scene 
in the death chamber, which was closed to all but the execution team at the 
time. It reported the IV team "mashing" needles into his flesh in an effort to 
connect with a good vein. The veins in Hamm's arms had been compromised by 
illness and years of drug use.

A man Hamm assumed was a doctor and a woman working an ultrasound machine then 
arrived to see if the needle could be placed in a larger vein in his groin, but 
that was also unsuccessful, the report says.

After a man who was monitoring the execution - apparently a prison official - 
informed the medical workers that the execution had been canceled, the doctor 
said he wanted to keep trying, according to Hamm's account.

"The doctor then moved to Mr. Hamm's feet and began examining them and 
palpating them, stating that he had not had an opportunity to attempt access in 
the feet," the report said. "The man then told the doctor to 'get out.'"

Heath said that because Hamm reported blood in his urine after the botched 
procedure, his bladder, ureter or prostate may have been punctured. The amount 
of blood he described suggested his femoral artery could have been penetrated, 
the report said.

The Alabama Department of Corrections has declined to comment on Harcourt's 
allegations or release any paperwork related to it, citing ongoing litigation. 
Immediately after the failed execution, the corrections commissioner said he 
did not think the delay represented "a problem" and expected to be able to 
execute Hamm at another time.

Harcourt filed appeals in 2 courts on Monday challenging the legality of trying 
to execute a man twice. Hamm, meanwhile, told the doctor's he's having 
nightmares and daytime flashbacks.

"The flashbacks occur when he is alone, and involve imaging himself strapped to 
the gurney. He can feel his heart racing during the flashbacks," Heath wrote. 
"He is appreciative of the support of other death row prisoners who are asking 
what they can do to help him recover."

(source: NBC News)

********************

Attempts to carry out the death penalty have gone from bad to worse



We are barely into the 3rd month of 2018 and already the state of Alabama's 
attempts to carry out the death penalty have gone from bad to worse.

In late January, 30 minutes before he was supposed to die, the court stayed the 
execution of Vernon Madison because there were questions as to whether he could 
understand why he was being killed.

Madison, 67, has been on death row for more than 3 decades after having been 
found guilty of the murder of Mobile police officer Julius Schulte. His 
attorneys say multiple strokes have left Madison with dementia and he no longer 
has a memory of his crime. They also say he is legally blind, cannot walk on 
his own and has urinary incontinence. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall 
said the state will continue to pursue Madison's execution.

In late February, Alabama tried to kill Doyle Lee Hamm, 61, in what has been 
described as a horrifically botched execution. Hamm, who has spent more than 30 
years on death row for the murder of Patrick Cunningham, a motel clerk in 
Cullman, has been diagnosed with lymphatic cancer. While strapped to a gurney 
for more than 2 1/2 hours, Hamm was repeatedly punctured through his groin as 
officials attempted to find a vein for the lethal injection. Half an hour 
before his death warrant was to expire, the state called off the execution. 
U.S. Chief District Judge Karon Bowdre is expected to begin a review of the 
execution attempt on Tuesday.

On April 19, Alabama is scheduled to execute Walter Leroy Moody, 83, the oldest 
inmate on the state's death row. Moody was convicted of killing federal appeals 
court judge Robert Vance with a pipe bomb he mailed to Vance's home in Mountain 
Brook in 1989.

30 years is a long time to wait to die, but the state is persistent. Alabama 
has spent a lot of money and a lot of energy to usher out these old and infirm 
inmates before nature takes its course. We're sure a lot of readers would agree 
that Madison, Hamm and Moody are examples of why the death penalty process 
should be shortened. But there are 6 men in the past 25 years who are glad it 
wasn't.

Walter McMillian was convicted of murder and sentenced to die in 1988 in 
Monroeville. On March 2, 1993, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals voted 5-0 
to exonerate him and set him free. He sat on death row for 6 years. Larry 
Randal Padgett was sentenced to death in 1992. 5 1/2 years later, he was 
exonerated. Gary Drinkard was sentenced to death in 1995. In 2001 he was 
exonerated. Wesley Quick was sentenced to death in 1997. He was exonerated in 
2003. Daniel Wade Moore was sentenced to death in 2002. He was exonerated in 
2009.

Anthony Hinton was sentenced to death in 1986. He was exonerated in 2015, after 
awaiting his execution for 29 years for crimes he did not commit.

(source: Editorial, Tuscaloosa News)








LOUISIANA:

Sonia Sotomayor Faults SCOTUS for Failing to Protect Right to Effective Counsel 
in Death Row Case----Justice Sotomayor dissents from the denial of certiorari 
in Wessinger v. Vannoy.



Today the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the appeal of a death row inmate 
whose state-appointed attorneys failed to discover and present mitigating 
evidence that might have altered the outcome of his jury trial. Writing in 
dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor faulted her colleagues for refusing to review 
this "deeply unjust and unfair" case. The Court's inaction, Sotomayor declared, 
"belies the 'bedrock principle in our justice system' that a defendant has a 
right to effective assistance of trial counsel, and undermines the protections 
this Court has recognized are necessary to protect that right."

The case of Wessinger v. Vannoy originated in 1997 when Todd Wessinger was 
found guilty of killing 2 people and sentenced to death. Yet as Justice 
Sotomayor pointed out, "Wessinger was sentenced to death by a jury that was 
never presented with significant mitigation evidence that may have convinced 
its members to spare his life," such as the fact that he "suffers from a major 
neurocognitive disorder that compromises his decision-making abilities" and 
"has a hole in the area of his brain associated with executive functioning that 
resulted from some form of cerebrovascular illness."

Wessinger's state-appointed lawyers failed to discover and present such 
evidence as their client's case wound its way through the Louisiana courts. As 
one of those lawyers later admitted under oath, his work was "inadequately 
investigated, rushly put together based on a civil lawyer's understanding of 
what to do, a 1st-year civil lawyer's understanding of what to do."

Represented by new lawyers at the federal level, Wessinger prevailed in 2015 
before the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana, which 
found that his counsel "at the penalty phase was deficient and fell below the 
objectively reasonable norms of capital counsel at a penalty phase." 
Furthermore, the district court said, "there is a reasonable probability that 
the evidence of [Wessinger's] brain damage and other impairments, as well as 
his personal and family history would have swayed at least 1 juror to choose a 
life sentence." The district court then vacated Wessinger's death sentence.

But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit reversed that ruling, leaving 
Wessinger on death row. It was that 5th Circuit decision that the U.S. Supreme 
Court declined to review today, prompting Justice Sotomayor to take the rare 
step of publicly rebuking the other justices for declining to get involved.

"The layers of ineffective assistance of counsel that Wessinger received 
constitute precisely the type of error that warrants relief under this Court's 
precedent," Justice Sotomoyor maintained. "Yet, Wessinger will remain on death 
row without a jury ever considering the significant mitigation evidence that is 
now apparent. Because that outcome is contrary to precedent and deeply unjust 
and unfair, I dissent."

Justice Sotomayor's dissent from the denial of certiorari in Wessinger v. 
Vannoy is available at 
https://www.supremecourt.gov/orders/courtorders/030518zor_pnk0.pdf

(source: reason.com)