Capital Petition for Cert to the Supreme Court
by: Ryan • December 21, 2014 • no comments
You'll find here a link to a link to a petition for cert that has the following issues:
Issue: (1) Whether the former Texas special issues for death penalty sentencing do provide – as the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals held – or do not provide – as the Fifth Circuit has held – an appropriate vehicle for the jury to consider and give full effect to mitigating evidence of good character, such that failure to provide a separate question violates the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments under this Court’s jurisprudence in Penry v. Lynaugh and Penry v. Johnson; (2) whether a conviction aided by the prosecution’s failure to produce evidence that contradicted its theory and showed that the evidence it did rely upon and the resulting jury arguments were false violates the Due Process Clauses of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments under this Court’s Brady v. Maryland jurisprudence; and (3) whether executing a defendant who has already served more than 30 years on death row while exercising his legal rights in a non-abusive manner serves any penological purpose and amounts to cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments.
I don't know if (1) would have any impact in Oregon but others would have an opinion. Feel free to chime in if you are one of them. As for (2), are you saying a Texas prosecutor might hold back exculpatory evidence? No, I don't believe it. And as for (3), well, I imagine a few people on Oregon's death row might soon benefit from a favorable opinion on that issue.
