A group of 15 for­mer state and fed­er­al judges, includ­ing a for­mer Chief Justice of the Missouri Supreme Court, has filed an ami­cus brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit in sup­port of a stay of exe­cu­tion for Mark Christeson in Missouri. Christeson is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed on October 29, but the judges said he has not received ​“any mean­ing­ful fed­er­al review of his death sen­tence.” In their brief, orga­nized by the Constitution Project, the judges stat­ed: “[O]ur sys­tem would be bro­ken indeed if it did not even pro­vide him with an oppor­tu­ni­ty, assist­ed by con­flict-free coun­sel, to present his case to a fed­er­al court.” The sup­port­ive appeal was signed by judges from across the coun­try, includ­ing Nathaniel Jones, for­mer­ly of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, Karla Gray, for­mer Chief Justice of the Montana Supreme Court, Gerald Kogan, for­mer Chief Justice of the Florida Supreme Court, Marsha K. Ternus, for­mer Chief Justice of the Iowa Supreme Court, and Michael A. Wolff, for­mer Chief Justice of the Missouri Supreme Court.

The judges fur­ther not­ed the sys­temic prob­lems that sur­round this case: ​“Cases, includ­ing this one, are falling through the cracks of the sys­tem. And when the stakes are this high, such fail­ures unac­cept­ably threat­en the very legit­i­ma­cy of the judicial process.”

Christeson’s jury nev­er heard evi­dence of his impov­er­ished and abu­sive upbring­ing, and his state court review was denied by the same judge who over­saw his tri­al. The lawyers appoint­ed to him for his fed­er­al review effec­tive­ly aban­doned him, not even meet­ing him for the first time until a month after the dead­line for fil­ing his appeal. As a result, his peti­tion was filed four months late and was denied review by a fed­er­al court. The lawyers who made the mis­take remained on the case, there­by cre­at­ing a con­flict of inter­est since effec­tive­ly advo­cat­ing for Christeson would mean admit­ting their own error.

(Press Release, ​“TCP: Judges’ Brief Warns Allowing Christeson Execution to Proceed Without Court Review Would ​“cast a pall” over the Judicial Process,” The Constitution Project, October 24, 2014; Christeson v. Roper, BRIEF OF FORMER FEDERAL AND STATE JUDGES AS AMICI CURIAE IN SUPPORT OF APPELLANT’S MOTION FOR A STAY PENDING APPEAL, October 24, 2014). See New Voices and Representation.

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