On January 18, the U.S. Supreme Court (7 – 2) ordered a new hear­ing in fed­er­al court for Cory Maples, an Alabama death row inmate whose state and fed­er­al appeals had been reject­ed by low­er courts because his lawyers quit and missed a crit­i­cal fil­ing dead­line. Writing for six of the Court’s Justices, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg high­light­ed the poor qual­i­ty of rep­re­sen­ta­tion offered by the state in death penal­ty cas­es. The opin­ion stat­ed, ​“Alabama sets low eli­gi­bil­i­ty require­ments for lawyers appoint­ed to rep­re­sent indi­gent cap­i­tal defen­dants at tri­al…. Appointed coun­sel need only be a mem­ber of the Alabama bar and have ​‘five years’ pri­or expe­ri­ence in the active prac­tice of crim­i­nal law.’ Experience with cap­i­tal cas­es is not required.” Justice Ginsburg also not­ed that Alabama is near­ly alone in not guar­an­tee­ing rep­re­sen­ta­tion in post-con­vic­tion pro­ceed­ings, elect­ing instead ​“to rely on the efforts of well-fund­ed [out-of-state] vol­un­teers.” Finally, the opin­ion empha­sized that appoint­ed coun­sel in death penal­ty cas­es are severe­ly under com­pen­sat­ed by the state: ​“Although death penal­ty lit­i­ga­tion is plain­ly time inten­sive, the State capped at $1,000 fees recov­er­able by cap­i­tal defense attor­neys for out-of- court work. Even today, court-appoint­ed attor­neys receive only $70 per hour.” The Court final­ly not­ed that ​“On occa­sion, some pris­on­ers sen­tenced to death receive no post­con­vic­tion rep­re­sen­ta­tion at all.” Maples’s under­ly­ing claim, which he was pre­vent­ed from appeal­ing because his absent lawyers missed the dead­line, was that he received inef­fec­tive rep­re­sen­ta­tion at tri­al. Neither of his tri­al coun­sel had ever tried the penal­ty phase of a capital case.

(U.S. Supreme Court, Maples v. Thomas, No. 10 – 63, January 18, 2012; post­ed Jan. 26, 2012). See Representation and U.S. Supreme Court.

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