FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Monday, January 15, 2001 CONTACT: BRENDA BOWSER
(202) 293‑6970

** PRESS ADVISORY **

IN RARE MOVE, FULL CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS WILL REVIEW DEATH ROW INMATE’S ​“SLEEPING LAWYER” CLAIM

Judges to exam­ine pan­el’s con­tro­ver­sial rul­ing in Burdine’s denial of counsel case

WASHINGTON, DC — The full U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit will review an ear­li­er rul­ing in the case of Calvin J. Burdine, a Texas death row inmate whose ​“sleep­ing lawyer” claim drew nation­al atten­tion dur­ing last year’s Presidential cam­paign. Burdine’s appeal includ­ed accounts by jurors and a court clerk that his orig­i­nal coun­sel, Joe Frank Cannon, fre­quent­ly slept dur­ing his tri­al. At the upcom­ing hear­ing, the full Circuit’s 14 judges will review the October 2 – 1 split deci­sion that deter­mined a defen­dant in a cap­i­tal mur­der tri­al does not have an absolute right to an attor­ney who stays awake dur­ing the entire tri­al. In his vig­or­ous dis­sent of the deci­sion, Judge Benavides said that send­ing a man to death row under these cir­cum­stances ​“shocks the conscience.”

The Death Penalty Information Center today announced the fol­low­ing details for attor­ney media avail­abil­i­ty dur­ing the upcom­ing hear­ing in New Orleans:
WHAT: Full Fifth Circuit Court reviews Burdine’s ​“Sleeping Lawyer” Appeal DATE: Monday, January 22, 2001 TIME: Hearing is sched­uled to begin at 9:00 A.M.
(There will be media avail­abil­i­ty before and fol­low­ing the hear­ing.) WHERE: 5th Circuit Courthouse
600 Camp Street
New Orleans, Louisiana AVAILABLE
FOR COMMENT: Robert McGlasson Burdine’s attor­ney since 1987
phone: 404/​688‑7530 Stephen Bright Director of the Southern Center for Human Rights
phone: 404/​688‑1202 Clive Stafford Smith Louisiana Crisis Assistance Center
phone: 504/​558‑9867 George Kendall
(atten­dance not con­firmed) NAACP Legal Defense Fund
phone: 212/​965‑2267

For fur­ther details about the hear­ing or addi­tion­al back­ground infor­ma­tion about this case, please con­tact Robert McGlasson by call­ing (404) 688‑7530. # # #