Entries tagged with “Rubberstamping”
Issues
May 07, 2020
Capital Case Roundup — Death Penalty Court Decisions the Week of May 4, 2020
NEWS (5/7/20) — Florida: The Florida Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence imposed on Leonardo Franqui, denying post-conviction challenges to his death sentence based upon claims that he is ineligible for the death penalty because of intellectual disability and that his death sentence was unconstitutionally imposed after some members of his jury voted for life. The court rejected Franqui’s claim of intellectual disability, saying he had not proven by clear and convincing evidence that he…
Issues
May 21, 2019
Supreme Court Denies Review in Death-Penalty Case Where Texas Judge Rubberstamped Prosecution’s Findings
The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to review a case in which the Texas courts decided a death-row prisoner’s appeal by adopting the prosecution’s fact findings and legal arguments word-for-word without providing the defendant’s lawyer any opportunity to respond. In a May 20, 2019 ruling, the Court without comment denied the petition for writ of certiorari filed by Ray Freeney (pictured), thereby permitting the Harris County prisoner’s conviction and death sentence to stand. The decision was…
Issues
Executions Overview
,May 17, 2018
Texas Executes Juan Castillo Without a Hearing on His Claims of Innocence and Ineffective Representation
Texas executed Juan Castillo (pictured) on May 16, 2018, after its state courts stayed his execution to address whether his conviction and death sentence for a botched robbery and murder had been a product of false testimony, but then denied him an evidentiary hearing necessary to prove that claim. No physical evidence implicated Castillo in the murder, and he consistently asserted his innocence. To convict him, Bexar County prosecutors presented testimony from several admitted perpetrators…
Issues
Jul 26, 2016
Defendant Seeks Supreme Court Review of Prosecutorial Ghostwriting, A Widespread Practice in Capital Cases
Doyle Lee Hamm (pictured), an Alabama death row prisoner, has asked the United States Supreme Court to consider his case after Alabama’s state and federal appellate courts upheld an order in which the trial court rejected his appeal by adopting word-for-word an 89-page order written by the state attorney general’s office. In a process The Marshall Project’s Andrew Cohen described as “a sham,” the court dismissed Hamm’s appeal one business day after receiving the prosecution’s proposed order…