Eugene Clemons May Be Ineligible for the Death Penalty. A Rigid Clinton-Era Law Could Force Him to

[WhiskeyGrinder]

Eugene Clemons May Be Ineligible for the Death Penalty. A Rigid Clinton-Era Law Could Force Him to Be Executed Anyway

https://www.propublica.org/article/eugene-clemons-death-penalty

In the spring of 2000, James S. Christie Jr. left his law firm in Birmingham, Alabama, for a short drive to the Shelby County Clerk’s office. He was going to clear up some confusion, a seemingly small technical error that had been bothering him for months. The clerk’s office kept claiming that it had no record of a document Christie said he had filed at the end of the previous December. That document, and its timing, were exceedingly important. It alleged, among other things, that the trial attorneys for a man on death row had defended him so badly, neglecting to call even a single witness to convince the jury to vote against execution, that the man’s right to a fair trial had been compromised.

Christie knew Shelby County should have had proof of the document’s existence. A few months earlier, on December 27, 1999, Christie’s courier had delivered the filing to the clerk’s office and been handed back a copy, stamped at the top in red and blue with the words “received & filed,” along with the date and the clerk’s name. Christie had that copy of the document right there in his hand.

The 41-page petition contained critical information — claims no court had yet considered — about a man named Eugene Clemons. It described how his lawyers, when it came time to argue that his life should be spared for killing a Drug Enforcement Administration agent, completely ignored the long history of abuse Clemons had suffered. They’d also failed to point out that Clemons had well-documented mental disabilities: As a first grader, he was described by school officials as “educably mentally retarded.” If jurors had been made aware of Clemons’ history, of the life he had lived before he was arrested at age 20, perhaps they would have voted against his death sentence.

(snip)

Now, standing inside the Shelby County courthouse, Christie showed a clerk’s office employee his stamped copy of the filing. She acknowledged that the document in his hand was real, but still, the office staff could find no record of the original. Christie set about trying to find it.

[marble falls]

1. Killing people over missing paperwork. Speechless.

[secondwind]

2. DAMN..... we are better than this!

[Patterson]

3. Apparently this is exactly how we are.

[MichMan]

4. President Biden should issue a pardon

[BGBD]

5. No, he shouldn't.

As Clemons turned away from the podium where he stood to receive his sentence, he smiled and looked squarely at the family of the victim, Drug Enforcement Administration agent Doug Althouse.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Barnett said Clemons showed a total lack of remorse when he ″appeared to gloat, even during sentencing, at the family in their grief.″

https://apnews.com/article/85a8619d5649ab0e39fe5bda56422be3

He should have considered what would happen to him for killing a man to steal his car. Besides, the death penalty charge is a state case.