US supreme court to hear case that could have dire consequences for death row inmates
Source: The Guardian
The US supreme court will hear arguments from two Arizona death row inmates on Wednesday in a case that could have devastating consequences for prisoners attempting to prove their innocence before they are sent to the execution chamber.
State officials in Arizona are asking the nations highest court to bar the two condemned prisoners one with a strong claim of innocence, the other with a history of intellectual disability and family abuse from presenting evidence in federal court that could save their lives.
The Arizona officials argue the prisoners should not be allowed to put forward the evidence because they failed to do so in state court at an earlier stage in their legal proceedings.
But the prisoners protest they had no chance of seeking redress at state level because the lawyers they were assigned by Arizona were so woefully incompetent at trial that they failed to uncover crucial evidence that could have spared them from death row. After conviction, they were assigned a second set of lawyers who were equally ineffective and who as a result made no challenge to the gross mishandling of their defense at trial.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/08/us-supreme-court-arizona-death-penalty-case
Smackdown2019
(1,169 posts)Noticed the states that support judgements over the truth? They are conservative states! They rather fry an innocent person, rather admit they had the wrong individual.
Republicans believe truth will not set you free. .....
That is why they LIE!
crickets
(25,896 posts)Now Arizona Republicans are trying to impose a new impediment. Prisoners can present claims that their lawyers were ineffective as Martinez requires, but they cant produce any evidence to back up those claims.
Obviously, presenting a claim with no evidence at all isnt much of a claim, Litman said.
How can you bar someone from defending their claim with evidence? That makes no sense.