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Tompkins: No Certificate of Appealability for Death-Row Inmate

By Tim Cone

In Tompkins v. Sec., Dep?t of Corrections, No. 09-10022 (Feb. 9, 2009), the Court denied habeas relief to a Florida inmate sentenced to death for a 25-year old murder.Tompkins argued that his latest § 2254 motion should not be considered "second or successive," and should therefore not require a certificate of appealability, because Panetti v. Quaterman?s 2007 holding that a death-row inmate?s claim that he was incompetent for execution did not trigger the "second or successive" bar, because this claim was not ripe until the inmate was subject to execution. Tompkins sought to extent Panetti to situations, like his, where a habeas claim rested on evidence that was newly discovered after trial but before execution. The Court rejected this argument...continue to full post

Full post as published by Defense Newsletter Blog on February 13, 2009 (boomark / email).