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Cone v. Bell

By Karl R. Keys, Esq.

The Court has released the opinion in Cone v. Bell(07-1114). The decision is 7-2 (Stevens, J., writing Kennedy, Souter, Ginsburg, & Breyer, J.J.) in, and the Chief Justice and Justice Alito concurring in separate opinions). In the 27 years since Gary Cone was convicted of murder and sentenced to death, no Tennessee court has reached the merits of his claim that state prosecutors withheld evidence that would have bolstered his defense and rebutted the State?s attempts to cast doubt on his alleged drug addiction. Today we hold that the Tennessee courts? procedural rejection of Cone?s Brady claim does not bar federal habeas review of the merits of that claim. Although we conclude that the suppressed evidence was not material to Cone?s conviction for first-degree murder,the lower courts erred in failing to assess the cumulative effect of the suppressed evidence with respect to Cone?scapital sentence...continue to full post

Full post as published by Capital Defense Weekly on April 28, 2009 (boomark / email).