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Hearing Ordered for Capital Habeas Petitioner Troy Davis on Innocence Claim

By Shari Allison

In Re Davis, 2009 WL 2486475 (8/17/09) - An order that was unusual for two reasons: (1) it was issued in the summer; and (2) it dealt with an original habeas filing, which for almost 50 years the tens of thousands of such petitions have always resulted in summary denials. The Court (Stevens, Ginsburg and Breyer plus at least two of Kennedy, Alito and Roberts) (Sotomayor did not vote) transferred the famous Troy Davis case to the Georgia federal district court to "receive testimony and make findings of fact as to whether evidence that could not have been obtained at the time of trial clearly establishes petitioner's innocence." The Court did not explain the ruling any further. Stevens, joined by Ginsburg and Breyer explained in a concurrence that the petitioner might be entitled to relief, despite AEDPA's stringent standards, because (a) it might be unconstitutional to prohibit relief for a capital defendant who has proven himself to be actually innocent; (b) maybe AEDPA doesn't apply to original habeas petitions in the S...continue to full post

Full post as published by Tenth Circuit Blog on August 19, 2009 (boomark / email).