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Supreme Court Reverses Ninth Circuit in Capital Case (Again)

By Michael Romano

The U.S. Supreme Court reversed the Ninth Circuit in an Arizona death penalty case today.  Schriro v. Landrigan, No. 05-1575.  Writing for a five-member majority, Justice Thomas ruled that the defendant instructed his attorney not to present mitigating evidence at his sentencing hearing and that therefore the admitted errors his trial attorney made in failing to develop a mitigation case were harmless.  Thus, the district court did not abuse its discretion in denying an evidentiary hearing on the defendant's federal habeas petition.  An en banc panel of the Ninth Circuit came to the opposite conclusion last year, holding that the defendant?s instructions to his trial attorney were taken out of context and, in any event, any such instructions by the defendant were neither informed nor knowing...continue to full post

Full post as published by Criminal Appeal on May 14, 2007 (boomark / email).