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: Capital Defense Weekly

A mid-September edition

By Karl R. Keys, Esq.

This week’s edition is available here. From the intro: Leading off this week is an odd case, Harry Mitts v. Bagley, from the Sixth Circuit.   I call the case odd as the trial court’s instruction  the majority holds, required  jurors to acquit Mr. Mitts of death before they could consider a lesser sentence.  The panel holds that ?Beck [v. Alabama] compels that proper instructions must make clear that the jury does not have to complete its death deliberation before considering a life sentence.” In the instant case, the jury instructions violated clearly established federal law by requiring that “a mandatory death penalty sentence [could] only be avoided by an acquittal before the jury has an opportunity to consider life imprisonment...continue to full post

Full post as published by Capital Defense Weekly on September 16, 2010 (boomark / email).