Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> Capital Defense Weekly

Criminal Law

: Capital Defense Weekly

first full week in December edition

By Karl R. Keys, Esq.

From this edition: Leading off this edition is the Arkansas Supreme Court’s decision in Jimmy Don Wooten v. State. On an odd set of facts, in this a 5-2 decision, the Arkansas Supreme Court held that Mr. Wooten could can pursue his claims in a new postconviction proceeding relating to claims trial counsel was ineffective in regard to certain potentially mitigatory factors such mental problems and childhood abuse..  Similar claims were denied, based on procedural default,  at least  in the words of one of the Eighth Circuit judges, due to the “unlikely” availability of a state court taking the action, now taken, to exhaust the issue.  Further, Mr. Wooten’s prior postconviction counsel was a convicted felon who committed errors including filing a Rule 37 petition that suffered from a  “lack of verification [which] constitute[d] a defect or breakdown in the appellate process...continue to full post

Full post as published by Capital Defense Weekly on December 07, 2010 (boomark / email).