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"Court steps into murder case over jury's gifts"

"Court steps into murder case over jury's gifts": Mark Sherman of The Associated Press has a report that begins, "A closely divided Supreme Court has given hope to a Georgia death row inmate, ordering a federal appeals court to take a new look at his case because of raunchy gifts that jurors sent the judge and a courtroom bailiff."

According to the article, "At issue is whether Wellons received a fair trial in light of disclosures that, after the penalty phase, the jurors sent chocolate in the shape of a penis to the judge and chocolate in the shape of a pair of breasts to the bailiff."

You can access today's per curiam ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court in Wellons v. Hall, No. 09-5731, at this link.

Who knew that a death penalty jury in Georgia state court would find it appropriate to send the judge a chocolate penis? See, e.g., chocolate log cake described in footnote 4 of Guide to Episode 51 of "Curb Your Enthusiasm."

Full post as published by How Appealing on January 19, 2010 (boomark / email).