News & Politics
Delma Banks� Latest Chance
Court Gets Rare Look at Ineffective Counsel, Prosecutor Misconduct Charges in One Case
They say if you die in your dreams, you die in your sleep. For Delma Banks Jr., March 12 must have been like waking up from a nightmare. The Texas death row inmate had polished off his last meal, a cheeseburger and fries. He was 10 minutes from becoming the 300th inmate to die by lethal injection since Texas resumed executions in 1982.
As Banks was about to be strapped to a gurney in the state prison system�s Huntsville Unit, the call came. The U.S. Supreme Court had granted him a stay.
A month later the court agreed to conduct a sweeping review of Banks� case, which raises questions of prosecutor misconduct and ineffective assistance of defense counsel. Banks v. Dretke, No. 02-8286, is scheduled to be heard Dec. 8.
It�s the first time in more than 20 years and the second time since the Supreme Court restored the death penalty in 1976 that the justices have considered both issues in the same case.
The ABA Journal’s article is here.
Woman Asks for Decrease in Fen-Phen Award
BEAUMONT, Texas – A woman awarded more than $1.3 million by a jury last month for heart damage suffered after she used the weight-loss drug Fen-Phen has asked her award be reduced by more than half.
A motion by Deborah Hayes’ attorney asks a state judge to lower her award to $588,480, on the grounds that the jury’s award for future medical care exceeded the amount supported by the evidence.
The jury had recommended Hayes be awarded $810,000 for future medical expenses and $500,000 for future mental anguish.
“We asked the figure be adjusted to what the evidence showed,” Hayes’ attorney, Jim Morris Jr., said Thursday. “We would rather do it now than on appeal two years down the road. I can only keep an award that is supported by the evidence.”
You can read the AP’s full report via Yahoo! here.
Oops? Iowa Judge Grants Divorce To Lesbian Couple
A county judge approved a divorce for a lesbian couple who obtained a civil union in Vermont, saying he didn’t realize he was signing a settlement for a same-sex couple, but ultimately decided to let his decision stand.
Iowa is one of 37 states whose law bans same-sex marriage.
State Sen. Neal Schuerer accused Judge Jeffrey Neary on Thursday of “judicial activism at its worst.”
“The judge was wrong. He should have backed away and sent them back to Vermont,” said Schuerer, a Republican. “If judges want to flaunt the law like this, I can guarantee you we will move to recall them.”
Neary, a district judge for Woodbury County, said he routinely signs divorces and doesn’t check the participants’ gender. When he discovered what had happened last month, said he confronted Dennis Ringgenberg, attorney for one of the women.
“I said this is probably going to be a controversial matter at some point in time,” Neary said, “and he smiled and said, ‘You’re right.”‘
Neary, who was appointed in January by Gov. Tom Vilsack, said he had the opportunity to change his mind but decided against it — the divorce was permissible, he said, under a constitutional clause that requires states to recognize laws of other states.
From the AP here via CNN.com.
Judge, Lawyers Criticized in Reversal of Conviction
Saying that the judge, the defense attorney, and a Suffolk County [MA] prosecutor committed major mistakes, the state’s highest court yesterday ordered a new trial for a former Chelsea man convicted in 1997 of beating his 7-month-old son to death.
The decision in favor of Kareed Baker, who has maintained his innocence and insisted to reporters after his conviction, “I did not kill my son,” was unusual in that the Supreme Judicial Court found fault with every party in the murder trial.
“I don’t think this is the first case” of its kind, Baker’s appellate attorney, Philip G. Cormier, said yesterday, “but I think it’s an extremely rare occurrence, and I think it goes to demonstrate the extent of the miscarriage of justice in this case.”
Justice John M. Greaney, writing for the unanimous court, pointedly found fault with Baker’s defense lawyer, Scott P. Curtis; former Suffolk Assistant District Attorney Pamela J. Wechsler; and Suffolk Superior Court Judge Thomas E. Connolly. “In this case, conduct by the defendant’s trial counsel, the prosecutor, and the judge each contributed to a verdict that cannot be said to be fair,” Greaney wrote.
Baker was accused of slamming his son, Dymitris, into the wall of his Lafayette Avenue apartment in Chelsea on Sept. 12, 1996. At the time, Baker was 23 and living with the baby’s mother, Naomi Poe, who was 16. Poe testified as a prosecution witness.
An intersting article from The Boston Globe.
More: Pennie & Edmonds to Fire Staff in Jones Day Takeover
Employees at New York�s Pennie & Edmonds face a difficult Christmas after management broke the news that job losses would follow the firm�s takeover by Jones Day.
Pennie is on the cusp of finalising a combination with Cleveland�s Jones Day that is expected to be resolved in days.
Due to the takeover, Pennie management said in a memo earlier this week that it was the intention to wind-up the 120 year-old firm by 31 December, according to the New York Journal.
It is expected that the majority of Pennie�s partners will join Jones Day, but the offers have been extended to lawyers individually and not the firm as a whole.
London’s The Lawyer.com has further details here.
Back to the Future for Parole Policies
Prisoner advocates had hoped that California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger would grant parole more often than his predecessor.
But those hopes began to fade over the weekend as the new governor upended a handful of decisions by the Board of Prison Terms.
Schwarzenegger reversed three decisions Friday night to grant parole to convicted murderers. That comes after two other reversals in recent days and one request that the board review a parole decision. Julie Dobie, a Schwarzenegger spokeswoman, said the administration had no comment on the governor’s weekend parole reversals.
The moves echo the hard-line policy on parole by former Gov. Gray Davis. During his five years in office, Davis reversed nearly every BOP decision involving a convicted murderer. He approved only eight releases of 294 murderers that came across his desk.
It would seem to add to the aura of injustice if a couple of parolees got out because their cases came fortuitously before the governor before he had decided on a hard-line policy, and while he was still trying to distinguish himself from Davis. Giving politicians too immediate a hand in the justice system is rarely a good idea. Details here from The Recorder.
Pennie & Edmonds to Close Doors by Year’s End
Intellectual property boutique Pennie & Edmonds will ring in the new year by closing its doors and firing some of its lawyers and staff.
Ahead of a likely announcement of a deal for many — but not all — Pennie & Edmonds lawyers to join the New York office of Jones Day, Pennie & Edmonds’ management informed associates and staff members Monday that the 190-lawyer firm will cease practicing law and wind up affairs by Dec. 31.
Pennie & Edmonds, founded in 1883, will soon become one of the largest and most prominent New York law firms to have closed its doors outside of a full-fledged merger with another firm.
Just in time for the holidays! The New York Law Journal reports it here.
Florida Court Tosses ‘Wrestling Death’ Conviction
An appeals court Wednesday threw out a boy’s conviction for beating a 6-year-old playmate to death in a case that focused attention on a Florida law that says child murderers must be locked away for the rest of their lives.
The 4th District Court of Appeal ordered a new trial for Lionel Tate, 16, saying his mental competency should have been evaluated before his trial. He was tried as an adult and is serving life without parole at a maximum-security juvenile prison.
“Questions regarding Tate’s competency were not lurking subtly in the background, but were readily apparent, as his immaturity and developmental delays were very much at the heart of the defense,” Judge Barry J. Stone wrote.
Tate’s lawyers argued that Tate, then 12, was imitating the pro wrestling moves he saw on television and did not mean to kill Tiffany Eunick. The 48-pound girl was punched, kicked and stomped to death by Tate, who weighed 170 pounds.
The case has raised questions about a controversial Florida law that requires children convicted of first-degree murder to get life in prison without parole. Florida has been widely criticized for using the law to lock up children
The court did not consider the viability of the law itself, the AP report here. I linked a NY Times article about the case last January here.
UPDATE (1/26/04): He’s now free.