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News
Supreme Court News Resources
Supreme Court News Stories from 2003
- About
Broken Links
- Supreme
Court Halt Texas Execution
HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) -- The U.S. Supreme
Court halted the execution Wednesday of a
condemned inmate who was part of a lawsuit
that challenged one of the drugs used to
carry out the death sentence. Kevin Lee Zimmerman
won his reprieve about 20 minutes before
he could have been put to death. (12/10/03,
Rocky Mountain News)
- Justices Hear Death Penalty Case Appeal
WASHINGTON
(CNN) -- The Supreme Court Monday questioned
why Texas officials withheld crucial
evidence from the defense in a high-profile
death penalty case in Texas. The query renewed
long-standing debate about whether capital
defendants consistently receive
adequate representation and fair treatment
from the courts. The case involves Delma
Banks. (12/8/03, CNN.com)
- Supreme
Court to Clarify Ruling's Impact
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court said
Monday it will clarify the impact of its
ruling last year that juries, not a judge,
must decide if a convicted killer lives or
dies. The high court forced changes in the
death penalty laws of five states in 2002
because those states gave judges the final
say. But the court did not make clear how
its ruling should apply retroactively to
inmates already on death row.Lower courts
have divided over that question, which affects
more than 100 death row inmates,
and the Supreme Court has agreed to clear
up the confusion. Separately, the court agreed
to hear an appeal from an Alabama death row inmate
who claims execution by lethal injection would
be unconstitutionally cruel because of his medical
condition. He is on death row for a 1978 murder.
(12/1/03, CNN.com)
- Court Avoids World Debate on Death Penalty
WASHINGTON
(AP) -- Despite the concerns of two justices,
the U.S. Supreme Court refused
Monday to be drawn into an international death
penalty debate over the legal rights of a Mexican
on Oklahoma's death row. The court was asked
to consider whether American prosecutors are
violating a 1963 international treaty when
they do not notify foreign governments about
death penalty cases involving people from their
countries. That issue is being debated internationally.
(11/17/03, CNN.com)
- Death
Row Inmate Loses Supreme Court Plea
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- The Supreme Court
Monday rejected an appeal by a death row
inmate who argued his constitutional rights
had been violated when he was forced to take
anti-psychotic drugs that made him mentally
competent to be executed. Without any comment,
the justices refused to review a federal appeals
court ruling
that the state does not violate the Constitution
by executing an inmate who has regained mental
competency through forced medication that
is part of appropriate medical care. The
case involved Arkansas death row inmate Charles
Singleton. (10/6/03, CNN.com)
- Supreme
Court Looking at Death Penalty Instructions
WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court picked a
Pennsylvania shooting rampage case on Tuesday
to settle whether dozens of old death sentences
should be thrown out because of poorly written
jury instructions. Justices will decide if
some longtime death row inmates deserve a
second chance at life sentences, under their
1988 ruling that set new standards for jury
instructions. The court has refused before
to consider whether that ruling was retroactive,
applying to people
already on death row at the time. The justices
decided to do so in the
case of George E. Banks. (10/1/03, The Daily Camera)
- Supreme
Court Addresses Ineffective Counsel
A Maryland man will receive a new sentencing
hearing after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled
that the performance of his defense counsel
did not meet minimum standards as guaranteed
by the Sixth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
... U.S. Supreme Court heard the Keith Wiggins
case after the conservative Fourth Circuit
Court of Appeals refused to apply the standard
that the Supreme Court set in its 1984 Strickland
decision to Wiggins. The Strickland ruling
set out minimal standards that defense attorneys
must meet when representing their clients
in death penalty cases. (6/26/03, NCADP)
- High
Court Will Hear Texas Death Row Inmate's
Appeal
WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court said Monday
it will take a fresh look at the quality of
lawyers assigned to represent murder defendants
and what happens when overworked, lazy or incompetent
attorneys fail to do all they can to keep a
client off death row. The court agreed to hear
the case of Texas' longest-serving death row
inmate. The court stepped in to temporarily
spare Delma Banks' life minutes before his
scheduled execution in March, and will now
hear his full appeal. (4/22/03, The Daily Camera)
- High
Court Finds Prosecutors' Race Bias
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- An African-American
man's murder conviction has been thrown into
doubt after the Supreme Court Tuesday found
Texas prosecutors used "race bias" during
jury selection. By an 8-1 margin, the justices
ruled district attorneys in Dallas employed "race-based" challenges
to exclude 10 of 11 African-Americans eligible
to serve as jurors on the 1986 capital murder
case. Citing "the prosecution's use of
the jury shuffle and the historical evidence
of racial discrimination by the Dallas County
District Attorney's Office," the court
determined Thomas Joe Miller-El's constitutional
right to a fair trial had been violated. (2/25/03,
CNN.com)
- Supreme
Court Rejects Youth Offender Appeal
WASHINGTON -- Four Supreme Court justices
want to ban the execution of very young killers,
but they apparently cannot persuade their colleagues
to reopen the debate. The high court did not
comment in turning down an appeal Monday from
an Oklahoma death row inmate who was 17 when
he helped burn a young couple alive in the
trunk of their car. Death penalty opponents
had hoped the court would use the case to broaden
an ongoing review of how the punishment is
carried out and who belongs on death row. (1/28/02,
The Daily Camera)
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