On Monday the U. S. Supreme Court dealt a severe blow to criminal justice affecting as so often in this country the poorer defendant who cannot afford a top notch attorney for his/her trial. The ruling will make it harder for defendants to seek relief from federal courts on claims that their convictions in state court were tainted by ineffective counsel. Recently we have seen again and again that the claim of developmental disability has been rejected because the claim came too late. And so the client gets executed because of the negligence of the court appointed attorney! We particularly like this quote from the Washington Post: “Justice Sonia Sotomayor issued a stinging rebuttal, calling Thomas’s opinion “perverse” and “illogical,” and said that it “reduced to rubble” previous Supreme Court findings that the constitutional right to effective counsel is a “bedrock principle” in an adversary system of criminal justice.”
In discussing the weekly notes from the DPIC we saw once more that beside the obvious reasons why the state has no right to take a life, it also does not have that right because of the secrecy involved which promotes lies and denials. Three headlines illustrate this: “Expert Calls Arizona’s First Execution in Eight Years ‘Botched’ After Witnesses Report Problems Inserting IV” and “Fallout From Aborted Tennessee Execution: Prosecutors Misrepresented Facts in Federal Lawsuit, 2 Members of Execution Team Knew Drugs Had Not Been Tested. And affecting us directly: “The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit has appointed amicus curiae counsel in the Alabama Attorney General's appeal of sanctions for misrepresentations made in the federal lethal injection litigation.” Lies and denials!
Once more we were honored by having our Weekly Report included in The Revealer Newsletter, Volume 11, Issue 5 written and published by Leon E. “Chief” Frazier, Law Enforcement Professional since 1965. Thank you, Chief, we will always be in your debt!
We are happy to be able to report that the next edition of our quarterly newsletter Wings of Hope is on its way to the printer.
In closing and as always, we continue to thank all our generous donors who either gave by going to our website and using the “donate” button or who gave directly. Thank you also to all who took the time to read our notes, commented, liked and shared them on Facebook. You encourage us and make all the difference. Stay safe!
Esther