Inmate whose lawyer slept in court to get new trial or freedom
Posted on 06/03/2002 8:39:04 AM PDT by MeekOneGOP
Inmate whose lawyer slept in court to get new trial or freedom
06/03/2002
WASHINGTON - A Texas Death Row inmate whose lawyer slept for long portions of his murder trial will either win freedom or a new trial, after the Supreme Court refused to intervene Monday.
The high court rejected an appeal from Texas authorities, who argued that the lawyer's inattention did not necessarily equal an unfair trial.
The Supreme Court's action means that Texas must choose whether to retry Calvin Jerold Burdine or set him free.
AP Calvin Jerold Burdine |
Burdine was convicted of stabbing to death his gay lover, W.T. Wise, at the Houston trailer they shared in 1983. Burdine confessed to police, but now denies killing Wise. He claims an accomplice actually killed Wise, while Burdine tried to talk him out of it.
Jurors and a court clerk later described how court-appointed lawyer Joe Cannon slept for up to 10 minutes at a time during the 1984 trial, and the separate sentencing phase that followed. Burdine was sentenced to death.
Burdine came within moments of execution in 1987 before receiving a court-ordered reprieve.
Cannon, who has since died, denied falling asleep.
Burdine lost several rounds of appeals before a federal court agreed that Cannon's performance violated Burdine's constitutional right to an effective lawyer. A federal appeals court panel first reversed that finding in a highly criticized ruling in 2000. The full appeals court then agreed to hear the case, and agreed with the first court that Burdine did not get a fair chance to defend himself.
Texas' appeal to the Supreme Court claimed that the ruling by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals creates a conflict among federal appeals courts about what constitutes unacceptable lawyer conduct.
The Supreme Court sat on the case for months, apparently because it had agreed to hear a case that raised similar issues about the right of appeal when a death row inmate claims his lawyer was inadequate.
Last week, the court ruled against the Tennessee inmate involved in the other case. The court majority found his lawyer's performance was not bad enough to justify an exception to strict rules intended to shorten death row appeals.
It was not clear Monday why the court acted as it did in Burdine's case. Instead of sending the case back to the appeals court for reconsideration in light of the Tennessee case, the high court rejected Texas' appeal outright.
The Supreme Court has not yet taken a case that asks the broader question of what to do about underprepared or overworked death penalty lawyers. Away from the court, two justices have expressed strong reservations about the quality of legal help that some inmates receive.
The case is Cockrell v. Burdine, 01-495.
Unless his new lawyer can prove that his confession was coerced or that he wasn't Mirandized, he can forget it.
Yes, but a lawyer who's not sleeping may be able to get him a life sentence, not execution.
I think the guy got a repreieve in 1987 and has been spending life in prison since.
Any judge who allows a lawyer to sleep in court should be thrown off the bench.
FMCDH
So if they saw the lawyer sleeping during the trial, why didn't any of them say anything at the time? And what about the Judge who presided over this trial? You mean to tell me he couldn't see that the defendent's lawyer was sleeping. Something's definitely screwy here. Maybe the trial was so boring, they were all sleeping.
Not to mention that the trial court, over Burdine's objections, appointed a second attorney (who has not been accused of sleeping during).
The justices let stand a U.S. appeals court ruling that Calvin Burdine deserved a new trial because his lawyer dozed off frequently enough and for long enough stretches to deprive him of his constitutional right to effective legal assistance.
The high court's action came without any comment or dissent, clearing the way for Burdine, 48, to get a new trial unless prosecutors decide to drop the case.
Texas wanted to carry out the execution. Even though the court-appointed lawyer was "repeatedly unconscious" during the trial, Texas argued it did not affect the outcome, which ended with Burdine being found guilty and sentenced to die for fatally stabbing his gay lover.
According to later testimony from jurors and court officials, the now-dead lawyer, Joe Cannon, slept as many as 10 times, for as long as 10 minutes, during the six-day trial.
Defense lawyers said Cannon slept during a critical part of the case when the prosecutor questioned witnesses and presented evidence.
Texas argued that the performance of a sleeping lawyer should be judged like those of drunk, drugged or mentally ill attorneys. In those cases, a defendant must prove the lawyer's behavior would have affected the outcome.
"The decision in Burdine illogically segregates attorney sleeping from other ... impairments that have indistinguishable effects on an attorney's ability to function during trial," Texas Solicitor General Julie Parsley said in the Supreme Court appeal.
NO PRESUMED HARM FROM SLEEPING LAWYER
She said harm should not be presumed just because the lawyer "intermittently dozed and actually fell asleep."
Parsley said the appeals court was wrong to equate sleeping with temporary absences from trial, which automatically result in reversal of a conviction. Other appeals courts analyze whether such absences amount to a "harmless error," she said.
Parsley predicted the appeals court decision "will invite countless ineffective assistance (of counsel) claims based on any type of intermittent 'unconsciousness' by counsel during trial."
The New Orleans-based appeals court ruled that a sleeping lawyer can exercise no judgement whatsoever, while drunk, drugged or mentally ill lawyers can at least exercise impaired judgement.
Robert McGlasson, who represents Burdine, called the claims by Texas of conflicting appeals court rulings on the issue baseless.
"The decision below is a case-specific, fact-based ruling on a point of such exceeding rarity that the federal courts have seen its like exactly three times since the mid-1980s," he told the justices in urging them to reject the state's appeal.
Burdine was sentenced to die for stabbing to death W.T. "Dub" Wise in 1983 at the trailer home the two shared in Houston. Burdine said he was angry because Wise had asked him to prostitute himself to earn more money.
A federal judge granted Burdine a new trial, based on Cannon's sleeping, but he also said Cannon referred to his client with gay slurs.
A three-judge panel of the appeals court ruled that a sleeping lawyer could provide effective counsel by not dozing during important parts of the trial. But the full appeals court, by a 9-5 vote, ruled for Burdine, deciding his trial was fundamentally unfair.
Yahoo link
Nope... Was still on Death Row, but I guess that will change with the ruling today....... check #758
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