No. 19-6531

Demetrius Frazier v. Jefferson S. Dunn, Commissioner, Alabama Department of Corrections

Lower Court: Eleventh Circuit
Docketed: 2019-11-06
Status: Denied
Type: IFP
IFP
Tags: 28-usc-2244 capital-sentencing capital-sentencing-scheme certificate-of-appealability constitutional-challenge fourteenth-amendment habeas-corpus second-or-successive-petition sixth-amendment
Key Terms:
ERISA DueProcess HabeasCorpus Punishment
Latest Conference: 2020-02-21
Question Presented (from Petition)

Whether the Eleventh Circuit should have issued a certificate of appealability because reasonable jurists could disagree over the district court's resolution of the following three issues:

1) Whether Alabama's capital sentencing scheme, which relegated the jury to an advisory role and empowered the judge to make the findings necessary to impose a death sentence, violated Mr. Frazier's rights under the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments?

2) Whether Mr. Frazier's petition constituted a second or successive petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2244 where the legality of Mr. Frazier's detention under the rule announced by the United States Supreme Court in Hurst v. Florida, 136 S. Ct. 616 (2016), had not been determined by a judge or court of the United States on a prior application for a writ of habeas corpus?

3) If, under the facts of this case, Mr. Frazier's petition did constitute a second or successive petition, whether 28 U.S.C. § 2244 unconstitutionally suspends the writ of habeas corpus as applied to the circumstances of this case?

Question Presented (AI Summary)

Whether the Eleventh Circuit should have issued a certificate of appealability

Docket Entries

2020-02-24
Petition DENIED.
2020-01-23
DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 2/21/2020.
2020-01-17
Reply of petitioner Demetrius Frazier filed.
2020-01-03
Brief of respondent Commissioner, Alabama Department of Corrections in opposition filed.
2019-11-21
Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is extended to and including January 6, 2020.
2019-11-19
Motion to extend the time to file a response from December 6, 2019 to January 5, 2020, submitted to The Clerk.
2019-10-31
Petition for a writ of certiorari and motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis filed. (Response due December 6, 2019)

Attorneys

Commissioner, Alabama Department of Corrections
Beth Jackson HughesOffice of the Attorney General, Respondent
Demetrius Frazier
Natalie Carroll Rezek OlmsteadFederal Defenders Middle District of Alabama, Petitioner