No. 22-7382

Tarus Vandell Sales v. Texas

Lower Court: Texas
Docketed: 2023-04-26
Status: Denied
Type: IFP
IFP
Tags: actual-innocence constitutional-rights criminal-procedure death-penalty eighth-amendment enmund-v-florida fourteenth-amendment habeas-corpus law-of-parties sixth-amendment tison-v-arizona
Latest Conference: 2023-09-26
Question Presented (from Petition)

1. Whether Mr. Sales's death sentence violates the Sixth, Eighth, and
Fourteenth Amendments, where the jury did not and could not find, based on the
evidence at trial, that Mr. Sales (as a non-triggerman) intended to kill or acted as a
major participant in the shooter's crime with reckless indifference to human life—as
required by this Court's precedent in Enmund v. Florida, 458 U.S. 782 (1982), Tison
v. Arizona, 481 U.S. 1387 (1987), Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466 (2000), and
Ring v. Arizona, 536 U.S. 584 (2002)?

2. Whether the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ("TCCA") violated Mr.
Sales's Fourteenth Amendment rights by deferring to the trial court's clearly
erroneous findings—based on improper and unequally applied legal principles and
facts in direct contravention of clearly established federal law—to apply an
inapplicable procedural bar to prevent Mr. Sales's constitutional claims from being
heard?

3. Whether the cumulative impact of the TCCA's errors outlined in
Questions 1 and 2 undermine all confidence in the constitutionality of Mr. Sales's
death sentence, such that no reasonable juror assessing the newly discovered
evidence of Mr. Sales's actual innocence would be able to make a constitutionally
sufficient finding at sentencing to warrant the death penalty?

Question Presented (AI Summary)

Whether Mr. Sales's death sentence violates the Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments

Docket Entries

2023-10-02
Petition DENIED.
2023-08-10
DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 9/26/2023.
2023-08-10
2023-07-26
Brief of respondent Texas in opposition filed.
2023-06-02
Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is extended to and including July 26, 2023.
2023-06-01
Motion to extend the time to file a response from May 26, 2023 to July 26, 2023, submitted to The Clerk.
2023-04-24
Petition for a writ of certiorari and motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis filed. (Response due May 26, 2023)

Attorneys

Tarus Vandell Sales
Kenneth W McGuireMcGuire Law Firm, Petitioner
Texas
Ali Mustapha NasserTexas Office of the Attorney General, Respondent