death-penalty

603 cases — ← All topics

Case Title Lower Court Docketed Status Flags Tags Question Presented
25A926 Melvin Trotter v. Florida Florida 2026-02-19 Application cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty eighth-amendment lethal-injection protocol-violation stay-of-execution Question not identified.
25-6774 Charles Don Flores v. Texas Texas 2026-02-10 Pending IFP actual-innocence death-penalty due-process habeas-corpus liberty-interest state-procedural-rule Where a state has created liberty interests that give death-sentenced prisoners with credible claims of innocence vehicles for proving their innocence…
25A877 Dylann Storm Roof v. United States District Court for the District of South Carolina Fourth Circuit 2026-02-04 Application criminal-justice death-penalty federal-procedure judicial-recusal post-conviction writ-of-mandamus Question not identified.
25-6647 Emanuel Johnson, Sr. v. Ricky D. Dixon, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections, et al. Eleventh Circuit 2026-01-22 Pending IFP certificate-of-appealability conflict-of-interest death-penalty federal-review habeas-corpus postconviction-review 1. Under the threshold certificate of appealability standard, could reasonable jurists debate a district court's refusal to consolidate inextricably i…
25A821 Taylor Rene Parker v. Texas Texas 2026-01-16 Application capital-punishment criminal-culpability death-penalty eighth-amendment intellectual-disability mental-capacity Question not identified.
25-6451 Thomas Steven Sanders v. United States Fifth Circuit 2025-12-30 Pending Response RequestedResponse WaivedIFP appellate-review case-or-controversy commutation death-penalty federal-sentencing mootness Following commutation of a death sentence to life in prison without the possibility of release, does a case or controversy regarding the death penalty…
25A752 Charles Don Flores v. Texas Texas 2025-12-29 Application actual-innocence death-penalty due-process fourteenth-amendment habeas-corpus state-court-review Question not identified.
25-6357 Frank A. Walls v. Florida, et al. Florida 2025-12-15 Denied IFP atkins-rule constitutional-protection death-penalty hall-v-florida intellectual-disability procedural-bar 1. Has Florida's partial retroactive treatment of Hall v. Florida denied intellectually disabled people the protections of Atkins and should procedura…
25-6353 Marcin Sosniak v. Charles Mims, Warden Eleventh Circuit 2025-12-12 Denied Response WaivedIFP criminal-procedure death-penalty evidence-retrieval ineffective-assistance police-interview right-to-counsel Whether Petitioner has received ineffective assistance of counsel where Petitioner's counsel allowed Petitioner who was facing the death penalty to ac…
25A676 Jimmy ONeal Spencer v. Alabama Alabama 2025-12-09 Application capital-case constitutional-rights criminal-appeals death-penalty due-process habeas-corpus Question not identified.
25A671 Emanuel Johnson, Sr. v. Ricky D. Dixon, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections, et al. Eleventh Circuit 2025-12-09 Application death-penalty docket-consolidation eleventh-circuit federal-habeas ineffective-assistance pro-se Question not identified.
25-6279 Steven Matthew Wolf v. Florida Florida 2025-12-03 Denied IFP capital-punishment death-penalty fourteenth-amendment juror-bias jury-selection sixth-amendment Whether Mr. Wolf was deprived of a jury of his peers as guaranteed by the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments where the trial court removed a juror who pr…
25A534 Roderick Leshun Rankin v. Dexter Payne, Director, Arkansas Department of Correction Eighth Circuit 2025-11-07 Application arkansas constitutional-review death-penalty eighth-circuit habeas-corpus standard-of-review Question not identified.
25-6061 Bryan Fredrick Jennings v. Florida, et al. Florida 2025-11-07 Denied IFP death-penalty due-process fourteenth-amendment meaningful-access postconviction-counsel state-representation Mr. Jennings was deprived of counsel for three years before his death warrant was signed. On the day his death warrant was signed, the State requested…
25A481 Steven J. Hecke v. United States Seventh Circuit 2025-10-28 Application constitutional-rights criminal-procedure death-penalty extension-of-time supreme-court writ-of-certiorari Question not identified.
25A477 Amos Wells v. Eric Guerrero, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Correctional Institutions Division Fifth Circuit 2025-10-27 Application death-penalty future-dangerousness genetic-evidence ineffective-assistance sixth-amendment strickland-standard Question not identified.
25A475 Aubrey C. Trail v. Nebraska Nebraska 2025-10-24 Application certiorari death-penalty eighth-circuit habeas-corpus post-conviction supreme-court Question not identified.
25-5928 Anthony Boyd v. John Q. Hamm, Commissioner, Alabama Department of Corrections, et al. Eleventh Circuit 2025-10-21 Denied IFP comparative-analysis cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty eighth-amendment execution-method nitrogen-hypoxia When performing a comparative analysis to determine whether an alternative means of execution would significantly reduce a substantial risk of severe …
25-5920 Donald Otis Williams v. Florida Florida 2025-10-21 Denied IFP aggravating-factors constitutional-challenge death-penalty first-degree-murder legislative-expansion proportionality-review Whether the Florida Legislature's expansion of the applicability of our statute's "aggravating factors" requirements, Section 921.141(6), Florida Stat…
25A445 Thomas Steven Sanders v. United States Fifth Circuit 2025-10-17 Presumed Complete criminal-conviction death-penalty double-jeopardy executive-clemency federal-prosecution fifth-amendment Question not identified.
25-5869 Lance Shockley v. Richard Adams, Warden, et al. Eighth Circuit 2025-10-13 Denied IFP death-penalty free-exercise missouri-law ramirez-precedent religious-rights spiritual-advisor 1. Does the State of Missouri's decision to deny a condemned his choice of spiritual advisor solely on the basis of the individual's familial relation…
25A406 Samuel Lee Smithers v. Florida Florida 2025-10-08 Denied constitutional-rights death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment execution-stay meaningful-hearing Question not identified.
25-5829 Samuel Lee Smithers v. Florida Florida 2025-10-08 Denied IFP constitutional-rights cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty eighth-amendment elderly-defendant standards-of-decency 1. Does the execution of the elderly violate the Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment…
25-5459 Robert Keith Woodall v. Kentucky Kentucky 2025-08-25 Denied Relisted (2)IFP confrontation-clause death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment intellectual-disability The Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments forbid the execution of persons with intellectual disability. Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U.S. 304, 321 (2002). Perso…
25-5370 Kayle B. Bates v. Florida, et al. Florida 2025-08-14 Denied IFP constitutional-violation cruel-unusual-punishment death-penalty ineffective-assistance neuropsychological-evidence sentencing-procedure After a questionable conviction, Kayle Bates has twice been sentenced to death. His first death sentence was reversed on collateral review for ineffec…
25A185 Kayle B. Bates v. Florida, et al. Florida 2025-08-14 Denied capital-punishment constitutional-protection cruel-and-unusual death-penalty eighth-amendment irreparable-harm Question not identified.
25-5325 Robert W. Hassett, III v. Delaware Delaware 2025-08-12 Denied Relisted (2)IFP capital-sentencing constitutional-amendments criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process jury-instructions 1. Whether the Eighth^hdil '4th Amendments to the United States Constitution are violated, and this Court 's holdings are contradicted, 1 when a cour…
25-5219 Mao Hin v. California California 2025-07-29 Denied IFP capital-sentencing constitutional-rights death-penalty jury-unanimity reasonable-doubt sentencing-procedure Whether California's capital-sentencing scheme violates the Fifth, Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments because it fails to require the jury to fi…
25A118 Byron Lewis Black v. Tennessee Tennessee 2025-07-28 Denied atkins-claim death-penalty eighth-amendment intellectual-disability iq-scores medical-standards Question not identified.
25-5214 Byron Lewis Black v. Tennessee Tennessee 2025-07-28 Denied IFP atkins-claim death-penalty federal-precedent intellectual-disability liberty-interest state-procedure Next Term, this Court will resolve a significant dispute among the federal Circuit Courts of Appeal : "Whether and how courts may consider the cumulat…
25A104 Edward J. Zakrzewski, II v. Florida Florida 2025-07-24 Denied arbitrary-and-capricious cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment jury-override Question not identified.
25-5194 Edward J. Zakrzewski, II v. Florida Florida 2025-07-24 Denied IFP constitutional-rights criminal-sentencing death-penalty florida-law judicial-override jury-recommendation Given that it is illegal to sentence an individual to death as the result of a bare majority jury vote or judicial override of a life sentence anywher…
25-5184 Matthew Lee Caylor v. Florida Florida 2025-07-24 Dismissed IFP aggravating-factors capital-sentencing constitutional-rights death-penalty due-process jury-waiver I. Whether accepting a defendant's waiver of the right to a trial by jury and the jury's full consideration of mitigating evidence in a death penalty …
25A93 Kevin Don Foster v. Ricky D. Dixon, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections Eleventh Circuit 2025-07-23 Presumed Complete constitutional-violations death-penalty eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment ineffective-assistance sixth-amendment Question not identified.
25-5153 Steven Catlin v. Edward J. Silva, Acting Warden Ninth Circuit 2025-07-21 Denied IFP death-penalty federal-review habeas-corpus ineffective-assistance mitigation-evidence voir-dire 1. Was the state court's summary denial of Petitioner's habeas claims alleging defense counsel's failure to investigate, develop and present available…
25-5145 Nicholas Bernard Acklin v. John Q. Hamm, Commissioner, Alabama Department of Corrections, et al. Eleventh Circuit 2025-07-18 Denied IFP attorney-ethics conflict-of-interest constitutional-rights death-penalty habeas-corpus ineffective-assistance-of-counsel This is a death penalty case from Alabama in which the following occurred: (1) the defense attorney was being paid in substantial part by the defenda…
25-5096 Christopher John Spreitz v. Arizona Arizona 2025-07-14 Denied Amici (1)Relisted (2)IFP capital-sentencing constitutional-review death-penalty habeas-corpus mitigating-evidence ninth-circuit 1. Whether in conducting independent sentencing review to cure a constitutional error in a capital case, a court must consider all of the evidence in …
25A53 Victor Saldano v. Texas Texas 2025-07-14 Presumed Complete atkins-claim competency-to-execute death-penalty eighth-amendment expert-testimony intellectual-disability Question not identified.
25-5085 Donald Perry v. Ricky D. Dixon, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections Florida 2025-07-11 Denied IFP actual-innocence death-penalty florida-supreme-court habeas-corpus procedural-bar trial-court-jurisdiction 1. Questia (9) /ReseuTeD - wien, on Nor THE SUPREME CounT OF RD Can Procedyfa lly Barked By ICTUAL TANCE Clzagse, ON TNR Z D625, 0) Spal PezeTEosser's…
25-5083 Michael Bernard Bell v. Florida Florida 2025-07-10 Denied IFP death-penalty eighth-amendment evidentiary-hearing fourteenth-amendment prosecutorial-misconduct witness-recantation Does the Petitioner's execution violate the Eighth and Fourteenth amendments to the United States Constitution when the conduct of the government and …
25-5056 Edward Lee Busby, Jr. v. Texas Texas 2025-07-08 Denied IFP atkins-standard cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty eighth-amendment expert-testimony intellectual-disability Where the clinical criteria unequivocally establish that a death row inmate is intellectually disabled, and where all the experts -- including the exp…
25A28 Mica Alexander Martinez v. Christe Quick, Warden Tenth Circuit 2025-07-08 Presumed Complete capital-punishment constitutional-error death-penalty eighth-amendment execution-protocol habeas-corpus Question not identified.
25A15 Ali Awad Mahmoud Irsan v. Texas Texas 2025-07-03 Presumed Complete capital-conviction constitutional-review death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment texas-criminal-procedure Question not identified.
24-7483 DeAngelo Zieglar v. Pennsylvania Pennsylvania 2025-06-24 Denied Response WaivedIFP caldwell-precedent capital-punishment constitutional-procedure death-penalty jury-selection moratorium-impact In light of Caldwell v. Mississippi, 472 U.S. 320 (1985), where a state has instituted an indefinite and formal moratorium on the death penalty, wheth…
24A1268 Carl G. Lindsey v. Ohio Ohio 2025-06-23 Presumed Complete constitutional-review death-penalty fetal-alcohol-spectrum-disorder habeas-corpus newly-discovered-evidence post-conviction Question not identified.
24-7474 Richard Gerald Jordan v. Mississippi Mississippi 2025-06-20 Denied IFP arbitrary-denial constitutional-claim death-penalty due-process ex-post-facto state-court Whether the State of Mississippi has run afoul of due process by arbitrarily denying an available state court forum to adjudicate a federal constituti…
24A1253 Daniel Raul Santiago Vasquez v. Oklahoma Oklahoma 2025-06-18 Presumed Complete capital-murder death-penalty eighth-amendment extension-of-time post-conviction pro-bono-counsel Question not identified.
24-7457 Thomas Lee Gudinas v. Florida Florida 2025-06-18 Denied IFP constitutional-rights death-penalty eighth-amendment executive-discretion fourteenth-amendment public-records 1. Whether Florida abused its discretion in denying Gudinas's demand for public records from the Executive Office of the Governor, in violation of Gud…
24-7436 Hans Thomas Reiser v. California California 2025-06-16 Denied IFP constitutional-review death-penalty federal-courts habeas-corpus procedural-errors state-remedies Th the $plii between floe Federal Cherts and the Cali forma Supreme Coort over whether pef^/i <rb/or ftate remedies whtf rhtf T5 # Fal lore to dtit…
24A1239 Robert Keith Woodall v. Kentucky Kentucky 2025-06-13 Presumed Complete capital-case constitutional-error death-penalty fair-trial sentencing supreme-court-review Question not identified.
24A1198 James Randall Rogers v. Georgia Georgia 2025-06-05 Presumed Complete bitemark-evidence capital-punishment constitutional-due-process death-penalty new-trial recantation Question not identified.
24-7346 Seaga Edward Gillard v. North Carolina North Carolina 2025-06-03 Denied IFP capital-punishment criminal-sentencing death-penalty felony-murder jury-instructions supreme-court-precedent Whether the Supreme Court of North Carolina violated this Court's precedent when it held that a jury instruction requiring a finding of culpability un…
24A1150 Stephen Corey Bryant v. Joel Anderson, Acting Director, South Carolina Department of Corrections, et al. Fourth Circuit 2025-05-27 Presumed Complete capital-punishment constitutional-rights death-penalty fourth-circuit habeas-corpus ineffective-assistance Question not identified.
24A1094 Nicholas Noelani D. Smith v. Alabama Alabama 2025-05-14 Presumed Complete capital-case certiorari constitutional-review death-penalty direct-appeal penalty-proceeding Question not identified.
24-7117 Jeffrey Hutchinson v. Ricky D. Dixon, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections Eleventh Circuit 2025-05-01 Denied IFP competency-to-execute death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment mental-health panetti-standard 1. Does a finding of competency because a petitioner has a "rational understanding of the fact of his pending execution and the reason for it[,]" sole…
24-7087 Jeffrey G. Hutchinson v. Florida, et al. Florida 2025-04-29 Denied IFP constitutional-review criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment fundamental-fairness 1. As the dissent below highlights, does "due process require [] more" than what has occurred in this death warrant case, including the unnoticed trun…
24-7079 Jeffrey Glenn Hutchinson v. Florida Florida 2025-04-27 Denied Amici (1)IFP combat-trauma constitutional-law death-penalty mental-health scientific-evidence veterans-rights 1. Given that "[o]ur Nation has a long tradition of according leniency to veterans in recognition of their service, especially for those who fought on…
24-6933 Mikal Mahdi v. Bryan Stirling, Director, South Carolina Department of Corrections South Carolina 2025-04-08 Denied IFP capital-punishment childhood-trauma death-penalty ineffective-assistance mitigating-evidence sixth-amendment Mikal Mahdi faces execution even though the mitigating evidence presented by his defense counsel filled barely 15 transcript pages. The state supreme …
24-6932 Michael Tanzi v. Ricky D. Dixon, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections Florida 2025-04-04 Denied IFP death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment jury-recommendation sixth-amendment 1. Whether Florida may limit a penalty phase jury's role under the Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments based on Spaziano v. Florida, a case which…
24-6885 Thomas Creech v. Idaho Idaho 2025-03-28 Denied IFP constitutional-law death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment evolving-standards execution-attempts Should Resweber be overruled?
24-6847 Richard Darren Emery v. Missouri Missouri 2025-03-25 Denied IFP death-penalty due-process fourteenth-amendment impartiality religious-consideration sentencing Does a sentencing court violate the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment when it invokes a defendant's lack of spirituality—while crediting …
24-6798 Karl Douglas Roberts v. Dexter Payne, Director, Arkansas Division of Correction Eighth Circuit 2025-03-18 Denied Amici (2)IFP aedpa-standard atkins-claim death-penalty federal-claim habeas-corpus state-court-adjudication Whether a claim has been adjudicated on the merits by a state court under § 2254(d), where the defendant did not present a federal claim for relief an…
24A274 Marcellus Williams v. Missouri, ex rel. Michael L. Parson, Governor of Missouri, et al. Missouri 2025-03-18 Denied actual-innocence capital-punishment clemency death-penalty eighth-amendment post-conviction-relief Question not identified.
24-6775 Edward Thomas James v. Florida Florida 2025-03-17 Denied IFP constitutional-error death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment evolving-standards-of-decency non-unanimous-jury Petitioner Edward Thomas James is scheduled to be executed by the State of Florida on March 20, 2025, based on a non-unanimous jury sentencing verdict…
24-6709 Brad Keith Sigmon v. South Carolina South Carolina 2025-03-05 Denied IFP death-penalty due-process execution-method lethal-injection prisoner-rights statutory-right Does South Carolina's compressed timeline and arbitrary denial of information necessary for a condemned prisoner to exercise his statutory right "neve…
24-6594 Jermaine Alexander Foster v. Florida Florida 2025-02-19 Denied IFP atkins-standard death-penalty intellectual-disability procedural-hurdles retroactivity supreme-court-precedent 1. Whether the categorical restriction against executing the intellectually disabled can be circumvented via procedural hurdles implemented after liti…
24A774 Darrel Eston Lee v. Ryan Thornell, Director, Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry Ninth Circuit 2025-02-11 Presumed Complete conviction-challenge death-penalty federal-review habeas-corpus ninth-circuit standard-of-review Question not identified.
24-6519 Larry R. Steele v. United States Postal Service, et al. Fifth Circuit 2025-02-10 Denied Response WaivedIFP constitutional-rights criminal-procedure death-penalty habeas-corpus post-conviction texas-procedure Has the Jawenslecs of this Nahon w rope zah the di Gad surrem agin TAL PEOPLE the arpa REOPLE 6 Whe Unred Syorte ok Amerson?
24-6510 James D. Ford v. Florida Florida 2025-02-08 Denied IFP death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment evolving-standards fourteenth-amendment post-conviction-relief Whether Florida's use of the "conformity clause" in the Florida constitution improperly violates Ford's Fourteenth Amendment Due Process rights and hi…
24A763 Kayle B. Bates v. Florida Florida 2025-02-06 Presumed Complete constitutional-rights criminal-procedure death-penalty juror-interview post-conviction rule-3.575 Question not identified.
24-6472 Willie R. Burgess, Jr. v. Alabama Alabama 2025-02-05 Denied IFP capital-murder death-penalty expert-testimony ineffective-assistance post-conviction-relief strickland-standard Under the extreme circumstances of this case, can a state court deny a Strickland claim on the merits without conducting an evidentiary hearing?
24A698 Randy W. Duck v. Dexter Payne, Director, Arkansas Division of Correction Eighth Circuit 2025-01-15 Presumed Complete constitutional-challenge cruel-and-unusual death-penalty eighth-amendment method-of-execution prisoner-rights Question not identified.
24A688 Thomas Creech v. Idaho Idaho 2025-01-14 Presumed Complete botched-execution cruel-and-unusual death-penalty eighth-amendment execution-attempt resweber-precedent Question not identified.
24A675 Jermaine Alexander Foster v. Florida Florida 2025-01-10 Presumed Complete capital-punishment death-penalty eighth-amendment intellectual-disability postconviction-relief supreme-court-review Question not identified.
24A659 Karl Douglas Roberts v. Dexter Payne, Director, Arkansas Division of Correction Eighth Circuit 2025-01-02 Presumed Complete certiorari circuit-court death-penalty eighth-amendment habeas-corpus time-extension Question not identified.
24A637 Davone Unique Anderson v. Pennsylvania Pennsylvania 2024-12-30 Presumed Complete capital-punishment criminal-culpability death-penalty eighth-amendment intellectual-disability supreme-court-review Whether a court must take into account a person's mental health crisis in assessing the voluntariness of custodial, non-Mirandized statements.
24-6212 Raymond Anthony Lewis v. Raul Morales, Acting Warden Ninth Circuit 2024-12-30 Denied IFP capital-sentencing death-penalty extraneous-evidence habeas-corpus jury-misconduct religious-bias 1) In a death penalty case, does post-trial evidence showing that the jury foreperson told the panel on the fourth day of sentencing deliberations tha…
24-695 Bill Cool, Warden v. Nathaniel Jackson Sixth Circuit 2024-12-30 Denied criminal-procedure death-penalty lockett-precedent mitigation-evidence remand sentencing-review Has this Court clearly required state courts to reopen the mitigation evidence in every death-penalty remand, even if the error did not affect the def…
24A630 Jesse Guardado v. Ricky D. Dixon, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections Eleventh Circuit 2024-12-27 Presumed Complete capital-case certiorari constitutional-claims death-penalty eleventh-circuit habeas-corpus Question not identified.
24-6172 Tyrone T. Johnson v. Florida Florida 2024-12-18 Denied IFP arbitrary-capricious capital-sentencing death-penalty eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment proportionality-review Has the Florida Supreme Court by abandoning comparative proportionality review in death penalty appeals - - while dismantling other safeguards, and in…
24A582 Stacey Ian Humphreys v. Shawn Emmons, Warden Eleventh Circuit 2024-12-13 Presumed Complete aedpa cause-and-prejudice circuit-split death-penalty juror-misconduct procedural-default Question not identified.
24A575 Bryan Frederick Jennings v. Ricky D. Dixon, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections Eleventh Circuit 2024-12-12 Presumed Complete death-penalty eleventh-circuit federal-review habeas-corpus second-petition statutory-interpretation Question not identified.
24A523 Willie R. Burgess, Jr. v. Alabama Alabama 2024-11-27 Presumed Complete capital-murder death-penalty eighth-amendment evidentiary-hearing postconviction state-review Question not identified.
24-581 Utah v. Douglas A. Lovell Utah 2024-11-26 Denied Relisted (2) aggravating-factors criminal-sentencing death-penalty ineffective-assistance-counsel mitigation-evidence strickland-standard Did the Utah Supreme Court violate this Court's binding case law when it failed to (1) properly assess Strickland deficient performance by considering…
24A479 Von Clark Davis v. Charlotte Jenkins, Warden Sixth Circuit 2024-11-13 Presumed Complete constitutional-claims death-penalty habeas-corpus resentencing sixth-circuit supreme-court-precedent Question not identified.
24-5939 James Herard v. Florida Florida 2024-11-07 Denied IFP death-penalty due-process expert-testimony fifth-amendment interrogation-techniques miranda-rights I. WHETHER THE TRIAL COURT REVERSIBLY ERRED BY REFUSING TO SUPPRESS JAMES HERARD'S STATEMENTS PURSUANT TO THE 5th AND 14th AMENDMENTS TO THE UNITED ST…
24-5916 Javance Mickey Wilson v. California California 2024-11-05 Denied IFP capital-sentencing constitutional-amendments criminal-procedure death-penalty jury-findings reasonable-doubt Does California's capital-sentencing scheme violate the Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendments because it fails to require that the jury make the fac…
24-5791 Paul David Storey v. Texas Texas 2024-10-21 Denied Amici (2)IFP brady-violation death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment habeas-corpus prosecutorial-misconduct 1. Whether, as the State concedes, the State's suppression of favorable evidence and presentation of false argument at the penalty phase of a death pe…
24-5775 Timothy Robert Ronk v. Mississippi Mississippi 2024-10-17 Denied IFP constitutional-claim death-penalty expert-testimony ineffective-assistance-of-counsel procedural-rule sixth-amendment 1. Does the failure of death penalty defense counsel to seek funding for an independent expert, coupled with the failure to challenge the State's flaw…
24A347 Blaine Keith Milam v. Texas Texas 2024-10-11 Presumed Complete atkins-v-virginia capital-case death-penalty eighth-amendment habeas-corpus intellectual-disability Question not identified.
24A318 Allen Ward Cox v. Florida Florida 2024-10-02 Presumed Complete capital-collateral constitutional-rights death-penalty direct-appeal ineffective-assistance postconviction-relief Question not identified.
24A298 James Herard v. Florida Florida 2024-09-27 Presumed Complete capital-sentencing constitutional-rights death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment jury-unanimity Question not identified.
24-5658 Garcia Glen White v. Texas Texas 2024-09-27 Denied IFP constitutional-amendments death-penalty due-process intellectual-disability moore-v-texas texas-criminal-procedure 1) Do Articles 11.073 and 11.071, Sec. 5 (a)(3) of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure create a due process problem because the statutes, as interpre…
24A290 Prosecuting Attorney, 21st Judicial Circuit, ex rel. Marcellus Williams v. Missouri Missouri 2024-09-23 Denied Amici (1) capital-crime death-penalty eighth-amendment execution-stay innocence-project new-evidence Question not identified.
24A279 John Esposito v. Shawn Emmons, Warden Georgia 2024-09-19 Presumed Complete death-penalty due-process fair-trial juror-misconduct outside-influences voir-dire Question not identified.
24A242 Paul David Storey v. Texas Texas 2024-09-06 Presumed Complete capital-sentencing constitutional-claims death-penalty habeas-corpus prosecutorial-misconduct victim-impact Question not identified.
24-5347 Devin Allen Bennett v. Mississippi Mississippi 2024-08-20 Denied IFP death-penalty eighth-amendment ineffective-assistance mitigation-evidence sixth-amendment strickland-standard Whether trial counsel's failure to investigate, uncover, and present evidence of defendant's reduced moral culpability may be categorically discounted…
24-5309 Andrew R. Allred v. Ricky D. Dixon, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections, et al. Eleventh Circuit 2024-08-13 Denied IFP criminal-procedure death-penalty ineffective-assistance-of-counsel mental-health-evaluation mitigation-testimony sixth-amendment Whether Mr. Allred's convictions and death sentences are unconstitutional due to receiving ineffective assistance of counsel at his trial in violation…
24A159 LeGregory Davis v. Louisiana Louisiana 2024-08-09 Presumed Complete capital-punishment constitutional-violation death-penalty eighth-amendment lethal-injection procedural-due-process Question not identified.
24A124 Arthur Lee Burton v. Texas Texas 2024-08-04 Denied atkins-claim death-penalty eighth-amendment intellectual-disability iq-testing moore-v-texas Whether the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals violated the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments by dismissing Arthur Lee Burton's subsequent writ of habeas …
24-5221 Arthur Lee Burton v. Texas Texas 2024-08-04 Denied IFP atkins-claim atkins-v-virginia capital-punishment death-penalty diagnostic-criteria hall-v-florida intellectual-disability moore-v-texas-i moore-v-texas-ii procedural-review supreme-court-precedent 1. Whether the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ("TCCA")—in refusing to authorize plenary review of Mr. Burton's unrebutted prima facie case that his i…
24-5192 Matthew Nicholson v. Ohio Ohio 2024-07-31 Denied IFP arbitrariness constitutional-proportionality county-geography criminal-sentencing death-penalty eighth-amendment equal-protection geographic-disparity gregg-v-georgia sentencing-disparities Is Ohio's death penalty being arbitrarily applied in violation of Gregg v. Georgia, when geography dictates whether a defendant will be subject to the…
24-5142 Thomas E. Creech v. Tim Richardson, Warden Ninth Circuit 2024-07-25 Denied IFP circuit-split competency-to-be-executed death-penalty federal-courts federal-procedure habeas-corpus late-evolving-facts second-or-successive-petition statutory-interpretation successive-petitions Is a federal habeas petition based on late-evolving facts second or successive when it is not based on a claim that the inmate is incompetent to be ex…
24A33 Michael Dale Iervolino v. Alabama Alabama 2024-07-11 Presumed Complete appellate-review capital-conviction constitutional-rights criminal-appeal death-penalty due-process Question not identified.
24A12 Andrew R. Allred v. Ricky D. Dixon, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections, et al. Eleventh Circuit 2024-07-09 Presumed Complete constitutional-review death-penalty eleventh-circuit habeas-corpus postconviction section-2254 Question not identified.
23A1164 Charles Grover Brant v. Ricky D. Dixon, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections, et al. Eleventh Circuit 2024-06-27 Presumed Complete certificate-of-appealability death-penalty eleventh-circuit first-degree-murder habeas-corpus post-conviction Question not identified.
23-7792 In Re Ramiro Felix Gonzales 2024-06-24 Denied IFP capital-punishment constitutional-review death-penalty eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment future-dangerousness post-conviction-review state-law (1) Does it violate the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution to execute an individual who does not meet the eligibility …
23-7791 Ramiro F. Gonzales v. Texas Texas 2024-06-24 Denied IFP capital-punishment capital-punishment-eligibility death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment future-dangerousness jury-determination post-conviction-review When a state conditions a capital defendant's eligibility to be sentenced to death on a jury's determination of "future dangerousness," can the state …
23A1147 In Re Ramiro Felix Gonzales 2024-06-24 Denied death-penalty eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment future-dangerousness habeas-corpus jury-prediction Question not identified.
23A1146 Ramiro F. Gonzales v. Texas Texas 2024-06-24 Denied capital-murder death-penalty eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment future-dangerousness jury-determination When a state conditions a capital defendant's eligibility to be sentenced to death on a jury's determination of "future dangerousness," can the state …
23-7765 Leon Davis, Jr. v. Florida, et al. Florida 2024-06-20 Denied IFP capital-punishment cumulative-error death-penalty ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel jury-selection prosecutorial-discretion strickland-prejudice strickland-standard Counsel failed to object to the capital trial court's multiple misleading and inappropriate comments during jury selection about the uniquely gruesome…
23-7726 Jason Robles v. Jeffery Artrip, Warden Fourth Circuit 2024-06-14 Denied Response WaivedIFP antiterrorism-act antiterrorism-and-effective-death-penalty-act civil-rights constitutional-law death-penalty due-process habeas-corpus judicial-review post-conviction-relief standing (1) Whether should prevail, the Constitution of the United States of America, Coupled with the Constitution of, or Arbitration's and Effective Death R…
23-7727 Everett G. Miller v. Florida Florida 2024-06-14 Denied IFP aggravating-factor constitutional-challenge constitutional-law cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty due-process first-degree-murder florida-supreme-court sentencing-statute Whether the Florida Supreme Court's expansion of the applicability of our statute's aggravating factor, Section 921.141(5)(i), i.e., the murder was co…
23A1106 Lamar Z. Brooks v. Ricky D. Dixon, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections, et al. Eleventh Circuit 2024-06-11 Presumed Complete certificate-of-appealability death-penalty eleventh-circuit habeas-corpus hurst-v-florida section-2254 Question not identified.
23A1088 Anthony Mungin v. Ricky D. Dixon, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections, et al. Eleventh Circuit 2024-06-06 Presumed Complete constitutional-review criminal-procedure death-penalty habeas-corpus ineffective-assistance trial-counsel Question not identified.
23A1065 Jamie Mills v. John Q. Hamm, Commissioner, Alabama Department of Corrections, et al. Eleventh Circuit 2024-05-29 Denied constitutional-rights cruel-and-unusual death-penalty eighth-amendment execution-gurney prolonged-restraint Whether the Eighth Amendment is violated when a condemned prisoner is restrained to an execution gurney for a prolonged period of time without access …
23-7567 Michael David Carruth v. John Q. Hamm, Commissioner, Alabama Department of Corrections Eleventh Circuit 2024-05-28 Denied IFP alabama appellate-counsel constitutional-right criminal-procedure death-penalty exhaustion ineffective-assistance procedural-bar right-to-counsel state-procedure writ-of-certiorari When a state by statute or rule imposes a duty upon appellate counsel for the defendant-appellant in a criminal case to file a petition for a writ of …
23A1052 Richard E. Glossip v. Oklahoma Oklahoma 2024-05-24 Presumed Complete certiorari criminal-appeals death-penalty eighth-amendment execution supreme-court Question not identified.
23A999 Thomas E. Creech v. Tim Richardson, Warden Ninth Circuit 2024-05-09 Presumed Complete capital-punishment constitutional-challenge death-penalty eighth-amendment habeas-corpus judge-sentencing Question not identified.
23-7391 Markeith D. Loyd v. Florida Florida 2024-05-06 Denied Relisted (2)IFP capital-punishment death-penalty eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment individual-responsibility jury-instructions sentencing-phase Where the court in a capital case allows the State to argue that the jury should, or must, try its best to reach a unanimous penalty phase verdict, is…
23-7364 Jorge Galindo v. Nebraska Nebraska 2024-05-02 Denied Relisted (2)IFP capital-punishment death-penalty eddings-v-oklahoma ineffective-assistance lockett-v-ohio mitigation sentencing-considerations supreme-court-precedent tennard-v-dretke youth youth-mitigation 1. May a state categorically exclude youth as a mitigating factor in a capital case? 2. Must a state court follow this Court's jurisprudence of Locke…
23A978 Chuong Duong Tong v. Bobby Lumpkin, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Correctional Institutions Division Fifth Circuit 2024-05-02 Presumed Complete death-penalty habeas-corpus ineffective-assistance rhines-stay voir-dire wiggins-claim Question not identified.
23-7318 Michael P. Crenshaw v. Illinois Illinois 2024-04-26 Denied IFP civil-rights constitutional-interpretation cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty due-process equal-protection executive-power individual-rights intellectual-disability judicial-review separation-of-powers state-sovereignty Question not identified.
23-7261 Geary Wayne Walton v. Ryan Thornell, Director, Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry, et al. Ninth Circuit 2024-04-19 Denied Response WaivedIFP cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty eighth-amendment execution mental-illness rational-understanding Question not identified.
23-7274 In Re Joseph T. Swift 2024-04-19 Denied IFP appeal capital-punishment civil-rights death-penalty due-process ineffective-assistance-of-counsel Question not identified.
23-7187 Leslie Galloway, III v. Mississippi Mississippi 2024-04-09 Denied IFP constitutional-rights criminal-defense death-penalty ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel investigation-standard mitigation post-hoc-strategy post-traumatic-stress-disorder procedural-history sixth-amendment Leslie Galloway III was sentenced to death after his trial counsel conducted a constitutionally inadequate investigation that failed to uncover his ex…
23A890 Brian J. Dorsey v. David Vandergriff, Warden Missouri 2024-04-07 Denied capital-punishment certiorari-standard death-penalty eighth-amendment penological-goals rehabilitation Question not identified.
23-7128 Harvey Windsor v. Steven T. Marshall, Attorney General of Alabama, et al. Eleventh Circuit 2024-04-02 Denied IFP accomplice-liability capital-murder certificate-of-appealability death-penalty discovery-limitation habeas-corpus head-injury ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel postconviction-relief Whether, when both the state trial court and the federal district court agree that a habeas petitioner has pleaded a claim that, if true, would warran…
23A868 Steven Vernon Bixby v. Bryan P. Stirling, Commissioner, South Carolina Department of Corrections, et al. Fourth Circuit 2024-03-28 Presumed Complete capital-case certiorari-extension constitutional-review death-penalty fourth-circuit habeas-corpus Question not identified.
23A864 Manuel Sepulveda v. Laurel Harry, Secretary, Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, et al. Third Circuit 2024-03-27 Presumed Complete capital-case death-penalty habeas-corpus ineffective-assistance penalty-phase post-conviction Question not identified.
23A852 Melvin Bonnell v. Chris McBee, Warden Sixth Circuit 2024-03-20 Presumed Complete circuit-review death-penalty habeas-corpus prosecutorial-misconduct ripeness-doctrine youngblood-claim Question not identified.
23A856 Willie James Pye v. Shawn Emmons, Warden Georgia 2024-03-20 Denied adaptive-deficits death-penalty eighth-amendment intellectual-disability iq-testing woodard-precedent Question not identified.
23-7042 Willie James Pye v. Shawn Emmons, Warden Georgia 2024-03-20 Denied IFP atkins-standard atkins-v-virginia burden-of-proof capital-punishment constitutional-rights death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment intellectual-disability Georgia requires persons with intellectual disability to prove their disability 'beyond a reasonable doubt' in order to vindicate their Eighth Amendme…
23-7024 Thomas Bevel v. Florida Florida 2024-03-19 Denied IFP aggravating-factors arbitrary-sentencing capital-sentencing death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment proportionality-review reasonable-doubt L. Whether Florida's capital sentencing scheme violates the Eighth Amendment because the controlling statute does not meaningfully limit the class of …
23-7029 Byron James Shepard v. Oklahoma Oklahoma 2024-03-19 Denied IFP aggravating-circumstance aggravating-factors capital-punishment capital-sentencing criminal-procedure death-penalty eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment jury-discretion Does Oklahoma's continuing threat aggravating circumstance violate this Court's capital sentencing jurisprudence and the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendme…
23A806 Russell William Tucker v. North Carolina North Carolina 2024-03-01 Presumed Complete batson-challenge death-penalty equal-protection jury-selection peremptory-strikes racial-discrimination Question not identified.
23-6830 Thomas E. Creech v. Josh Tewalt, Director, Idaho Department of Correction, et al. Ninth Circuit 2024-02-26 Denied IFP civil-rights constitutional-challenge criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment execution-secrecy lethal-injection Whether it comports with due process for a state to refuse to provide a condemned inmate information about his method of execution that would enable h…
23A772 Jorge Galindo v. Nebraska Nebraska 2024-02-23 Presumed Complete capital-sentencing death-penalty eddings-standard eighth-amendment mitigating-circumstances youthful-offender Question not identified.
23A761 Thomas Eugene Creech v. Idaho Idaho 2024-02-21 Denied constitutional-proportionality cruel-and-unusual death-penalty eighth-amendment execution mental-illness Question not identified.
23-6791 Thomas Eugene Creech v. Idaho Idaho 2024-02-21 Denied IFP capital-punishment death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment evolving-standards judicial-sentencing post-conviction state-court Whether it comports with due process for a state court to reject as untimely an evolving-standards claim on a theory that would never allow for such a…
23-6776 Robert Shawn Ingram v. Warden, Holman Correctional Facility Eleventh Circuit 2024-02-16 Denied IFP criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process ineffective-assistance-of-counsel plea-bargaining right-to-counsel Is an attorney constitutionally ineffective when he does not realistically convey to his client the consequences of failing to honor his plea agreemen…
23A756 Harvey Windsor v. Steven T. Marshall, Attorney General of Alabama, et al. Eleventh Circuit 2024-02-16 Presumed Complete capital-case certificate-of-appealability constitutional-challenges death-penalty eleventh-circuit habeas-corpus Question not identified.
23-6755 Robert Ybarra, Jr. v. William Gittere, Warden Ninth Circuit 2024-02-14 Denied IFP aedpa aedpa-deference atkins-v-virginia death-penalty federal-habeas habeas-corpus intellectual-disability state-court-deference state-court-review supreme-court-review Robert Ybarra, Jr., is on death row in Nevada. He is intellectually disabled. During a state court hearing on his claim under Atkins v. Virginia, 536 …
23-6738 Ellis Louis Mashburn, Jr. v. John Q. Hamm, Commissioner, Alabama Department of Corrections Eleventh Circuit 2024-02-13 Denied IFP capital-murder capital-trial death-penalty habeas-corpus ineffective-assistance-of-counsel mental-illness mitigation-evidence prejudice sixth-amendment strickland-standard strickland-v-washington Whether, under Strickland v. Washington , a death row inmate is precluded from establishing prejudice from his trial counsel's deficient performance d…
23-6655 Ralph Hall v. Anthony J. Annucci, et al. Second Circuit 2024-02-05 Denied Response WaivedIFP administrative-action constitutional-rights cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment federal-law habeas-corpus intellectual-disability judicial-review legal-procedure Question not identified.
23A713 Richard Lee Tabler v. Bobby Lumpkin, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Correctional Institutions Division Fifth Circuit 2024-02-01 Presumed Complete agency-duties death-penalty ineffective-assistance procedural-default state-habeas waiver-of-rights Question not identified.
23A664 Kenneth Eugene Smith v. Alabama Alabama 2024-01-19 Denied cruel-and-unusual death-penalty eighth-amendment execution-attempt iv-access lethal-injection Question not identified.
23A663 Brandon De McCall v. Texas Texas 2024-01-18 Presumed Complete capital-case constitutional-review death-penalty due-process ineffective-assistance texas-criminal-procedure Question not identified.
23-6515 John Edward Hall v. Bobby Lumpkin, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Correctional Institutions Division Fifth Circuit 2024-01-18 Denied IFP burden-of-proof death-penalty due-process federal-habeas standard-of-review state-court Question not identified.
23A654 Isaiah Glenndell Tryon v. Christe Quick, Acting Warden, Oklahoma State Penitentiary Tenth Circuit 2024-01-16 Presumed Complete capital-case constitutional-error death-penalty eighth-amendment fair-trial sentencing-review Question not identified.
23A627 Byron James Shepard v. Oklahoma Oklahoma 2024-01-08 Presumed Complete continuing-threat death-penalty eighth-amendment fair-trial fourteenth-amendment sentencing-hearing Question not identified.
23-6431 Mariano Madrid v. Aaron D. Ford, Attorney General of Nevada, et al. Ninth Circuit 2024-01-08 Denied Response WaivedIFP 8th-amendment civil-rights constitutional-rights cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty due-process federal-law judicial-review juvenile-justice legal-procedure Question not identified.
23-6415 Christian Cruz v. Florida Florida 2024-01-05 Denied IFP capital-case capital-punishment criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process equal-protection first-degree-murder pulley-v-harris relative-culpability sentencing supreme-court-review WHETHER THE AFFIRMANCE BY THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF FLORIDA OF DEFENDANT'S CONVICTION FOR FIRST DEGREE MURDER AND SENTENCE OF DEATH WAS CLEARL…
23-6383 Guillermo Octavio Arbelaez v. Florida, et al. Florida 2023-12-28 Denied IFP atkins-v-virginia constitutional-law death-penalty eighth-amendment hall-v-florida intellectual-disability medical-standards retroactivity teague-rule teague-v-lane In Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U.S. 304 (2002), this Court held that the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments preclude the execution of individuals with intel…
23A586 Anthony F. Wainwright v. Ricky D. Dixon, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections, et al. Eleventh Circuit 2023-12-27 Presumed Complete certiorari civil-procedure death-penalty eleventh-circuit habeas-corpus sixty-b Question not identified.
23A583 Ellis Louis Mashburn, Jr. v. John Hamm, Commissioner, Alabama Department of Corrections Eleventh Circuit 2023-12-26 Presumed Complete capital-case constitutional-challenge death-penalty eleventh-circuit federal-review habeas-corpus Question not identified.
23A572 Darrell Wayne Frederick v. Christe Quick, Warden Tenth Circuit 2023-12-21 Presumed Complete capital-case constitutional-error death-penalty eighth-amendment fair-sentencing habeas-corpus Question not identified.
23A508 Robert Ybarra, Jr. v. William Gittere, Warden Ninth Circuit 2023-12-05 Presumed Complete atkins-claim death-penalty exhaustion-doctrine habeas-corpus intellectual-disability rule-60b Question not identified.
23-6046 Antonio Lebaron Melton v. Florida Florida 2023-11-17 Denied IFP age-of-culpability age-of-offender criminal-procedure cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment roper-v-simmons scientific-evidence 1. Does this Court's holding in Roper v. Simmons, 543 U.S. 551 (2005), that the death penalty is unconstitutionally cruel and unusual punishment for i…
23A436 Guillermo Octavio Arbelaez v. Florida, et al. Florida 2023-11-15 Presumed Complete capital-punishment death-penalty eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment postconviction-relief sixth-amendment Question not identified.
23A429 Casey A. McWhorter v. Alabama Alabama 2023-11-14 Denied constitutional-challenge death-penalty eighth-amendment execution-stay irreparable-harm supreme-court-alabama Question not identified.
23-503 Casey A. McWhorter v. Alabama Alabama 2023-11-14 Denied alabama constitutional-rights death-penalty due-process equal-protection execution execution-notice notice statute statutory-compliance Does a state violate a prisoner's right to due process and equal protection of the laws when it complies with an execution related statute for some pr…
23-5996 Lyndon Fitzgerald Pace v. Shawn Emmons, Warden Eleventh Circuit 2023-11-13 Denied Relisted (9)IFP aedpa capital-sentencing constitutional-error death-penalty due-process ineffective-assistance jury-argument jury-instructions prosecutorial-misconduct right-to-silence Lyndon Pace was convicted of four counts of malice murder in an Atlanta, Georgia trial. Thereafter, the prosecutor asked jurors to sentence him to dea…
23A424 Kevin Keith v. Harold May, Warden Sixth Circuit 2023-11-13 Presumed Complete death-penalty federal-review habeas-corpus procedural-default sixth-circuit successive-petition Question not identified.
23A410 Brent Ray Brewer v. Bobby Lumpkin, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Correctional Institutions Division Fifth Circuit 2023-11-07 Denied certificate-of-appealability constitutional-claim death-penalty expert-testimony future-dangerousness habeas-corpus Question not identified.
23A402 Casey A. McWhorter v. Alabama Alabama 2023-11-03 Denied constitutional-challenge death-penalty eighth-amendment execution-stay irreparable-harm supreme-court-alabama Question not identified.
23-5851 Hector Sanchez-Torres v. Florida Florida 2023-10-20 Denied IFP appellate-review criminal-sentencing culpability death-penalty eighth-amendment equal-protection mitigation-evidence 1. In a case in which the victim died from a single gunshot wound and the factfinder did not find that the death-sentenced codefendant fired the fatal…
23-5823 Ramiro Felix Gonzales v. Texas Texas 2023-10-17 Denied IFP constitutional-claim death-penalty eighth-amendment expert-testimony fourteenth-amendment future-dangerousness recantation texas-code-criminal-procedure Where a State conditions a death sentence on a jury's unanimous finding beyond a reasonable doubt that "there is a probability that the defendant woul…
23-5740 Jedidiah Isaac Murphy v. Texas Texas 2023-10-10 Denied IFP catastrophic-event catastrophic-fire civil-rights death-penalty discovery drug-administration due-process execution execution-protocol inmate-rights procedural-due-process Is an inmate who is to be executed entitled to procedural due process to discover the effects of a catastrophic fire on the drugs to be used in his ex…
23A276 Michael Duane Zack v. Ron Desantis, Governor of Florida, et al. Eleventh Circuit 2023-09-28 Denied clemency-proceedings death-penalty due-process executive-clemency fetal-alcohol-syndrome intellectual-disability Question not identified.
23A272 Jessie Dotson v. Tennessee Tennessee 2023-09-28 Presumed Complete capital-post-conviction death-penalty due-process expert-assistance fourteenth-amendment habeas-corpus Question not identified.
23A262 Michael Duane Zack, III v. Florida Florida 2023-09-26 Denied atkins-exemption death-penalty eighth-amendment fetal-alcohol-syndrome intellectual-developmental-disability unanimous-jury-requirement Question not identified.
23-5652 Brian J. Dorsey v. David Vandergriff, Warden Eighth Circuit 2023-09-26 Denied Relisted (2)IFP comity death-penalty due-process federal-counsel federal-jurisdiction habeas-corpus jurisdiction statutory-interpretation Whether the court below erroneously denied jurisdiction pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3599 based on a failure to follow fundamental rules of statutory inter…
23-5630 Jack R. Sliney v. Florida Florida 2023-09-21 Denied Relisted (2)IFP 14th-amendment 8th-amendment age-of-defendant death-penalty death-sentence due-process eighth-amendment evidentiary-hearing fourteenth-amendment juvenile-offenders Whether under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution, Florida may impose a death sentence upon an individual who was under the age o…
23A254 Anthony Castillo Sanchez v. Christe Quick, Warden Tenth Circuit 2023-09-20 Denied access-to-files constitutional-violations death-penalty ineffective-assistance-of-counsel post-conviction-relief stay-of-execution Question not identified.
23A250 Lyndon Fitzgerald Pace v. Shawn Emmons, Warden Eleventh Circuit 2023-09-18 Presumed Complete AEDPA death-penalty habeas-corpus ineffective-assistance-of-counsel prosecutorial-misconduct Strickland-standard Question not identified.
23-5592 Beau John Greene v. Arizona Arizona 2023-09-15 Denied IFP appellate-review arizona constitutional-bias death-penalty due-process judicial-bias judicial-recusal prosecutorial-conflict recusal williams-v-pennsylvania Beau Greene is an Arizona death-row prisoner. Due to recent amendments to Arizona's death-penalty statute by the Arizona legislature, the sole aggrava…
23-5565 William E. Wells, III v. Florida Florida 2023-09-13 Denied IFP aggravating-factors apprendi-v-new-jersey capital-sentencing death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment mental-illness proportionality-review L. Whether Florida's capital sentencing scheme violates the Eighth Amendment because the controlling statute does not meaningfully limit the class of …
23A233 Jerry Smith v. Alabama Alabama 2023-09-12 Presumed Complete appellate-review capital-punishment constitutional-review death-penalty habeas-corpus penalty-phase Question not identified.
23A178 Andrew P. Witt v. United States Armed Forces 2023-08-25 Presumed Complete capital-sentencing court-martial death-penalty ineffective-assistance-of-counsel prosecutorial-misconduct uniform-code-of-military-justice Question not identified.
23-5375 Isidro Miguel Delacruz v. Texas Texas 2023-08-17 Denied IFP 8th-amendment capital-sentencing constitutional-proportionality death-penalty due-process jury-instructions mitigation-evidence moral-culpability Can the Texas death penalty statute, which instructs the jury to consider "the circumstances of the offense, the defendant's character and background,…
23A134 William Glenn Rogers v. Tony Mays, Warden Sixth Circuit 2023-08-15 Presumed Complete capital-habeas death-penalty forensic-evidence ineffective-assistance-of-counsel prejudice-prong strickland-standard Question not identified.
23-5249 Ryan David Green v. United States Fifth Circuit 2023-08-01 Denied Response WaivedIFP 8th-amendment appellate-review certiorari-request civil-rights court-filing death-penalty due-process legal-petition mental-health solitary-confinement supreme-court Question not identified.
23-5244 Johnny Johnson v. David Vandergriff, Warden Eighth Circuit 2023-07-31 Denied IFP 28-usc-2254 capital-punishment competency-to-be-executed death-penalty delusional-beliefs habeas-corpus mental-competency mental-illness panetti-standard state-court-review When a panel has determined that 28 U.S.C. 2253(c)(2) has been satisfied and an appeal and concordant stay are necessary, does an en banc court have a…
23A93 Johnny Johnson v. David Vandergriff, Warden Missouri 2023-07-31 Denied death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment habeas-corpus mental-illness panetti-competency Question not identified.
23A24 Margaret A. Allen v. Ricky D. Dixon, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections, et al. Eleventh Circuit 2023-07-12 Presumed Complete certificate-of-appealability death-penalty federal-review habeas-corpus postconviction-relief state-conviction Question not identified.
22-7764 Duane E. Owen v. Florida Florida 2023-06-12 Denied IFP competency competency-to-be-executed criminal-procedure death-penalty dementia due-process eighth-amendment insanity legal-insanity rational-understanding 1. Whether the State of Florida's perfunctory evaluation of Owen's claim that he is legally insane and incompetent to be executed violated the Eighth …
22-7700 Michael Tisius v. David Vandergriff, Warden Eighth Circuit 2023-06-04 Denied IFP death-penalty due-process habeas-corpus juror-disqualification jury-selection procedural-claim state-concealment statutory-disqualification statutory-violation voir-dire An individual who was not qualified to serve under Missouri law sentenced Michael Tisius to death. This juror was, and is still, illiterate. His parti…
22-7625 Michael Tisius v. David Vandergriff, Warden Missouri 2023-05-24 Denied IFP brain-development criminal-responsibility cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty eighth-amendment juvenile-offender juvenile-offenders mental-impairment Do executions of persons who committed their crimes when they were under the age of 21, or, at the least, the execution of a 19-year-old offender who …
22-1114 James Harris, Jr. v. Texas Texas 2023-05-15 Denied death-penalty eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment ineffective-assistance intellectual-disability medically-accepted-standards moore-v-texas strickland-v-washington 1. Whether the TCCA contravened the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments, and this Court's precedents, when it evaluated petitioner's intellectual disabil…
22-7373 Victor M. Miranda-Guerrero v. California California 2023-04-26 Denied IFP aggravating-circumstances apprendi-v-new-jersey constitutional-rights criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process jury-determination jury-trial mitigating-circumstances sentencing sentencing-procedure Does the mandatory weighing of aggravating and mitigating circumstances under the California death penalty statute—a factfinding determination that se…
22-7382 Tarus Vandell Sales v. Texas Texas 2023-04-26 Denied IFP 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 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 e…
22-7337 Toforest Onesha Johnson v. Alabama Alabama 2023-04-20 Denied Amici (2)IFP brady-v-maryland brady-violation capital-murder death-penalty post-conviction-proceedings post-conviction-relief prosecutorial-misconduct reward-payment suppressed-evidence witness-testimony Did the State suppress evidence under Brady in the extraordinary circumstances of this death penalty case?
22-7233 Justin Heath Thomas v. California California 2023-04-06 Denied IFP apprendi-v-new-jersey capital-punishment constitutional-requirement criminal-sentencing death-penalty due-process jury-finding jury-trial reasonable-doubt ring-v-arizona statutory-maximum WHETHER CALIFORNIA'S DEATH PENALTY SCHEME VIOLATES THE CONSTITUTIONAL REQUIREMENT THAT ANY FACT, OTHER THAN A PRIOR CONVICTION, THAT SERVES TO INCREAS…
22-7236 Louis Gaskin v. Florida Florida 2023-04-06 Denied IFP constitutional-rights cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty eighth-amendment espinosa-v-florida fourteenth-amendment post-conviction-relief procedural-due-process procedural-rules sixth-amendment 1. Whether evolving standards of decency have rendered Mr. Gaskin's death violative of the Eighth Amendment's prohibition of cruel and unusual punishm…
22-7184 Darrell Kelly Middlekauff v. Sue Washburn, Superintendent, Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution Oregon 2023-04-03 Denied Response WaivedIFP capital-sentencing death-penalty fourteenth-amendment ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel jury-trial jury-trial-waiver post-conviction-relief sixth-amendment 1. In a post-conviction relief case based on an aggravated murder conviction in which the defendant faced the death penalty, is trial counsel ineffect…
22-6960 James Jonathan Mitchell v. Florida Florida 2023-03-08 Denied Response WaivedIFP cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment habeas-corpus mental-competency Question not identified.
22-6955 Jaime Piero Cole v. Bobby Lumpkin, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Correctional Institutions Division Fifth Circuit 2023-03-07 Denied IFP caldwell-v-mississippi caldwell-violation certificate-of-appealability death-penalty fifth-circuit-ruling ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel jury-selection procedural-default voir-dire During jury selection, the court told eleven of the twelve seated jurors that their decision to impose death would be automatically reviewed on appeal…
22-6895 Heather Leavell-Keaton v. Alabama Alabama 2023-03-01 Denied Amici (1)Relisted (4)IFP capital-punishment capital-sentencing constitutional-rights death-penalty due-process evidence prison-behavior sentencing skipper-precedent skipper-v-south-carolina When a capital defendant's death sentence is vacated and the case is remanded for a new sentencing at which the death penalty is an available sentence…
22-6882 David Byron Russ v. Florida Florida 2023-02-28 Denied IFP capital-defendant capital-punishment criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process federal-courts habeas-corpus mental-competency review-claim state-court state-courts substantive-incompetency 1. Whether a state court may refuse to review a capital defendant's claim of substantive incompetency?
22-6725 Michael A. Gordon v. Florida Florida 2023-02-08 Denied IFP capital-sentencing death-penalty eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment proportionality-review pulley-v-harris Has the Florida Supreme Court by abandoning comparative proportionality review in death penalty appeals - - while dismantling other safeguards, and in…
22-6713 Leonard Taylor v. David Vandergriff, Superintendent, Potosi Correctional Center Missouri 2023-02-06 Denied IFP actual-innocence death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment habeas-corpus scientific-evidence In light of the foregoing facts, this petition presents the following questions: 1. Whether a freestanding claim of actual innocence presents a cogni…
22-6690 Steven Vernon Bixby v. Bryan P. Stirling, Commissioner, South Carolina Department of Corrections, et al. Fourth Circuit 2023-02-02 Denied IFP certificate-of-appealability death-penalty federal-courts federal-review habeas-corpus ineffective-assistance-counsel ineffective-assistance-of-counsel mental-illness Whether 28 U.S.C. § 2253(c)(1), F-R.A.P. 22(b) and this Court's decisions in Miller-El v. Cockrell, 537 U.S. 322 (2003), Barefoot v. Estelle, 463 U.S.…
22-6662 Wesley Ruiz v. Texas Texas 2023-01-31 Denied IFP constitutional-rights death-penalty due-process equal-protection juror-misconduct jury-selection racial-bias sixth-amendment Does Peria-Rodriguez apply to Petitioner's evidence that at least one juror relied on anti-Hispanic racial stereotypes and animus to find that he was …
22-6514 Santiago Pineda v. California California 2023-01-11 Denied IFP aggravating-circumstances constitutional-rights death-penalty jury-determination jury-fact-finding mitigating-circumstances reasonable-doubt sentencing-procedure Does the mandatory weighing of aggravating and mitigating circumstances under the California death penalty statute—a factfinding determination that se…
22-6445 Juan Villa Ramirez v. California California 2023-01-04 Denied IFP aggravating-circumstances constitutional-rights death-penalty fifth-amendment fourteenth-amendment jury-finding ring-v-arizona sixth-amendment Does California's death penalty scheme, which permits the trier of fact to impose a sentence of death without finding beyond a reasonable doubt the ex…
22-6396 John Edward Sansing v. Ryan Thornell, Director, Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry, et al. Ninth Circuit 2022-12-27 Denied IFP appellate-review clearly-established-law criminal-procedure death-penalty eighth-amendment federal-habeas mitigating-evidence mitigating-factors sentencing-procedure victim-impact John Edward Sansing pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and other felonies with no agreements offered by the state. During the sentencing proceeding…
22-580 John Q. Hamm, Commissioner, Alabama Department of Corrections v. Kenneth Eugene Smith Eleventh Circuit 2022-12-22 Denied Relisted (9) alternative-method comity death-penalty eighth-amendment feasibility finality method-of-execution nitrogen-hypoxia In an Eighth Amendment method-of-execution case, is an alternative method of execution feasible and readily implemented merely because the executing S…
22-6340 Ramon Simpson v. United States Eighth Circuit 2022-12-19 Denied Response WaivedIFP aiding-and-abetting criminal-liability custodial-interrogation death-penalty fifth-amendment jury-instructions kidnapping miranda-rights 1. Does a conviction for aiding and abetting kidnapping resulting in death, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1201(a)(1) and 2, require proof that the aide…
22-6252 In Re James E. Hitchcock 2022-12-08 Denied IFP actual-innocence appeals constitutional-rights death-penalty due-process federal-courts federal-habeas post-conviction state-habeas writ-of-habeas-corpus 1. Whether the federal courts' refusal to hear Mr. Hitchcock's meritorious federal claims after he received a new judgment and sentence amounted to a …
22-490 Lydell Chestnut, Deputy Warden v. Quincy J. Allen Fourth Circuit 2022-11-23 Denied Amici (1)Relisted (3) aedpa death-penalty death-sentence eating-disorder federal-habeas fourth-circuit-review mental-health mental-health-evidence schizophrenia sentencing-consideration state-post-conviction statutory-limitations Did the Fourth Circuit violate 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d) limitations and needlessly overturn a state death sentence on an insubstantial premise that Allen's…
22-6088 Tupoutoe Mataele v. California California 2022-11-17 Denied IFP 14th-amendment 5th-amendment 6th-amendment 8th-amendment aggravating-circumstances constitutional-requirements criminal-sentencing death-penalty jury-finding jury-trial reasonable-doubt Does California's death penalty scheme, which permits the trier of fact to impose a sentence of death without finding beyond a reasonable doubt the ex…
22-6071 Manuel Bracamontes v. California California 2022-11-16 Denied IFP aggravating-circumstances constitutional-rights death-penalty due-process jury-determination jury-trial mitigating-circumstances reasonable-doubt Does the mandatory weighing of aggravating and mitigating circumstances under the California death penalty statute—a factfinding determination that se…
22-6049 Kenneth Eugene Smith v. Alabama Alabama 2022-11-14 Denied IFP capital-sentencing cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment jury-determination jury-override state-federal-practice Does executing a condemned person contrary to a capital sentencing jury's determination that he should be sentenced to life imprisonment without the p…
22-5947 Kevin Johnson v. Missouri Missouri 2022-10-31 Denied IFP criminal-procedure criminal-trial death-penalty eighth-amendment juror-misconduct juvenile-justice mental-health mental-impairment racial-bias 1. In light of a court's duty to issue a remedy that "neutralize[s] the taint of a constitutional violation" while avoiding the grant of "a windfall t…
22-5906 William Lee Thompson v. Florida Florida 2022-10-25 Rehearing Relisted (2)IFP death-penalty eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment intellectual-disability iq-test iq-testing retroactivity standard-error teague-rule 1. In Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U.S. 304 (2002), this Court held that the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments preclude the execution of defendants with int…
22-5872 In Re Benjamin Cole 2022-10-20 Denied IFP competency death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment execution-protocol fourteenth-amendment habeas-corpus mental-competency mental-illness original-jurisdiction Whether the State of Oklahoma may execute Benjamin Cole while he is incompetent to be executed, in violation of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments t…
22-5814 Christopher Allan Allred v. Washington Washington 2022-10-12 Denied Relisted (2)IFP constitutional-rights criminal-procedure critical-stage cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment execution mental-illness rational-understanding right-to-counsel sixth-amendment Question not identified.
22-5695 Christopher Eric Poore v. California California 2022-09-28 Denied IFP 5th-6th-14th-amendments aggravating-circumstances constitutional-rights criminal-sentencing death-penalty due-process jury-finding jury-trial reasonable-doubt sentencing Does California's death penalty scheme, which permits the trier of fact to impose a sentence of death without finding beyond a reasonable doubt the ex…
22-5329 Chadrick Fulks v. T. J. Watson, Warden Seventh Circuit 2022-08-10 Denied Relisted (2)IFP 28-U.S.C-2241 28-U.S.C-2255 collateral-review death-penalty eighth-amendment habeas-corpus intellectual-disability section-2241 section-2255 Is an intellectually disabled and death-sentenced prisoner condemned to be executed in violation of the Eighth Amendment because he was found not to b…
22-5225 Craig Anthony Ross v. Ron Bloomfield, Warden Ninth Circuit 2022-07-29 Denied IFP aider-and-abettor aiding-and-abetting cabana-v-bullock death-penalty enmund-v-florida habeas-corpus intent-to-kill jury-instructions murder-first-degree ninth-circuit-review shared-intent 1. Did the Ninth Circuit err under Title 28, United States Code, Section 2254(d)(1) in affirming that the jury instructions given by the California Su…
22-5088 Norman Blake McKenzie v. Florida Florida 2022-07-13 Denied IFP aggravating-factors constitutional-rights death-penalty due-process fourteenth-amendment jury-trial reasonable-doubt sixth-amendment Mr. McKenzie had a right to a jury finding for each fact that subjected him to the enhanced penalty of death. This proof was required to be "beyond a …
22-5093 Jerry Leon Haliburton v. Florida Florida 2022-07-13 Denied IFP burden-of-proof capital-punishment clear-and-convincing-evidence death-penalty eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment intellectual-disability state-law In Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U.S. 304 (2002), this Court held that the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments preclude the execution of defendants with intell…
22-5073 Leroy McGill v. David Shinn, Director, Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry, et al. Ninth Circuit 2022-07-12 Denied IFP arizona constitutional-law criminal-punishment criminal-sentencing death-penalty ex-post-facto ninth-circuit retroactive-increase retroactive-law The Ex Post Facto Clause prohibits retroactive increases in criminal punishment. When Mr. McGill committed the crime for which he was convicted, Arizo…
21-1601 Areli Carbajal Escobar v. Texas Texas 2022-06-28 GVR Amici (3)Relisted (7) capital-murder criminal-procedure death-penalty dna-evidence due-process false-evidence federal-court habeas-corpus state-court Did the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals err in holding that the prosecution's reliance on admittedly false DNA evidence to secure petitioner's convict…
21-8177 Marlin Larice Joseph v. Florida Florida 2022-06-17 Denied IFP constitutional-safeguards cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment fourth-amendment geographic-arbitrariness sixth-amendment standards-of-decency Does the death penalty in and of itself violate the Eighth Amendment in light of contemporary standards of decency and the geographic and other arbitr…
21-8153 Michael Tisius v. Paul Blair, Warden Eighth Circuit 2022-06-16 Denied IFP 8th-circuit certificate-of-appealability conflict-of-interest death-penalty eighth-circuit habeas-corpus ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel statutory-interpretation The Eighth Circuit redefined and amended Congress's lenient certificate of appealability (COA) standard found in 28 U.S.C.§ 2253 with a more restricti…
21-1558 John Curtis Dewberry v. Bobby Lumpkin, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Correctional Institutions Divisions Fifth Circuit 2022-06-14 Denied aedpa certificate-of-appealability death-penalty district-court evidentiary-hearing fifth-circuit ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel minor-sentencing Whether the United States District Court For The Eastern District Of Texas erred in denying Petitioner Dewberry a Certificate of Appealability when it…
21-8083 In Re Frank Jarvis Atwood 2022-06-07 Denied IFP capital-murder death-penalty eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment prior-conviction state-ground statutory-elements Question not identified.
21-8042 Etheria Verdell Jackson v. Florida Florida 2022-06-02 Denied IFP aggravating-factors constitutional-rights death-penalty hurst-v-florida jury-recommendation jury-trial sixth-amendment sixth-amendment-right I. Whether a jury's advisory recommendation of death which does not identify the specific aggravators found, nor whether the aggravators were found un…
21-1512 San Bernardino County District Attorney, et al. v. Kevin Cooper, et al. Ninth Circuit 2022-06-02 Denied civil-procedure civil-rights death-penalty due-process federal-courts governor-powers judicial-intervention ninth-circuit standing state-law 1. Whether the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit improperly denied Petitioners intervention in death penalty litigation by deviatin…
21-7809 Urshawn Eric Miller v. Tennessee Tennessee 2022-05-09 Denied IFP arbitrary-and-capricious arbitrary-capricious capital-punishment comparative-proportionality-review death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment proportionality-review sentencing-review Whether Tennessee's comparative proportionality review, the state's chosen safeguard against arbitrary and capricious imposition of the death penalty,…
21-7646 Jason Delacerda v. Texas Texas 2022-04-19 Denied IFP appellate-review criminal-conviction criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process future-dangerousness ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel psychiatric-evidence psychiatric-testimony sufficiency-of-evidence I. QUESTION PRESENTED NO. ONE - Did the appellate court err in failing to find that the evidence was insufficient to support the conviction and death …
21-1268 Joe Clarence Smith, Jr. v. David Shinn, Director, Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry, et al. Ninth Circuit 2022-03-18 Denied 14th-amendment 42-usc-1983 8th-amendment civil-rights cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty death-row eighth-amendment habeas-relief method-of-execution section-1983 1. Whether Mr. Smith's method-of-execution challenge is cognizable under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. 2. Whether a method of execution involving 44 years of mos…
21-7381 Jessie D. Hoffman, Jr. v. Louisiana Louisiana 2022-03-16 Denied Amici (1)IFP capital-case criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process juror-misconduct jury-selection no-impeachment-rule peña-rodriguez racial-bias Did the Louisiana Supreme Court err in failing to consider clear evidence of juror racial bias under Peña-Rodriguez in the extraordinary circumstances…
21-7388 Amos Joseph Wells, III v. Texas Texas 2022-03-16 Denied IFP constitutional-violation death-penalty due-process fact-finding ineffective-assistance post-conviction post-conviction-relief racial-animus sixth-amendment When a state provides a mandatory procedure for fact-finding in post-conviction death penalty cases where a constitutional violation is pleaded, does …
21-7335 Charles Don Flores v. Texas Texas 2022-03-10 Denied IFP actual-innocence brady-violation death-penalty due-process habeas habeas-corpus state-procedural-law 1. Is the right to due process violated when a death-sentenced individual is barred from developing substantial habeas claims by the arbitrary applica…
21-7300 LeMaricus Davidson v. Tennessee Tennessee 2022-03-08 Denied IFP actual-prejudice death-penalty fair-trial fundamental-fairness ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel jury-selection post-conviction prejudice-presumption structural-error Should prejudice in an ineffective assistance of counsel case be presumed where the deficient performance of counsel resulted in a structural error co…
21-7296 Frank C. Gonzalez v. California California 2022-03-07 Denied IFP 5th-amendment 6th-amendment aggravating-circumstances constitutional-rights death-penalty due-process fifth-amendment jury jury-finding sixth-amendment Does California's death penalty scheme, which permits the trier of fact to impose a sentence of death without finding beyond a reasonable doubt the ex…
21-7039 Andrew Sasser v. Dexter Payne, Director, Arkansas Division of Correction Eighth Circuit 2022-02-01 Denied Relisted (3)IFP 28-usc-2244 adaptive-skills circuit-split death-penalty eighth-amendment habeas-corpus intellectual-disability remand second-or-successive second-or-successive-application 1. Whether amending a petition for writ of habeas corpus after a remand by an appellate court makes it a second-or-successive application under 28 U.S…
21-1021 Dexter Payne, Director, Arkansas Division of Correction v. Alvin Bernal Jackson Eighth Circuit 2022-01-20 Denied Relisted (4) adaptive-skills constitutional-rights criminal-sentencing cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty due-process evidence intellectual-disability judicial-interpretation Whether courts may consider adaptive strengths in deciding whether a defendant is intellectually disabled and thus ineligible for the death penalty.
21-6818 Arron Lawson v. Ohio Ohio 2022-01-11 Denied IFP 5th-amendment 8th-amendment capital-offenses competency competency-evaluation constitutional-rights criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment fifth-amendment state-court-proceedings Does a state Court proceeding resulting in a sentence of death violate the Fifth and Eighth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States when t…
21-6669 Robert Walter Scully v. California California 2021-12-21 Denied IFP aggravating-circumstances beyond-reasonable-doubt constitutional-rights death-penalty due-process jury-determination jury-trial mitigating-circumstances statutory-maximum Does the mandatory weighing of aggravating and mitigating circumstances under the California death penalty statute—a factfinding determination that se…
21-6636 Leroy Fears v. Pennsylvania Pennsylvania 2021-12-16 Denied IFP appellate-procedure constitutional-review death-penalty due-process homophobia judicial-impartiality judicial-misconduct partiality racism religious-bigotry supreme-court Was Due Process Violated when A State Supreme Court Justice Showed Partiality In Sending And Receiving Derogatory Eknails Of Female Abuse, Racism, Hom…
21-6590 Terry Lynn King v. Tennessee Tennessee 2021-12-14 Denied IFP 8th-amendment categorical-approach constitutional-vagueness death-penalty death-sentence due-process elements-based-approach johnson-precedent prior-conviction prior-violent-felony sentencing-aggravator vagueness (1) Is the 'prior violent felony conviction' aggravating factor in Tennessee's death penalty statutes unconstitutional under Johnson v. United States,…
21-871 Louisiana v. David H. Brown Louisiana 2021-12-13 Denied capital-case death-penalty faretta-right faretta-v-california mccoy-v-louisiana self-representation structural-error trial-counsel Whether the Louisiana Supreme Court erred in vacating the three death sentences imposed on the respondent when the trial court granted respondent's re…
21-6550 Wade Lay v. Aboutanaa El Habti, Warden, et al. Tenth Circuit 2021-12-07 Denied IFP 8th-amendment appellate-procedure civil-liberties civil-rights constitutional-rights criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process execution judicial-discretion standing Whether a prisoner may appeal to the United States Supreme Court under 28 U.S.C. § 1254 to contest his grounds under the Correct Constitution, regardi…
21-6428 Danny Lee Hill v. Tim Shoop, Warden Sixth Circuit 2021-11-24 Denied Amici (1)Relisted (18)IFP atkins-claim atkins-v-virginia death-penalty diagnoses federal-review habeas-corpus historical-evidence intellectual-disability miscarriage-of-justice present-functioning state-court-review I. Whether it constitutes an unreasonable determination of the facts under 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(2) when a state court decision rejecting an Atkins v. V…
21-6387 Richard Barry Randolph v. Florida Florida 2021-11-23 Denied IFP apprendi-v-new-jersey capital-sentencing constitutional-interpretation criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment retroactive-law statutory-construction 1. Whether the Florida Supreme Court's decision in Hurst v. State constitutes statutory construction of substantive law, and if so, whether the Due Pr…
21-6271 Austin Myers v. Ohio Ohio 2021-11-15 Denied IFP access-to-courts criminal-procedure death-penalty discovery due-process eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment ineffective-assistance-of-counsel postconviction postconviction-relief summary-dismissal I. Do the Ohio state courts deny a death-sentenced postconviction petitioner's rights to due process, access to the Ohio courts, and an adequate corre…
21-6198 Billy Dean Smith v. Lynnie Einerson, Acting Superintendent, Spring Creek Correctional Center Ninth Circuit 2021-11-08 Denied Response WaivedIFP civil-rights constitutional-protections death-penalty disadvantaged-groups due-process federal-habeas-corpus federal-review prisoner-rights standing state-prisoners state-procedure When litigating a State Criminal Convictions by way of a Federal Habeas Corpus, the Indigent State Prisoner & Matter What Race, Color or Creed, Who ha…
21-6083 James Osgood v. Alabama Alabama 2021-10-26 Denied IFP capital-punishment credibility-determinations death-penalty juror-challenge jury-selection sentencing-determination sixth-amendment trial-court witherspoon-v-illinois Can a reviewing court, consistent with the Sixth Amendment, uphold a challenge for cause in a capital case on the basis of a potential juror's persona…
21-6001 Terence Tramaine Andrus v. Texas Texas 2021-10-19 Denied Amici (8)Relisted (17)IFP capital-case criminal-procedure death-penalty effective-assistance-of-counsel habeas-corpus ineffective-assistance sixth-amendment stare-decisis strickland-v-washington vertical-stare-decisis I. On remand, did the Texas court reject this Court's conclusions in Andrus v. Texas, 140 S.Ct. 1875 (2020), which were amply supported by the habeas …
21-466 Eric DeWayne Cathey v. Texas Texas 2021-09-28 Denied Amici (1) capital-punishment death-penalty eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment intellectual-disability medical-criteria medical-standards precedent supreme-court-precedent Whether, in rejecting the detailed factfindings and legal conclusions of a state habeas trial court, disregarding medically accepted standards, and de…
21-5800 Gerald Ross Pizzuto, Jr. v. Idaho Idaho 2021-09-28 Denied IFP atkins-standard Atkins-v-Virginia clinical-assessment clinical-standards conflict-between-lower-courts constitutional-interpretation criminal-sentencing death-penalty intellectual-disability national-concern sub-average-intellectual-functioning Did Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U.S. 304 (2002), require the use of clinical standards for the determination of sub-average intellectual functioning?
21-5525 Thomas Richardson v. Nevada Nevada 2021-08-31 Denied IFP aggravating-circumstance court-martial death-penalty due-process ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel post-conviction-relief rompilla-standard rompilla-v-beard Whether the Nevada Supreme Court misapplied the law by failing to examine or analyze the failure of counsel to investigate readily available informati…
21-5515 Kenneth Hairston v. Pennsylvania Pennsylvania 2021-08-30 Denied IFP aggravating-factor criminal-procedure death-penalty felony-convictions ineffective-assistance prosecutorial-misconduct victim-impact victim-impact-testimony TRIAL COUNSEL GAVE INEFFECTIVE ASSISTANCE FOR FAILING TO OBJECT TO THE PROSECUTOR'S IMPROPER ARGUMENT REGARDING VICTIM IMPACT TESTIMONY USED TO SUPPOR…
21-5491 Alton Alexander Nolen v. Oklahoma Oklahoma 2021-08-26 Denied IFP capital-punishment constitutional-rights criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment intellectual-disability mental-retardation Whether Oklahoma's procedure for litigating the issue of whether a capital defendant suffers from an intellectual disability that would disqualify him…
21-5375 Douglas Coley v. Ohio Ohio 2021-08-13 Denied IFP collateral-review counsel-abandonment death-penalty death-row-rights due-process ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel post-conviction-review right-to-counsel trial-court-duty trial-court-management Can a state provide a rational basis to deny a death row prisoner his right to the state's first collateral, conviction, review process, where the pri…
21-5356 Joel Dale Wright v. Florida Florida 2021-08-12 Denied IFP death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment procedural-law retroactivity statutory-construction substantive-law 1. Whether the Florida Supreme Court's statutory construction in Hurst v. State constitutes substantive law, and if so, whether the Due Process Clause…
21-5226 Faryion Edward Wardrip v. Bobby Lumpkin, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Correctional Institutions Division Fifth Circuit 2021-07-27 Denied IFP criminal-procedure death-penalty habeas-corpus ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel judicial-review strickland-standard strickland-v-washington unreasonable-factual-determinations 1. Though Faryion Wardrip 's trial counsel failed to present critical evidence supporting his strategy to spare Wardrip from the death penalty, the T…
21-5108 Victor Willis v. Illinois Illinois 2021-07-14 Denied IFP 8th-amendment civil-rights constitutional-law criminal-procedure cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment intellectual-disability juvenile-sentencing life-without-parole Question not identified.
21-5094 Stanley Jalowiec v. Ohio Ohio 2021-07-13 Denied IFP caldwell-v-mississippi capital-case capital-punishment constitutional-error death-penalty hurst-v-florida jury-responsibility jury-selection sentencing-responsibility trial-procedure Is telling the jury that their decision is only a mere recommendation unconstitutional under Hurst v. Florida?
21-5050 Kristopher Love v. Texas Texas 2021-07-09 Denied Relisted (12)IFP court-of-criminal-appeals death-penalty due-process fair-trial fourteenth-amendment jury-selection racial-bias sixth-amendment I. Whether Texas' Court of Criminal Appeals, the only court of last resort reviewing direct appeals in death penalty cases has decided an important fe…
21-5012 Brian David Johnsen v. California California 2021-07-06 Denied IFP death-penalty due-process jury reasonable-doubt ring-v-arizona sentencing Does California's death penalty scheme, which permits the trier of fact to impose a sentence of death without finding beyond a reasonable doubt the ex…
20-8037 Quintin Phillippe Jones v. Texas Texas 2021-05-17 Denied IFP atkins-v-virginia constitutional-law death-penalty due-process expert-testimony fourteenth-amendment habeas-corpus intellectual-disability retroactive-rule retroactivity 1. Does Moore v. Texas, 137 S.Ct. 1039 (2017) establish a new retroactive rule of constitutional law that Petitioner is eligible for but could not pre…
20-8043 Carl Wayne Buntion v. Bobby Lumpkin, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Correctional Institutions Division Fifth Circuit 2021-05-17 Denied IFP arbitrary capital-punishment cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty deterrence eighth-amendment retribution If neither of the two purposes this Court has deemed to be a legitimate purpose for the death penalty —i.e. , retribution and deterrence— would be ser…
20-8048 James Terry Colley, Jr. v. Florida Florida 2021-05-17 Denied IFP 14th-amendment 8th-amendment aggravating-factor constitutional-challenge cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty due-process first-degree-murder florida-supreme-court sentencing-scheme Whether the Florida Supreme Court's expansion of the applicability of our statute's aggravating factor, Section 921.141(5)(i), i.e., the murder was es…
20-8038 Shawn Grate v. Ohio Ohio 2021-05-14 Denied Relisted (2)IFP capital-punishment criminal-defendant criminal-defense death-penalty due-process effective-assistance-of-counsel ineffective-assistance-of-counsel insanity-defense mental-health mitigation 1. If a criminal defendant, charged with a death penalty-qualified offense, admit to murdering multiple women, and the only possible defense is a verd…
20-1568 Teresa Miller v. United States Fourth Circuit 2021-05-12 Denied Response Waived appellate-review constitutional-rights criminal-procedure death-penalty death-sentence due-process judicial-procedure judicial-review Why did the court feel it necessary to order the defendant with a death sentence, so that they would not have their conduct or actions reviewed; why n…
20-7988 Robert Allen Poyson v. Arizona Arizona 2021-05-11 Denied IFP aggravating-factors capital-sentencing causal-nexus constitutional-review death-penalty eighth-amendment individualized-sentencing mitigation-evidence non-statutory-mitigation 1. Is the individualized capital sentencing requirement guaranteed by the Eighth Amendment violated when a State—whether by statute or court- imposed …
20-7930 Oscar Smith v. Tennessee Tennessee 2021-05-05 Denied IFP death-penalty death-sentence due-process fair-trial fundamental-rights juror-bias juror-misconduct procedural-rules state-court-proceedings Whether a state court violates the federal due process rights of a death sentenced prisoner who has asserted a colorable claim of juror bias and/or mi…
20-7865 Terry Lee Froman v. Ohio Ohio 2021-04-27 Denied IFP capital-punishment constitutional-duty death-penalty fair-trial jury-selection racial-bias structural-error voir-dire 1) Does trial counsel have an obligation to conduct a meaningful and comprehensive voir dire as it relates to racial bias, explicit or implicit, of ju…
20-7805 Melvin Knight v. Pennsylvania Pennsylvania 2021-04-20 Denied Relisted (13)IFP brumfield-v-cain clinical-standards death-penalty documentation-requirement intellectual-disability iq-score moore-v-texas supreme-court-precedent Whether a State may require a defendant to present an IQ score of 75 or below that was "documented prior to age 18" to have his intellectual disabilit…
20-7732 Tina LaSonya Brown v. Florida Florida 2021-04-13 Denied IFP aggravating-factors appellate-review capital-sentencing constitutional-procedure death-penalty due-process ex-post-facto jury-finding jury-findings sixth-amendment ONE: Petitioner Tina Brown sought state postconviction relief from a 2012 death sentence imposed under the procedure subsequently held unconstitutiona…
20-7665 Donald David Dillbeck v. Florida Florida 2021-04-06 Denied IFP capital-punishment death-penalty due-process evolving-standards habeas-corpus medical-evidence mental-health post-conviction post-conviction-relief scientific-advancements scientific-evidence 1) What constitutes diligence in raising newly discovered medical and/or mental health evidence and diagnoses? 2) Are capital defendants confined to …
20-7615 Duane Eugene Owen v. Florida Florida 2021-03-31 Denied IFP capital-case constitutional-claims criminal-procedure death-penalty equal-protection florida-supreme-court fourteenth-amendment habeas-corpus penalty-phase procedural-history retroactivity supreme-court-review Whether Petitioner was denied equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution when the Florida Supreme Court decline…
20-7592 Alan Eugene Miller v. Jefferson S. Dunn, Commissioner, Alabama Department of Corrections Eleventh Circuit 2021-03-29 Denied IFP aggravating-factor aggravating-factors caldwell-v-mississippi capital-sentencing death-penalty eighth-amendment jury-instructions jury-verdict sixth-amendment After petitioner Alan Miller was convicted of murder, the trial judge instructed the jurors that their penalty-phase verdict was merely an advisory re…
20-7462 Anthony Kirkland v. Ohio Ohio 2021-03-17 Denied IFP capital-defendant death-penalty fair-trial fifth-amendment fourteenth-amendment impartial-jury ineffective-assistance sixth-amendment I. Are a capital defendant's rights to a fair trial by an impartial jury, as guaranteed by the Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendments, denied when on…
20-7479 Benjamin Velayo v. Cheryl Fox, et al. Tenth Circuit 2021-03-17 Denied IFP cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty eighth-amendment mental-illness rational-understanding reasons-for-execution Question not identified.
20-7373 Christopher Mathew Payne v. Arizona Arizona 2021-03-09 Denied IFP resulting in prejudice capital-punishment death-penalty due-process ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel jury-instructions parole-ineligibility simmons-precedent Whether a death sentence may be carried out when defense counsel unreasonably fails to inform the jury of parole ineligibility under Simmons, 512 U.S.…
20-7347 Warren Tarver v. Mark S. Inch, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections Florida 2021-03-05 Denied Response WaivedIFP capital-felony constitutional-standards death-penalty due-process federalism state-law state-laws unconstitutional WHETHER IT IS A VIOLATION OF DUE PROCESS OF LAW TO DETAIN A PERSON UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF A STATUTE THAT CLASSIFIES THE OFFENSE A CAPITAL FELONY WHERE…
20-7228 Leroy Pooler v. Florida Florida 2021-02-25 Denied IFP criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment hurst-v-state state-v-poole statutory-construction substantive-law 1. Does the Florida Supreme Court's statutory construction in Hurst v. State constitute substantive law and, if so, does the Due Process Clause of the…
20-7251 Eric Lyle Williams v. Texas Texas 2021-02-25 Denied Amici (1)IFP criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process fair-trial prosecutor-bias prosecutorial-misconduct recusal structural-error (1) Does the participation of a conflicted and recused prosecutor in a death penalty trial violate due process? (2) Does the undisclosed participatio…
20-7238 Alberto Julio Garcia v. Mississippi Mississippi 2021-02-24 Denied IFP competency cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty due-process dusky-standard eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment mental-competency pretrial-proceedings restorative-treatment Does Mississippi's "presumption of competency" violate the Fourteenth Amendment, and/or the Eighth Amendment, when that presumption is expanded to all…
20-7192 Phillip Vance Smith, II v. Josh Stein, et al. Fourth Circuit 2021-02-22 Denied Response WaivedIFP civil-rights constitutional-review criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process fourth-circuit habeas-corpus ineffective-assistance-of-counsel retroactivity sixth-amendment teague-doctrine Whether the rule announced in McCoy v. Louisiana, 138 U.S. 1500 (2018) applies retroactively to cases on collateral review.
20-1136 Peter Capote v. Alabama Alabama 2021-02-19 Denied 6th-amendment aggravating-circumstances capital-punishment death-penalty judicial-fact-finding judicial-weighing jury-trial mitigating-circumstances sentencing-scheme sixth-amendment 1. Whether the Alabama death penalty sentencing scheme, which leaves it to the judge to find whether the aggravating circumstances outweigh the mitiga…
20-1125 Antonio Devoe Jones v. Alabama Alabama 2021-02-17 Denied 6th-amendment alabama-law constitutional-rights criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process ineffective-assistance mitigation-evidence mitigation-investigation 1. Was Petitioner deprived of his constitutional right to effective counsel after his defense lawyers misunderstood controlling Alabama law and mistak…
20-6915 Scott Lee Peterson v. California California 2021-01-22 Denied Response WaivedIFP capital-murder death-penalty eighth-amendment jury-selection sixth-amendment voir-dire witherspoon-challenge witherspoon-v-illinois Petitioner was charged with capital murder. During voir dire, and based solely on answers to jury questionnaires, the state trial court systematically…
20-6875 Jason Pierce v. Nathan Brooks, Warden Eleventh Circuit 2021-01-14 Denied Response WaivedIFP certificate-of-appealability court-appointed-counsel criminal-procedure death-penalty faretta-protocol habeas-corpus ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel procedural-defect structural-defect Did the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit err in filing to issue a Certificate of Appealability from the denial of the Petition …
20-6846 Tyrone Campbell v. Florida Florida 2021-01-12 Denied IFP cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment standing supreme-court Question not identified.
20-6769 Juan David Rodriguez v. Mark S. Inch, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections Eleventh Circuit 2021-01-05 Denied IFP atkins-standard atkins-v-virginia death-penalty eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment intellectual-disability medical-consensus scientific-authority Whether the disregard of medical and scientific consensus and well-established clinical authority when evaluating a claim of intellectual disability c…
20-6709 Lance Hundley v. Ohio Ohio 2020-12-28 Denied IFP capital-defendant capital-sentencing constitutional-review death-penalty due-process fourteenth-amendment jury-determination mental-health self-representation sixth-amendment 1.Do the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution forbid a trial court from allowing a capital defendant with a questionable mental he…
20-6658 Michael Brent Brown v. Bobby Lumpkin, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Correctional Institutions Division Fifth Circuit 2020-12-18 Denied IFP death-penalty district-court due-process federal-jurisdiction federal-petition fifth-circuit habeas-corpus ineffective-assistance-of-counsel prisoner-rights procedural-grounds statute-of-limitations Petirénep wishes te challeuge the ARisiows of the united States Court of Ampenls far the Fifth circuit m caus€ no. 19-4o72XO And the united sty tes pi…
20-6633 Eduardo David Vargas v. California California 2020-12-15 Denied IFP aggravating-circumstances constitutional-rights criminal-sentencing death-penalty due-process fifth-amendment jury-finding jury-trial reasonable-doubt sixth-amendment Does California's death penalty scheme, which permits the trier of fact to impose a sentence of death without finding beyond a reasonable doubt the ex…
20-808 Johnny Duane Miles v. California California 2020-12-15 Denied Amici (1) batson-challenge batson-claim comparative-juror-analysis death-penalty jury-selection peremptory-challenges pretext prosecutorial-discretion racial-discrimination During jury selection for Johnny Duane Miles's capital murder trial, the prosecutor used his peremptory challenges to remove every Black prospective j…
20-6570 Brandon Bernard v. United States Fifth Circuit 2020-12-08 Denied IFP brady-disclosure brady-violation death-penalty gang-affiliation government-misconduct napue-claim napue-violation procedural-default section-2255 successive-habeas successive-petition Where government action prevented Petitioner from bringing his claims under Brady and Napue in his initial § 2255 motion, should a second-in-time moti…
20-6500 Alfred Bourgeois v. T. J. Watson, Warden, et al. Seventh Circuit 2020-12-03 Denied Amici (1)IFP death-penalty diagnostic-standards due-process federal-death-penalty-act federal-statute habeas-corpus intellectual-disability judicial-review Does the Federal Death Penalty Act, which provides that a "sentence of death shall not be carried out upon a person who is mentally retarded," prohibi…
20-6518 Blaine Milam v. Texas Texas 2020-12-03 Denied IFP briseno-framework collateral-review court-of-criminal-appeals death-penalty due-process intellectual-disability moore-v-texas retroactive-rule retroactivity substantive-law 1. Did Moore v. Texas announce a new substantive rule that is retroactive to cases on collateral review and, if so, did the Texas Court of Criminal Ap…
20-6386 James Ray Earl Walker v. Nevada Nevada 2020-11-19 Denied IFP batson-framework death-penalty juror-selection jury-selection peremptory-strike race-discrimination racial-discrimination state-courts voir-dire Did the Nevada courts err in failing to observe and follow the three step Batson framework and failing to recognize the prosecutor's blatant discrimin…
20-697 Orlando Cordia Hall v. T. J. Watson, Warden Seventh Circuit 2020-11-19 Denied Amici (1) 28-usc-2241 28-usc-2255 batson-claim batson-v-kentucky constitutional-error death-penalty federal-procedure habeas-corpus racial-discrimination When Petitioner, a Black man, was sentenced to death in a Texas federal courtroom after the prosecution struck four out of five Black prospective juro…
20-6307 Gary Lawrence v. Florida Florida 2020-11-13 Denied Relisted (2)IFP atkins-v-virginia death-penalty hall-v-florida intellectual-disability montgomery-v-louisiana retroactive-application retroactivity substantive-rule supreme-court-precedent Whether this Court's decision in Hall v. Florida, 134 S. Ct. 1986 (2014), merely clarified Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U.S. 304 (2002), or announced a new…
20-6218 Terance Valentine v. Florida Florida 2020-11-05 Denied IFP constitutional-waiver criminal-procedure death-penalty eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment hurst-v-florida jury-fact-finding jury-unanimity ring-v-arizona Whether a waiver to an advisory, non-unanimous jury verdict lacking in any fact finding requirement under a death penalty scheme later determined to b…
20-6202 Jimmy Don Wooten v. Arkansas Arkansas 2020-11-03 Denied Response WaivedIFP 18-usc-3005 capital-murder criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process error-coram-nobis statutory-interpretation Did United States Code Annotated 18 U.S.C.A. 3005 apply to Petitioner in 1994 when he was charged with Capital Murder and the Death Penalty was sought…
20-507 Tony Mays, Warden v. Anthony Darrell Dugard Hines Sixth Circuit 2020-10-16 Judgment Issued Relisted (4) antiterrorism-act antiterrorism-and-effective-death-penalty-act capital-trial death-penalty habeas-corpus ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel sixth-circuit sixth-circuit-review strickland-standard strickland-v-washington The question presented is whether the Sixth Circuit's decision conflicts with the Court's precedents governing claims of ineffective assistance of cou…
20-6043 Robin Lee Archer v. Florida Florida 2020-10-16 Denied IFP criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment jury-role retroactivity statutory-construction substantive-criminal-law substantive-law 1. Whether the Florida Supreme Court's statutory construction in Hurst v. State constitutes substantive law, and if so, whether the Due Process Clause…
20-5954 Meryl S. McDonald v. Florida Florida 2020-10-08 Denied IFP criminal-procedure death-penalty death-sentence due-process equal-protection fourteenth-amendment post-conviction postconviction-counsel pro-se-filing right-to-counsel The question presented in this case is whether rule 3.851(b)(6)&(i) found in the Florida Rules of Criminal Procedure is unconstitutional and violates …
20-5923 Charles Don Flores v. Texas Texas 2020-10-06 Denied Amici (2)IFP constitutional-fairness death-penalty due-process eyewitness-identification fair-trial hypnosis investigative-hypnosis law-enforcement-procedure police-investigation In Rock v. Arkansas, 483 U.S. 44 (1987), this Court found that, although "hypnotically refreshed" testimony was "controversial," the dangers associate…
20-5874 Jerry Lard v. Arkansas Arkansas 2020-10-01 Denied IFP categorical-prohibition death-penalty eighth-amendment execution intellectual-disability ripeness waiver 1. Whether a death-sentenced inmate is permitted to waive a viable claim for an Eighth Amendment categorical probation against the execution of person…
20-5766 Christopher Andre Vialva v. United States Fifth Circuit 2020-09-21 Denied IFP attorney-general-power death-penalty death-sentence execution-procedures federal-courts federal-death-penalty-act federal-law judicial-precedent state-law state-law-implementation Since the federal government resumed executions this year, after a 17-year hiatus, the Courts of Appeals have addressed challenges to federal methods …
20-5734 Alfred Flores, III v. California California 2020-09-17 Denied IFP capital-punishment constitutional-requirements criminal-procedure criminal-sentencing death-penalty due-process jury-findings jury-trial reasonable-doubt ring-v-arizona sentencing Whether California's death penalty scheme violates the constitutional requirement that any fact that increases the penalty for a crime must be found b…
20-5562 Jeffrey Hessler v. Nebraska Nebraska 2020-09-03 Denied IFP aggravating-circumstances constitutional-amendments death-penalty eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment hurst-v-florida judicial-panel jury-determination post-conviction-relief ring-v-arizona sixth-amendment Are the Sixth, Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments, as well as Ring and Hurst, violated when eligibility for the death penalty is asserted to be decided …
20-5563 Richard Bays v. Tim Shoop, Warden Sixth Circuit 2020-09-02 Denied IFP aedpa atkins-claim atkins-v-virginia certificate-of-appealability death-penalty habeas-corpus hall-v-florida ineffective-assistance-of-counsel intellectual-disability moore-v-texas 1. Is it at least debatable whether Petitioner was improperly denied the right to amend his federal habeas corpus petition to include a claim that he …
20-250 Mark Anthony Poole v. Florida Florida 2020-09-01 Denied aggravating-circumstances capital-sentencing death-penalty eighth-amendment hurst-precedent hurst-v-florida jury-recommendation mitigating-circumstances sixth-amendment I. Whether the Florida Supreme Court erred in reinstating a capital sentence issued under Florida's pre-2016 scheme, in contravention of this Court's …
20-5464 Dwayne Banks v. United States Fourth Circuit 2020-08-31 Denied Response WaivedIFP civil-procedure civil-rights death-penalty due-process habeas standing ThE quUERNMeNt F1l2D ReSpONSE T the 7 pEtItINNEn's 2255 "2yNS AFTER ORDERRD by the POUt". ThE GUERNMES ADMIts CONCEDES Hat "It FoRgot". DID thE Distai…
20-5517 Scotty Ray Gardner v. Arkansas Arkansas 2020-08-27 Denied IFP access-to-courts aggravating-circumstance aggravating-circumstances appellate-review capital-punishment capital-sentencing death-penalty due-process jury-instructions I. In a state in which the death penalty is authorized only upon a finding of an enumerated aggravating circumstance, does due process require that ev…
20-5492 Ray Lamar Johnston v. Mark S. Inch, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections, et al. Eleventh Circuit 2020-08-25 Denied IFP appellate-review caldwell-v-mississippi capital-punishment constitutional-claims death-penalty due-process habeas-corpus hurst-v-florida ineffective-assistance jury-instructions procedural-default 1. Whether the Eleventh Circuit should have remanded or expanded the appeal after new law and evidence developed. The Eleventh Circuit had limited the…
20-5398 Lezmond Charles Mitchell v. United States Ninth Circuit 2020-08-18 Denied IFP civil-rights death-penalty due-process extraordinary-circumstance juror-interviews jury-selection pena-rodriguez racial-bias rule-60b In Peña-Rodriguez v. Colorado, 137 S. Ct. 855 (2017), this Court held, for the first time, that no-impeachment rules may not bar consideration of juro…
20-5362 David Wayne Allen v. Betty Mitchell, Warden Sixth Circuit 2020-08-14 Denied IFP biased-juror death-penalty due-process fourteenth-amendment habeas-corpus juror-bias ohio-supreme-court sixth-amendment supreme-court-precedent Did the trial court's refusal to dismiss a biased juror from a Death Penalty Panel, deprive Petitioner Allen of protection under the Sixth and Fourtee…
20-5263 Patrick W. Schroeder v. Nebraska Nebraska 2020-08-05 Denied IFP capital-punishment capital-sentencing death-penalty eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment mitigation mitigation-evidence pro-se pro-se-representation proportionality sentencing 1) Whether the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution are violated when a capital sentencing panel issues a death sentence…
20-5243 Warren K. Henness v. Mike DeWine, et al. Sixth Circuit 2020-08-03 Denied Amici (3)IFP alternative-methods cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty eighth-amendment lethal-injection medical-aid-in-dying 1. Whether the Eighth Amendment categorically permits the degree of pain caused by hanging—including sensations of drowning and suffocation—or whether…
20-5119 Wayne Powell v. Ohio Ohio 2020-07-21 Denied IFP death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment expert-funding hurst-v-florida indigent-defendant ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel postconviction-relief sixth-amendment 1. Does Ohio's postconviction process allow indigent defendants a substantive opportunity to develop claims that comport with Ohio's collateral review…
19-8927 Alfred Brian Mitchell v. Tommy Sharp, Warden Tenth Circuit 2020-07-08 Denied IFP age-of-culpability cognitive-science constitutional-vagueness criminal-procedure cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment sentencing-aggravator standing statutory-interpretation 1. Given this Court's prior ruling that the text of Oklahoma's "heinous, atrocious, or cruel" death-penalty aggravator is unconstitutionally vague, is…
19-8904 William Clyde Gibson, III v. Indiana Indiana 2020-07-06 Denied IFP death-penalty ineffective-assistance-of-counsel mitigating-circumstances post-conviction-relief strickland-standard strickland-v-washington traumatic-brain-injury wiggins-v-smith williams-v-taylor 1. Whether the Indiana Supreme Court's opinion contravened Williams v. Taylor and Wiggins v. Smith by failing to find deficient performance where coun…
19-8873 Efrain Diaz, Jr. and Justin Smith v. Kentucky Kentucky 2020-07-01 Denied Response RequestedResponse WaivedRelisted (3)IFP criminal-defendant criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment justiciability party-presentation procedural-due-process standing-doctrine 1. Does the requirement in Lujan v. Defs. of Wildlife , 504 U.S. 555, 560 (1992), that a litigant have suffered an "actual or imminent" injury apply t…
19-8845 Charles Grover Brant v. Florida Florida 2020-06-29 Denied IFP constitutional-challenge death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment fact-finding fourteenth-amendment hurst-v-florida jury-trial jury-unanimity jury-waiver Whether a waiver to an advisory, non-unanimous jury verdict lacking in any fact finding requirement under a death penalty scheme later determined to b…
19-8831 Eric Reid v. Arkansas Arkansas 2020-06-26 Denied IFP capital-case capital-cases constitutional-procedure criminal-trial death-penalty due-process jury-selection morgan-v-illinois voir-dire Whether the Arkansas' voir dire framework in capital cases conflicts with this Court's ruling in Morgan v. Illinois, 504 U.S. 719 (1992).
19-8792 John Hummel v. Bobby Lumpkin, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Correctional Institutions Division Fifth Circuit 2020-06-23 Denied IFP 18-U.S.C.-3599 clemency clemency-proceedings death-penalty discretionary-review expert-assistance expert-services legal-representation reasonably-necessary statutory-funding unusual-character-or-duration When the appointed attorney for a death-sentenced inmate shows that expert services have likely utility—and are of unusual character or duration—but c…
19-8742 Harold Wayne Nichols v. Tennessee Tennessee 2020-06-18 Denied IFP arbitrary-and-capricious death-penalty death-sentence eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment judicial-override prior-felony-aggravator settlement-agreement vagueness-doctrine The death sentence in this case is supported by only one aggravating circumstance, Tennessee's prior violent felony conviction aggravator. The elected…
19-8728 Joshua Harrell v. California California 2020-06-17 Denied Response WaivedRelisted (2)IFP cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty eighth-amendment habeas-corpus mental-illness rational-understanding Question not identified.
19-8712 Billy Joe Wardlow v. Texas Texas 2020-06-15 Denied Amici (1)IFP age-of-offender brain-development death-penalty eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment future-dangerousness neuroscience roper-v-simmons Whether, under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments, Texas may continue to impose, and carry out previously imposed, death sentences for which future …
19-1361 Richard Jordan, et al. v. Georgia Department of Corrections Eleventh Circuit 2020-06-11 Denied 8th-amendment alternative-method availability capital-punishment death-penalty department-of-corrections departments-of-corrections execution-method feasibility Glossip-v-Gross legal-precedent Whether evidence of how other departments of corrections have obtained and successfully administered an alternative execution method is relevant to sh…
19-8660 Thomas Michael Riley v. Arizona Arizona 2020-06-10 Denied IFP aggravating-factors capital-punishment capital-sentencing constitutional-review death-penalty furman-v-georgia gregg-v-georgia narrowing-requirement sentencing-scheme "To pass constitutional muster, a capital sentencing scheme must genuinely narrow the class of persons eligible for the death penalty and must reasona…
19-1348 Alfred Bourgeois, et al. v. William P. Barr, Attorney General, et al. District of Columbia 2020-06-09 Denied Amici (2) administrative-law agency-deference agency-rule capital-case death-penalty execution-protocol federal-death-penalty-act federal-law notice-and-comment procedural-rule statutory-interpretation 1. Whether the phrase "prescribed by the law of the State" in 18 U.S.C. § 3596(a) includes those procedures that state law requires state officials to…
19-8600 Marco E. Torres, Jr. v. Nebraska Nebraska 2020-06-04 Denied IFP bill-of-attainder cruel-unusual-punishment death-penalty due-process equal-protection media-campaign referendum I. Whether the successful media campaign and referendum culminating in affirmance of Mr. Torres' death sentences qualify as cruel and unusual punishme…
19-8581 Marlon Deon Harmon v. Tommy Sharp, Warden Tenth Circuit 2020-06-02 Denied IFP brady-v-maryland brady-violation brecht-standard brecht-v-abrahamson confession confession-evidence constitutional-error death-penalty habeas-corpus mitigating-evidence sentencing Should this Court provide uniform guidance to federal courts in their analyses under Brecht v. Abrahamson when the harm caused in the admission of an …
19-8438 Rodney Lyn Emil v. Nevada Nevada 2020-05-12 Denied IFP aggravating-factors burden-of-proof capital-sentencing constitutional-procedure death-penalty jury-finding jury-instructions mitigating-circumstances reasonable-doubt Nevada courts instruct juries that they may consider imposing a death sentence only after finding at least one statutory aggravating factor beyond a r…
19-8357 Jeffery J. Lout v. Montana Montana 2020-04-27 Denied Relisted (2)IFP 8th-amendment civil-rights constitutional-claims death-penalty due-process ex-post-facto intellectual-disability mental-illness procedural-challenges psychological-evaluation sentencing Question not identified.
19-8335 Mitchell Willoughby v. Deedra Hart, Warden Sixth Circuit 2020-04-22 Denied IFP caldwell-precedent capital-sentencing closing-argument death-penalty jury jury-instructions prosecutor prosecutorial-misconduct sixth-circuit state-law voir-dire "The uncorrected suggestion that the responsibility for any ultimate determination of death will rest with others presents an intolerable danger that …
19-8239 Robert Ybarra, Jr. v. William Gittere, Warden, et al. Nevada 2020-04-10 Denied IFP aggravating-factors constitutional-rights death-penalty due-process jury-determination jury-trial mitigating-circumstances reasonable-doubt sentencing sentencing-procedure Under Nevada law, a jury may consider imposing a death sentence only after finding at least one statutory aggravating factor beyond a reasonable doubt…
19-8197 Fred Furnish v. Kentucky Kentucky 2020-04-07 Denied IFP criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process habeas-corpus hearing-impairment impartial-jury juror-bias juror-impartiality jury-selection right-to-fair-trial When a juror realizes that he has been in an identical situation vis-à-vis the defendant as the victims of the defendant's crimes, is that juror unqua…
19-8192 John Bejarano v. William Gittere, Warden, et al. Nevada 2020-04-06 Denied IFP aggravating-factors appellate-reweighing apprendi clemons-v-mississippi constitutional-rights death-penalty jury-trial reweighing sixth-amendment 1. Should this Court overrule Clemons v. Mississippi as inconsistent with Apprendi and its progeny, to the extent that it allows an appellate court to…
19-8175 Kitrich A. Powell v. Nevada Nevada 2020-04-03 Denied IFP aggravating-factors burden-of-proof capital-punishment constitutional-rights death-penalty jury-instructions mitigating-circumstances sixth-amendment Did the Nevada Supreme Court violate Mr. Powell's constitutional rights by making the outweighing requirement an afterthought for the jury, used only …
19-8090 Joseph Weldon Smith v. Nevada Nevada 2020-03-24 Denied IFP aggravating-factors capital-punishment constitutional-rights death-penalty due-process jury-instructions mitigating-circumstances sixth-amendment Did the Nevada Supreme Court violate Mr. Smith's constitutional rights by making the outweighing requirement an afterthought for the jury, used only t…
19-8045 Raymond Mata, Jr. v. Nebraska Nebraska 2020-03-19 Denied IFP constitutional-challenge death-penalty due-process fourteenth-amendment legislative-veto nebraska nebraska-legislature referendum referendum-power standing veto Whether the citizens of Nebraska through improper use of their referendum power, or the trial court or Nebraska Supreme Court through erroneous approv…
19-8039 Jeffrey Clark v. Louisiana Louisiana 2020-03-18 Denied IFP counsel-conflict criminal-trial death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment faretta-waiver jury-trial right-to-counsel right-to-self-representation self-representation sixth-amendment Mr. Clark represented himself at trial because his lawyer planned to concede his guilt of second-degree murder. The Louisiana Supreme Court held the F…
19-8009 Hooman Ashkan Panah v. Ron Broomfield, Acting Warden Ninth Circuit 2020-03-17 Denied Amici (1)IFP civil-rights criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process evidence-review habeas-corpus ineffective-assistance-of-counsel judicial-procedure juror-contact juror-misconduct remmer sixth-amendment third-party-influence Question 1: During deliberations, a juror contacted her preacher, who gave her an eye-for-an-eye Biblical passage, which made her "at peace" with voti…
19-8011 James Anderson Dellinger v. Tennessee Tennessee 2020-03-16 Denied Relisted (2)IFP atkins-v-virginia constitutional-mandate death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment intellectual-disability judicial-abdication legislative-inaction procedural-vehicle Mr. Dellinger has a full-scale I.Q. of 69; he never could read, write, figure out which restroom to use, buy bread, or measure a board. His adaptive d…
19-1105 Tommy Sharp, Interim Warden v. Jimmy Dean Harris Tenth Circuit 2020-03-10 Denied death-penalty death-penalty-appeal deference-to-state-courts deferential-review habeas-corpus ineffective-assistance-of-counsel intellectual-disability standard-of-review 1. In holding that the OCCA made an "unreasonable determination of the facts," did the Tenth Circuit contravene this Court's repeated admonition that …
19-1100 Leroy D. Cropper v. Arizona Arizona 2020-03-09 Denied Amici (2) capital-punishment death-penalty due-process ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel jury-instructions parole-eligibility parole-ineligibility simmons-v-south-carolina sixth-amendment Whether a death sentence may be carried out when defense counsel unreasonably fails to inform the jury of parole ineligibility under Simmons v. South …
19-7880 Nathaniel Woods v. Jefferson S. Dunn, Commissioner, Alabama Department of Corrections, et al. Eleventh Circuit 2020-03-05 Denied IFP arbitrary-and-capricious arbitrary-discrimination arbitrary-punishment death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment equal-protection execution-method nitrogen-hypoxia suppressed-information 1. Does the Eighth Amendment apply only to imposition of a death sentence, as the Eleventh Circuit held, or may a petitioner challenge, as arbitrary a…
19-1054 Christa Gail Pike v. Gloria Gross, Warden Sixth Circuit 2020-02-25 Denied Amici (1) cumulative-evidence death-penalty eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel mitigation-evidence prejudice strickland-standard strickland-v-washington 1. Whether a defendant who asserts that trial counsel failed to present key evidence is precluded from showing prejudice under Strickland v. Washingto…
19-7745 Willie B. Smith, III v. Jefferson S. Dunn, Commissioner, Alabama Department of Corrections Eleventh Circuit 2020-02-24 Denied Relisted (3)IFP batson-challenge collateral-review death-penalty death-penalty-law hall-v-florida intellectual-disability moore-v-texas peremptory-strikes prosecutor-conduct prosecutorial-discretion retroactive-application retroactivity substantive-rules 1. Whether Hall v. Florida , 134 S. Ct. 1986 (2014), and Moore v. Texas , 137 S. Ct. 1039 (2017), announced new substantive rules that apply retroacti…
19-7696 In Re Nicholas Todd Sutton 2020-02-18 Denied IFP 14th-amendment 5th-amendment capital-sentencing constitutional-rights criminal-procedure criminal-trial death-penalty due-process fifth-amendment fourteenth-amendment habeas-corpus physical-restraints visible-jury In Deck v. Missouri, 544 U.S. 622, 629 (2005), this Court held that "the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments prohibit the use of physical restraints visib…
19-7680 Samuel Howard v. Nevada Nevada 2020-02-14 Denied IFP appellate-review capital-punishment constitutional-law criminal-procedure death-penalty death-penalty-sentencing due-process hurst-v-florida judicial-precedent retroactivity sentencing sentencing-procedure sixth-amendment 1. Whether appellate reweighing is constitutional after Hurst v. Florida, 136 S. Ct. 616 (2016). 2. Whether Hurst is retroactive.
19-7647 William P. Castillo v. Nevada Nevada 2020-02-12 Denied Amici (1)IFP aggravating-factors appellate-review apprendi apprendi-line capital-punishment capital-sentencing clemons-v-mississippi death-penalty jury-instructions mitigating-circumstances mitigating-evidence mitigation-evidence reweighing Nevada courts instruct juries that they may consider imposing a death sentence only after finding at least one statutory aggravating factor beyond a r…
19-7649 Socorro Susan Caro v. California California 2020-02-12 Denied IFP aggravating-circumstances constitutional-rights criminal-sentencing death-penalty due-process fifth-amendment fourteenth-amendment jury-beyond-reasonable-doubt jury-finding jury-trial mitigating-circumstances reasonable-doubt sentencing sixth-amendment Does California's death penalty scheme, which permits the trier of fact to impose a sentence of death without finding beyond a reasonable doubt (1) th…
19-7541 Richard Hurles v. David Shinn, Director, Arizona Department of Corrections, et al. Ninth Circuit 2020-02-04 Denied IFP 14th-amendment 8th-amendment capital-punishment death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment judicial-bias judicial-ethics recusal right-to-fair-trial 1. Are the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments violated where a judge who has personally litigated against a defendant in the same case presides over his…
19-967 Craig M. Wood v. Missouri Missouri 2020-02-03 Denied Relisted (2) capital-punishment capital-sentencing constitutional-rights death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment jury-determination jury-trial sentencing sixth-amendment Whether the Constitution requires that a jury, rather than a judge, weigh the aggravating and mitigating circumstances to determine whether a defendan…
19-7476 Timothy Wayne Kemp v. Dexter Payne, Director, Arkansas Division of Correction Eighth Circuit 2020-01-29 Denied Amici (1)IFP brady-rule brady-violation criminal-procedure death-penalty discovery due-process eighth-circuit habeas-corpus ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel mitigation mitigation-investigation procedural-default professional-standards Must a court consider prevailing professional norms when determining whether a life history investigation was "thorough"? Was an appeal warranted on …
19-7481 Patrick Henry Murphy v. Texas Texas 2020-01-29 Denied IFP 28-usc-2254 capital-murder capital-punishment constitutional-law death-penalty due-process enmund-v-florida federal-habeas jury-determination jury-trial sentencing tison-v-arizona Does Ring dictate that a jury determine whether a capital murder defendant is eligible for a sentence of death under Enmund and Tison, and, if so, is …
19-7488 Donnie Cleveland Lance v. Benjamin Ford, Warden Georgia 2020-01-29 Denied IFP capital-punishment constitutional-rights criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process equal-protection fourteenth-amendment grand-jury grand-jury-selection habeas-corpus ineffective-assistance-of-counsel prosecutorial-misconduct sixth-amendment Was petitioner denied his rights under the Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments when he was sentenced to death following his indictment by a non-r…
19-7429 Louis Mitchell, Jr. v. California California 2020-01-28 Denied IFP 14th-amendment 5th-amendment 6th-amendment aggravating-circumstances aggravating-mitigating-circumstances constitutional-rights death-penalty fifth-amendment fourteenth-amendment jury-beyond-reasonable-doubt jury-determination jury-trial mitigating-circumstances reasonable-doubt sixth-amendment Does the mandatory weighing of aggravating and mitigating circumstances under the California death penalty statute—a factfinding determination that se…
19-7455 Ronson Kyle Bush v. Tommy Sharp, Interim Warden Tenth Circuit 2020-01-28 Denied IFP antiterrorism-act antiterrorism-and-effective-death-penalty-act certificate-of-appealability clearly-established-federal-law constitutional-standards death-penalty eighth-amendment federal-law fourteenth-amendment habeas-corpus habeas-review state-court-decisions state-court-review unreasonableness 1. Whether the "clearly established Federal law" provision of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act renders state court decisions categori…
19-7393 In Re David Gulbrandson 2020-01-23 Denied IFP arbitrary-and-capricious death-penalty standing state-law successive-petition arbitrary-and-capricious death-penalty due-process habeas-corpus ninth-circuit second-successive-petition state-law state-law-application successive-petition Whether transfer to the district court for a hearing pursuant to this Court's original habeas jurisdiction is warranted in this exceptional case where…
19-7369 David Keen v. Tennessee Tennessee 2020-01-22 Denied Relisted (4)IFP atkins-ruling atkins-v-virginia constitutional-mandate cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment intellectual-disability judicial-abdication legislative-inaction standing Does the Constitution permit Tennessee to evade the mandate of Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U.S. 304 (2002) by legislative inaction and judicial abdication…
19-7379 Lee Samuel Capers v. California California 2020-01-22 Denied IFP constitutional-requirement criminal-procedure criminal-sentencing death-penalty due-process fifth-amendment fourteenth-amendment jury-beyond-reasonable-doubt jury-finding jury-trial reasonable-doubt sentencing sixth-amendment statutory-maximum Does California's death penalty scheme violate the requirement under the Fifth, Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments that every fact other than a prior con…
19-7282 John Anthony Arnold v. Virginia Virginia 2020-01-14 Denied IFP 4th-amendment appellate-review civil-rights criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process evidence-suppression fourth-amendment law-enforcement motion-to-suppress ninth-circuit search-warrant standing warrantless-arrest Question not identified.
19-7222 Timothy Richardson v. Edward Thomas, Warden Fourth Circuit 2020-01-09 Denied IFP atkins-v-virginia death-penalty eighth-amendment federal-habeas federal-review habeas-corpus intellectual-disability rule-60(b) rule-60b state-law Timothy Richardson's death penalty case raises a significant issue of national importance: whether our criminal justice system tolerates the execution…
19-7153 Ronald Johnson v. Missouri Missouri 2020-01-03 Denied Response RequestedResponse WaivedRelisted (2)IFP atkins-v-virginia capital-punishment-representation capital-representation death-penalty due-process ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel intellectual-disability plea-bargaining 1) Whether counseling an intellectually disabled client to plead to life without parole to avoid the death penalty is ineffective assistance, when ple…
19-7146 David Rapoport v. Robert Gilmore, Superintendent, State Correctional Institution at Greene, et al. Third Circuit 2020-01-02 Denied Response WaivedIFP appeal-waiver criminal-procedure criminal-procedure-ineffective-assistance-of-couns death-penalty due-process guilty-plea ineffective-assistance life-without-parole plea-bargaining sentencing waiver-of-appeal-rights 1. Was the petitioner's counsel ineffective in pre-trial stages? 2. Was the petitioner's counsel ineffective during the plea-bargaining process? 3. …
19-7099 Paul David Storey v. Texas Texas 2019-12-31 Denied IFP constitutional-violation death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment habeas-corpus intentional-concealment prosecutorial-misconduct state-court-review state-habeas Whether it violates due process for a state court to deny substantive review of a constitutional violation in a death penalty case, when the state hab…
19-7063 Leeton Jahwanza Thomas v. Pennsylvania Pennsylvania 2019-12-26 Denied IFP capital-punishment capital-sentencing death-penalty eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment jury-trial reasonable-doubt sixth-amendment Were Petitioner's rights under the Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution violated by a Pennsylvania statutory sch…
19-6976 James Clayton Johnson v. Arizona Arizona 2019-12-17 Denied IFP arizona capital-punishment constitutional-challenge cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty due-process evidentiary-hearing factual-findings meaningful-opportunity standing Does a court deprive a capital defendant of his due process right to a meaningful opportunity to be heard when the defendant challenges the constituti…
19-6927 Tony Egbuna Ford v. Texas Texas 2019-12-12 Denied IFP arbitrary-state-action criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process fourteenth-amendment habeas-corpus merits-consideration state-action state-created-right state-created-rights statutory-criteria subsequent-application subsequent-habeas-application Whether the Tex as Court of Criminal Appeals' unex plained dismissal of claims raised in a subsequent application for writ of habeas corpus, where the…
19-6875 Travis Trevino Runnels v. Texas Texas 2019-12-06 Denied IFP circuit-split constitutional-rights death-penalty due-process expert-testimony expert-witness false-expert-testimony false-testimony prosecution-misconduct prosecutorial-misconduct texas-death-penalty WHETHER CERTIORARI SHOULD BE GRANTED TO RECOGNIZE (AS HAS BEEN DETERMINED BY TWO CIRCUITS) THAT IT IS A DUE PROCESS VIOLATION WHEN THE PROSECUTION USE…
19-697 James Dwight Pavatt v. Tommy Sharp, Interim Warden Tenth Circuit 2019-12-03 Denied Amici (2) aggravating-factor aggravating-factors arbitrary-application capital-punishment capital-punishment-sentencing capital-sentence cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment habeas-corpus procedural-bar procedural-ruling A divided panel of the Tenth Circuit, sitting en banc, vacated a panel opinion that reversed a capital sentence on the ground that the sentence rested…
19-6562 Carlos J. Avena v. Kevin Chappell, Warden Ninth Circuit 2019-11-08 Denied IFP certificate-of-appealability cronic cronic-standard death-penalty due-process habeas habeas-corpus ineffective-assistance miller-el-standard miller-el-v-cockrell ninth-circuit per-se Petitioner alleged that his conviction and death sentence were caused by per se ineffective assistance under United States v. Cronic, 466 U.S. 648 (19…
19-6567 Danny Lee Hill v. Ohio Ohio 2019-11-08 Denied IFP bite-mark-evidence constitutional-rights conviction death-penalty death-sentence due-process expert-testimony fair-trial habeas-corpus scientific-evidence Bite-mark comparison evidence was the foundation of the State's case that convicted Petitioner Danny Lee Hill of murder and sentenced him to death. Th…
19-6482 Demetrius Dewayne Smith v. Lorie Davis, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Correctional Institutions Division Fifth Circuit 2019-11-04 Denied IFP 2254-review 28-usc-2253 28-usc-2254 certificate-of-appealability death-penalty federal-habeas habeas-corpus subject-matter-jurisdiction 1. When a death-sentenced inmate obtains punishment-phase relief from the district court during federal habeas proceedings conducted pursuant to 28 U.…
19-6479 In Re Charles Russell Rhines 2019-11-01 Denied IFP capital-punishment death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment habeas-corpus juror-bias sexual-orientation Should this Court exercise its original habeas jurisdiction to transfer this petition to the district court for a hearing regarding Petitioner's subst…
19-6477 Charles Russell Rhines v. Darin Young, Warden Eighth Circuit 2019-11-01 Denied IFP 18-usc-3599 ayestas-v-davis clemency-request death-penalty exhaustion-requirement expert-services federal-court federal-courts federal-jurisdiction indigent-defendant state-remedies In 18 U.S.C. § 3599, Congress created a right for indigent death-sentenced state prisoners to obtain legal and expert services, including services in …
19-6465 Quintin Phillippe Jones v. Lorie Davis, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Correctional Institutions Division Fifth Circuit 2019-10-31 Denied Relisted (2)IFP 18-usc-3599 6th-amendment death-penalty federal-courts habeas-corpus ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel investigative-funding martinez-v-ryan meaningful-representation sixth-amendment This Court has unanimously ruled that Congress' intent in enacting 18 U.S.C. § 3599 was to provide high quality representation to qualifying prisoners…
19-6438 Jose Luis Tapia-Fierro v. William P. Barr, Attorney General, et al. Ninth Circuit 2019-10-29 Denied Response WaivedRelisted (2)IFP civil-procedure civil-rights constitutional-rights criminal-procedure death-penalty due-diligence due-process evidence-removal federal-jurisdiction innocence-claim procedural-limitations removal standing statute-of-limitations Whether the State of Arizona's statute of limitations found in the Arizona Revised Statute ("A.R.S." 812-542) applies to a federal action in a distric…
19-514 Nikko A. Jenkins v. Nebraska Nebraska 2019-10-21 Denied Amici (3)Relisted (3) capital-sentencing death-penalty eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment mental-health mental-illness mitigating-evidence sixth-amendment solitary-confinement (1) Whether the sentencing court violated the requirement of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendment that capital sentencers give meaningful consideration…
19-6235 Scott Thomas Erskine v. California California 2019-10-10 Denied IFP aggravating-circumstances capital-sentencing constitutional-amendments cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty due-process equal-protection jury-trial jury-unanimity narrowing-requirement sentencing I. Does California's death penalty statute violate the Fifth, Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution by failing to…
19-6181 Mark Robertson v. Lorie Davis, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Correctional Institutions Division Fifth Circuit 2019-10-07 Denied Relisted (2)IFP 18-usc-3599 6th-amendment death-penalty federal-courts habeas-corpus investigation judicial-review meaningful-representation representation representation-services sixth-amendment statutory-interpretation (1) Did the district court deny Mr. Robertson the meaningful representation informed by investigation to prepare a habeas corpus application to which …
19-6183 Reginald Chatman v. Florida Florida 2019-10-07 Denied IFP constitutional-law constitutional-rights contract-law criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process equal-protection florida-law plea-bargain plea-bargaining sentencing state-prosecution 1. The Defend aat Reginald chatman entered into a negotiated agrerment uith the Florida State Attorneys office Ast Nathan Prince. for a ten Year D.oc.…
19-6101 Raymond Eugene Johnson v. Tommy Sharp, Interim Warden Tenth Circuit 2019-09-30 Denied IFP aggravating-circumstances capital-sentencing death-penalty factfinder harm lockett-v-ohio mitigating-circumstances prejudice 1. Should the Court recalibrate the frameworks for judging the prejudice or harm of capital sentencing errors in jurisdictions where the factfinder ma…
19-6043 Larry Craig Cash v. Vance Laughlin, Warden Georgia 2019-09-25 Denied IFP 14th-amendment constitutional-rights conviction criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process effective-assistance fourteenth-amendment jury-selection murder-trial racial-discrimination standing state-action trial-duty 1. Were The Rights Of A Defendant Under The Due Process Clause Of The Fourteenth Amendment Of The United States Constitution Properly Observed When Th…
19-5988 Tyrone Chalmers v. Tennessee Tennessee 2019-09-18 Denied IFP atkins-claim atkins-v-virginia civil-rights constitutional-prohibition cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty due-process intellectual-disability iq-score moore-v-texas procedural-vehicle roper-v-simmons Where a petitioner establishes uncontested proof that despite effort he repeated the first grade and was enrolled in special education in the second g…
19-5977 Kerry Lyn Dalton v. California California 2019-09-17 Denied IFP 14th-amendment 5th-amendment 6th-amendment constitutional-requirement criminal-sentencing death-penalty fifth-amendment fourteenth-amendment jury-beyond-reasonable-doubt jury-finding reasonable-doubt sixth-amendment statutory-maximum Does California's death penalty scheme violate the requirement under the Fifth, Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments that every fact other than a prior con…
19-5933 Julian Alejandro Mendez v. California California 2019-09-13 Denied IFP aggravating-factors constitutional-amendments criminal-sentencing death-penalty due-process fifth-amendment fourteenth-amendment reasonable-doubt sixth-amendment trier-of-fact Whether the California death penalty scheme violates the Fifth, Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments by permitting the trier of fact to impose a sentence o…
19-5927 Cuitlahuac Tahua Rivera v. California California 2019-09-13 Denied IFP constitutional-requirement criminal-sentencing death-penalty eighth-amendment fact-finding fifth-amendment fourteenth-amendment jury-beyond-reasonable-doubt jury-finding reasonable-doubt sixth-amendment Does California's death penalty scheme violate the requirement under the Fifth, Sixth, Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments that every fact that serves to…
19-5916 Juan Matias Torres v. Ralph M. Diaz, Warden Ninth Circuit 2019-09-11 Denied IFP civil-rights cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty due-process free-speech habeas-corpus intellectual-disability patent standing takings 1. IS PETITIONER ENTITLED TO A CERTIFICATE OF APPEALABILITY ON ALL HIS AMENDED CLAIMS AND ORIGINAL CLAIMS? a. Did The Court Violate Defendant's 5th, …
19-5839 Randall Wayne Mays v. Texas Texas 2019-09-05 Denied IFP competency cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty delusions due-process eighth-amendment ford-hearing junk-science lay-stereotypes mental-competency mental-illness panetti-v-quarterman 1. May a state court rely on junk science and lay stereotypes of the severely mentally ill to adjudicate a Ford claim ? 2. If an inmate acknowledges …
19-5682 In Re Gary Ray Bowles 2019-08-22 Denied IFP 28-usc-2244 atkins-claim atkins-v-virginia capital-punishment death-penalty habeas-corpus intellectual-disability successive-habeas-petition successive-petition writ-of-certiorari Petitioner Gary Ray Bowles is an intellectually disabled man who is scheduled to be executed by the State of Florida on August 22, 2019, at 6:00 p.m. …
19-5672 Gary Ray Bowles v. Mark S. Inch, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections, et al. Eleventh Circuit 2019-08-22 Denied IFP 28-usc-2244 capital-punishment cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment habeas-corpus intellectual-disability procedural-obstacles Gary Ray Bowles is an intellectually disabled man on Florida's death row. Despite this Court's holding in Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U.S. 304, 321 (2002)…
19-235 Richard Jordan, et al. v. Virginia Department of Corrections Fourth Circuit 2019-08-22 Denied burden-of-proof civil-rights corrections-department death-penalty discovery discovery-rights due-process eighth-amendment glossip-standard glossip-v-gross lethal-injection method-of-execution section-1983 standing 1. Whether the burden of proof demanded by Glossip in method-of-execution challenges requires commensurately broad discovery rights to provide plainti…
19-5651 Gary Ray Bowles v. Ron DeSantis, Governor of Florida, et al. Eleventh Circuit 2019-08-20 Denied IFP 18-usc-3599 42-usc-1983 civil-rights civil-rights-enforcement clemency clemency-proceedings death-penalty due-process federal-counsel federal-jurisdiction habeas-corpus intellectual-disability right-to-counsel section-3599 Can state officials bar a death-sentenced individual's 18 U.S.C. § 3599 counsel from representing him in state clemency proceedings, and if not, is th…
19-5640 In Re Larry Swearingen 2019-08-20 Denied IFP 28-usc-2244 death-penalty due-process false-testimony forensic-evidence habeas-corpus habeas-corpus-petition innocence innocence-standard schlup-v-delo scientific-evidence scientific-testimony successive-petition 1) What is the scope of the evidence for a court's assessment of innocence under 28 U.S.C. § 2244 (b)(2)(B)(ii) ? Is a court of appeals ' consideratio…
19-5617 Gary Ray Bowles v. Florida, et al. Florida 2019-08-16 Denied Amici (2)IFP death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment eighth-amendment-prohibition execution-risk florida-supreme-court intellectual-disability procedural-bar standing state-procedural-bar state-procedure unacceptable-risk 1. Can a state procedural bar override the Eighth Amendment prohibition against executing the intellectually disabled? 2. Does the Rodriguez procedur…
19-5535 Julius Omar Robinson v. United States Fifth Circuit 2019-08-12 Denied IFP capital-indictment circuit-split death-penalty death-penalty-cases due-process juror-interview juror-interviews post-conviction-relief post-verdict racial-bias structural-error 1. Whether district courts may validly prohibit death-sentenced inmates from interviewing their trial jurors post-verdict concerning racial bias durin…
19-5493 David Ray Taylor v. Oregon Oregon 2019-08-07 Denied IFP 8th-amendment death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment execution-moratorium extrajudicial-information juror-misconduct jury-instructions moratorium standing state-action voir-dire First Question Presented: The Eighth Amendment bars a jury from imposing a death sentence if it "has been led to believe that the responsibility for d…
19-5433 In Re Steven Bleau 2019-08-02 Denied Response WaivedIFP actual-innocence collateral-review death-penalty due-process ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel martinez-exception newly-discovered-evidence sixth-amendment 1) Under circumstances involving a second collateral petition presenting an actual innocence claim; is Bleau deprived of his Constitutional Rights pro…
19-5394 Michael Leon Bell v. California California 2019-07-30 Denied IFP aggravating-circumstances capital-punishment constitutional-procedure death-penalty due-process fourteenth-amendment jury-fact-finding jury-trial mitigating-circumstances reasonable-doubt sentencing sentencing-standards sixth-amendment Does California's death penalty scheme, which permits the trier of fact to impose a sentence of death without finding beyond a reasonable doubt (1) th…
19-5247 Charles Michael Hedlund v. Arizona Arizona 2019-07-22 Denied Relisted (2)IFP criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process eddings-v-oklahoma habeas-corpus jury-trial sentencing 1. Whether the correction of error under Eddings v. Oklahoma, 455 U.S. 104 (1982), requires resentencing, particularly where the error originated in t…
19-5171 Victor Hugo Saldano v. Lorie Davis, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Correctional Institutions Division Fifth Circuit 2019-07-16 Denied Amici (3)IFP biased-jury buck-v-davis certificate-of-appealability constitutional-claim death-penalty due-process future-dangerousness mental-competency racial-bias vagueness vagueness-doctrine At M r. Sal daño's first death penalty trial, in 1996, a n expert for th e State of Texas testified that Mr. Sa ldaño wa s more likely to present a fu…
19-5060 Derrick Washington v. Carol A. Mici, Commissioner, Massachusetts Department of Correction First Circuit 2019-07-03 Denied Response WaivedIFP 14th-amendment 8th-amendment anti-terrorism anti-terrorism-act anti-terrorism-effective-death-penalty-act constitutional-review cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty due-process habeas-corpus incarceration life-without-parole sentencing 1: Is Congress' 1996 Anti-Terrorism Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA) unconstitutional, as it unnecessarily snuffs out convicted persons abilities t…
18-9838 Cedric Floyd v. Alabama Alabama 2019-06-27 Denied IFP capital-case capital-punishment death-penalty eighth-amendment fifth-amendment remorse right-to-remain-silent 1. In a capital case in which the defendant exercises his right not to testify, are the Fifth and Eighth Amendments violated when the State argues in …
18-9832 Patrick H. Murphy v. Bryan Collier, Executive Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, et al. Fifth Circuit 2019-06-27 Denied Amici (1)IFP civil-rights death-penalty death-row due-process establishment-clause free-exercise free-exercise-clause pastoral-accompaniment religious-liberty rluipa 1. When a death-sentenced inmate informs prison authorities a month in advance of his scheduled execution date of his desire to be accompanied during …
18A1349 Pennsylvania v. Milton Montalvo Pennsylvania 2019-06-21 Presumed Complete capital-sentencing death-penalty eighth-amendment ineffective-assistance jury-recommendation mental-health-mitigation Question not identified.
18-9746 Marion Wilson, Jr. v. Benjamin Ford, Warden Georgia 2019-06-20 Denied IFP capital-case criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment fair-trial intent jury-instructions prosecutor-misconduct prosecutorial-misconduct standing Whether a prosecutor may secure a death sentence by presenting knowingly false and/or misleading argument to the jury that argues falsehoods about the…
18A1326 Lisa Montgomery v. United States Eighth Circuit 2019-06-18 Presumed Complete capital-punishment certificate-of-appealability constitutional-challenge death-penalty federal-habeas section-2255 Question not identified.
18-9698 Ruben Perez Gomez v. California California 2019-06-18 Denied IFP constitutional-requirement death-penalty fifth-amendment fourteenth-amendment jury jury-beyond-reasonable-doubt jury-finding reasonable-doubt sentencing-standard sixth-amendment statutory-maximum statutory-maximum-punishment Does California's death penalty scheme violate the requirement under the Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendments that every fact other than a prior co…
18-9674 Terence Tramaine Andrus v. Texas Texas 2019-06-14 GVR Amici (1)Relisted (24)IFP death-penalty due-process fourteenth-amendment habeas-corpus ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel sixth-amendment strickland-v-washington Does the standard for assessing ineffective assistance of counsel claims, announced in Strickland v. Washington, fail to protect the Sixth Amendment r…
18-9659 In Re Quisi Bryan 2019-06-13 Denied IFP constitutional-law death-penalty federal-review habeas-corpus hurst-claim hurst-v-florida jury-determination jury-trial retroactive-application retroactivity sixth-amendment sixth-circuit Bryan's habeas petition presents exceptional circumstances that, if left unresolved, will result in disparate interpretations of the federal Constitut…
18A1289 Walter Barton v. Cynthia Griffith, Superintendent, Potosi Correctional Center, et al. Eighth Circuit 2019-06-11 Presumed Complete certificate-of-appealability constitutional-rights death-penalty eighth-circuit federal-review habeas-corpus Question not identified.
18-9564 Brian Suniga v. Texas Texas 2019-06-06 Denied IFP death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment jury-instructions mitigation-evidence moral-blameworthiness tennard-v-dretke tex-code-crim-proc-art-37-071-section-2-f-4 1) Tennard v. Dretke, 542 U.S. 274 (2004) disavowed any requirement of a nexus between evidence introduced in mitigation of sentence in a death penalt…
18A1263 Keith D. Nelson v. United States Eighth Circuit 2019-06-04 Presumed Complete capital-sentencing certificate-of-appealability constitutional-standards death-penalty eighth-amendment ineffective-assistance Question not identified.
18-9464 Charles William Finney v. Florida Florida 2019-05-29 Denied IFP aggravating-factors capital-murder capital-sentencing death-penalty florida-constitution jury-trial jury-unanimity mitigating-circumstances sixth-amendment Whether the Sixth Amendment requires that a jury unanimously find all facts necessary to impose a death sentence in Florida, and whether Florida's cap…
18-9396 Bobby Joe Long v. Mark S. Inch, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections, et al. Eleventh Circuit 2019-05-23 Denied IFP 8th-amendment civil-rights cruel-and-unusual-punishment cruel-unusual-punishment death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment lethal-injection res-judicata section-1983 stay WHETHER THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS ERRED IN HOLDING THAT MR. LONG WAS NOT ENTITLED TO A STAY BECAUSE OF INEXCUSABLE DELAY IN BRINGING HIS L…
18-1449 Harold Lee Harvey, Jr. v. Florida Florida 2019-05-21 Denied arbitrary-factors constitutional-rights death-penalty eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment hurst-v-florida judicial-decisions retroactive-application retroactivity ring-v-arizona sixth-amendment Does the Florida Supreme Court's decision denying retroactive application of the Hurst decisions to Mr. Harvey violate the Eighth or Fourteenth Amendm…
18-9356 Robert Joe Long v. Mark S. Inch, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections Florida 2019-05-20 Denied IFP constitutional-rights cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty double-jeopardy due-process eighth-amendment eighth-amendment-jurisprudence evolving-standards-of-decency mental-illness 1. Whether an individual who suffers from severe mental illness is exempt from execution under the Eighth Amendment and the evolving standards of dece…
18-9332 In Re Nawaz Ahmed 2019-05-17 Dismissed Response WaivedIFP appellate-jurisdiction civil-procedure death-penalty due-process habeas-corpus mandamus prohibition standing Question not identified.
18-9288 In Re Sherman Lamont Fields 2019-05-15 Denied IFP actual-innocence appeals constitutional-rights death-penalty death-row due-process immediate-relief ineffective-counsel judicial-bias miscarriage-of-justice wrongful-conviction Under Liljeberg v. Health Services Acquisition Corp. (1988) 486 U.S. 847, 100 L..Ed .2d 855, 108 S.Ct. 2194 ( A Judge(s) refusal to disqualify himself…
18-9252 Kevin Foster v. Florida Florida 2019-05-15 Denied IFP capital-murder capital-punishment death-penalty death-sentence due-process eighth-amendment first-degree-murder jury-findings jury-unanimity reasonable-doubt unanimous-verdict 1. Whether Mr. Foster's death sentence is unconstitutional because it violates the Eighth Amendment and the Due Process Clause where the jury did not …
18-9262 David Wood v. Texas Texas 2019-05-14 Denied IFP atkins-claim atkins-v-virginia death-penalty eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment Fourteenth-Amendment-violation habeas-corpus intellectual-disability moore-v-texas Do the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments tolerate the execution of a person whose claim of intellectual disability has been expressly decided under an …
18-9194 Noah Espada v. Texas Texas 2019-05-08 Denied IFP brady-violation constitutional-law criminal-procedure death-penalty double-jeopardy due-process federal-law perjury reversal Whether a Brady violation, that results in the reversal of a death sentence because of perjury stemming from the Brady violation, implicates the Doubl…
18-9117 Scotty Garnell Morrow v. Benjamin Ford, Warden Georgia 2019-05-02 Denied IFP death-penalty death-sentence due-process eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment hurst-v-florida judicial-fact-finding jury-trial jury-unanimity ring-v-arizona sentencing sixth-amendment "The Sixth Amendment requires a jury, not a judge, to find each fact necessary to impose a sentence of death." Hurst v. Florida, 136 S. Ct. 616, 619 (…
18-9033 Michael Brandon Samra v. Alabama Alabama 2019-04-30 Denied IFP brain-development capital-punishment capital-sentencing death-penalty eighth-amendment evolving-standards evolving-standards-of-decency juvenile-offender juvenile-offenders neuroscientific-research In Roper v. Simmons, 543 U.S. 551, 578 (2005), this Court held that the Eighth Amendment forbids the imposition of the death penalty on offenders who …
18-9031 In Re Michael Brandon Samra 2019-04-30 Denied IFP brain-development capital-sentencing cruel-and-unusual death-penalty eighth-amendment evolving-standards habeas-corpus juvenile-offender juvenile-offenders neurological-development neuroscience In Roper v. Simmons, 543 U.S. 551, 578 (2005), this Court held that the Eighth Amendment forbids the imposition of the death penalty on offenders who …
18-8992 Charles Lorraine v. Ohio Ohio 2019-04-25 Denied IFP capital-punishment death-penalty death-sentence eighth-amendment judge-sentencing judicial-fact-finding jury-trial jury-verdict sixth-amendment spaziano-v-florida Is Ohio's death penalty scheme unconstitutional under Hurst v. Florida?
18-8970 John William King v. Texas Texas 2019-04-23 Denied IFP capital-punishment criminal-procedure death-penalty habeas-corpus ineffective-assistance-of-counsel lesser-included-offense mccoy-v-louisiana retroactivity sixth-amendment sixth-amendment-right-to-counsel teague-analysis teague-v-lane watershed-rule 1. Whether McCoy applies when a defendant's attorneys concede, against his wishes, his guilt to a lesser-included offense during final argument, and i…
18-8845 Abel Revill Ochoa v. Lorie Davis, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Correctional Institutions Division Fifth Circuit 2019-04-16 Denied IFP ayestas-v-davis capital-case capital-punishment death-penalty due-process federal-funding funding habeas-corpus ineffective-assistance-of-counsel legal-representation procedural-standard statutory-interpretation (1) Whether, in light of Ayestas v. Davis, 138 S. Ct. 1080 (2018), a court applies an overly burdensome standard for funding under 18 U.S.C. § 3599(f)…
18-8857 Jeffrey A. Weisheit v. Indiana Indiana 2019-04-16 Denied IFP aggravating-circumstances constitutional-rights criminal-procedure death-penalty ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel mitigating-circumstances penalty-phase strickland-standard strickland-v-washington williams-v-taylor 1. Whether the Indiana Supreme Court contravened Strickland by acknowledging counsel made mistakes, but not finding them to be deficient performance e…
18-1306 Fred Anderson, Jr. v. Florida Florida 2019-04-16 Denied Amici (3) advisory-jury capital-punishment capital-sentencing death-penalty florida-supreme-court harmless-error hurst-v-florida judge-sentencing jury-trial jury-verdict sixth-amendment structural-error 1. Whether a judge-imposed death sentence that violates Hurst is a structural error requiring reversal of the sentence. 2. Whether a Hurst violation …
18-1298 Mario Dion Woodward v. Alabama Alabama 2019-04-15 Denied arbitrary-and-discriminatory cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment judicial-override jury-sentencing repealed-statute sentencing sixth-amendment Pursuant to Ala. C. § 13-A-5-47(e)(1975), Alabama previously allowed trial judges to override a jury's vote for a life sentence and, based on new evid…
18-8820 Carman L. Deck v. Richard Jennings, Warden Eighth Circuit 2019-04-15 Denied Relisted (2)IFP appellate-procedure appellate-review certificate-of-appealability death-penalty district-court due-process habeas-corpus judicial-discretion procedural-standard reasonable-jurists standard-of-review Mr. Deck filed a petition for habeas corpus relief from his convictions and death sentences. The district court granted relief as to two grounds, but …
18-8753 Carl Devon Powell v. California California 2019-04-10 Denied IFP aggravating-circumstances constitutional-sentencing death-penalty due-process fifth-amendment fourteenth-amendment jury jury-beyond-reasonable-doubt jury-fact-finding mitigating-circumstances reasonable-doubt sixth-amendment Does California's death penalty scheme, which permits the trier of fact to impose a sentence of death without finding beyond a reasonable doubt (1) th…
18-8726 In Re Stetory Calhoun 2019-04-08 Denied IFP alabama capital-offenses constitutional-challenge constitutional-law criminal-law death-penalty due-process gang-related-murder legislative-intent legislative-process statutory-interpretation I. WHETHER ACT NO. 92-601, AS ENROLLED, AND APPROVED BY THE GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF ALABAMA, (CODIFIED AS SUBSECTIONS (15), (16), (17), AND (18), OF …
18-8723 Miles Sterling Bench v. Oklahoma Oklahoma 2019-04-08 Denied IFP 8th-amendment affidavit civil-rights competency costs criminal-appeals death-penalty declaration due-process filing-fees in-forma-pauperis indigent indigent-status mental-illness oklahoma-law supreme-court-procedure writ-of-certiorari Question not identified.
18-8712 John Hummel v. Lorie Davis, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Correctional Institutions Division Fifth Circuit 2019-04-05 Denied IFP character-and-record death-penalty future-dangerousness ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel mitigating-evidence pretrial-incarceration sixth-amendment sixth-amendment-right-to-counsel strickland-standard strickland-v-washington trial-counsel 1. In Skipper v. South Carolina, 476 U.S. 1 (1986), the trial court ruled as irrelevant the testimony of two jailers and a "regular visitor" that Skip…
18-8670 Demetrius Terrence Frazier v. Alabama Alabama 2019-04-02 Denied IFP capital-punishment capital-sentencing constitutional-interpretation cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty death-penalty-sentencing due-process equal-protection judicial-fact-finding jury-fact-finding jury-sentencing jury-trial retroactive-rule retroactivity sixth-amendment 1. Does Alabama's insistence that a judge, not a jury, can weigh the mitigating and aggravating factors and sentence a person to death directly confli…
18-8666 Tremane Wood v. Mike Carpenter, Interim Warden Tenth Circuit 2019-04-02 Denied IFP circuit-court-review death-penalty federal-review habeas-corpus ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel mitigating-evidence state-court-deference strickland-standard strickland-test Tremane Wood was one of four defendants charged with crimes related to the death of Ronnie Wipf, which occurred in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma on January …
18-8664 Rodney Tyrone Lowe v. Florida Florida 2019-04-02 Denied IFP caldwell-v-mississippi death-penalty eighth-amendment eighth-amendment-violation harmless-error hurst-v-florida jury-instructions I. Does the Florida Supreme Court's exclusive reliance on a unanimous recommendation of death to find harmless error for violations of Hurst v. Florid…
18-8653 Tavares J. Wright v. Florida Florida 2019-04-01 Denied IFP 14th-amendment 8th-amendment adaptive-functioning atkins-v-virginia civil-rights constitutional-rights death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment hall-v-florida intellectual-disability moore-v-texas Does the Florida Supreme Court's adaptive functioning analysis of intellectually disabled individuals, which requires post-conviction defendants to pr…
18-8593 Dontae Callen v. Alabama Alabama 2019-03-27 Denied IFP affidavit appellate-review criminal-procedure death-penalty fourth-amendment jury-unanimity probable-cause search-warrant separate-affidavit I. Where an affidavit does not support a finding of probable cause for the issuance of a search warrant, does the Fourth Amendment allow a reviewing c…
18-8561 Jeffery Lee Wood v. Texas Texas 2019-03-26 Denied IFP culpability death-penalty death-penalty-eligibility due-process eighth-amendment enmund-v-florida fourteenth-amendment future-dangerousness law-of-parties tison-v-arizona Jeffery Wood is on death row in Texas despite the fact that he did not kill anyone. Mr. Wood was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death un…
18-8495 Leroy Scott v. United States Fourth Circuit 2019-03-22 Denied Response WaivedIFP brady-violation conflict-of-interest death-penalty ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel missouri-v-frye plea-agreement plea-bargaining right-to-counsel WHETHER COUNSEL'S INEFFECTIVENESS CONFLICTS WITH THE HOLDING IN MISSOURI v FRYE, FOR FAILING TO ADVISE PETITIONER OF THE MEANS TO SET FORTH IN THE DEA…
18-8476 Anthony Grandison v. Maryland Maryland 2019-03-20 Denied Response WaivedIFP capital-sentencing collateral-consequences constitutional-due-process criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process harmless-error jury-instructions mitigating-factors sentencing sentencing-guidelines standard-of-proof 1. Since Maryland Law Prohibits Imposition Of The Death Penalty Without Considering The Presentencing Investigation Report Convictions As Evidence The…
18-8453 Dusty Ray Spencer v. Florida Florida 2019-03-19 Denied IFP binding-precedent capital-sentencing constitutional-rights death-penalty death-penalty-sentencing due-process federal-constitutional-rights jury-instructions jury-responsibility jury-verdict sentencing-process structural-error unanimous-verdict 1. Whether structural error occurs when, after having been affirmatively misled regarding its role in the sentencing process so as to diminish its sen…
18-8432 Kelly Foust v. Ohio Ohio 2019-03-15 Denied Response RequestedResponse WaivedRelisted (2)IFP capital-defendant capital-punishment capital-sentencing constitutional-interpretation criminal-procedure death-penalty hurst-precedent hurst-v-florida jury jury-waiver sixth-amendment Does Ohio's death penalty scheme in which a jury's death verdict is a mere recommendation and in which a death sentence may not be imposed unless a ju…
18-8409 Anthony Mungin v. Florida Florida 2019-03-14 Denied IFP capital-punishment death-penalty disparate-treatment due-process eighth-amendment equal-protection fourteenth-amendment retroactivity Whether the Florida Supreme Court's application of only partial retroactivity of Hurst v. State and Hurst v. Florida violates the Eighth and Fourteent…
18-8415 John L. Lotter v. Nebraska Nebraska 2019-03-13 Denied IFP capital-punishment capital-sentencing death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment judicial-discretion jury-trial sentencing sixth-amendment 1. Does Nebraska's capital sentencing scheme requiring a three-judge panel, rather than a jury, to impose a sentence of death violate the Eighth Amend…
18-8399 Randall Scott Jones v. Florida Florida 2019-03-12 Denied IFP capital-punishment constitutional-law death-penalty eighth-amendment eighth-amendment-cruel-and-unusual-punishment equal-protection fourteenth-amendment fourteenth-amendment-due-process hurst-v-florida retroactivity ring-v-arizona supremacy-clause supreme-court-precedent 1. Does the Florida Supreme Court's partial retroactivity formula, designed to limit the class of condemned prisoners obtaining a life-or-death jury d…
18-8323 Bryan Frederick Jennings v. Florida Florida 2019-03-07 Denied IFP capital-punishment capital-sentencing death-penalty death-penalty-review eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment hurst-v-state jury-recommendation newly-discovered-evidence 1. Whether the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments require the law of Hurst v. State to be factored into the analysis of the likelihood of a less severe …
18-8253 Jamie Kenmont Kerien Brown v. Georgia Georgia 2019-03-04 Denied Response WaivedIFP civil-rights criminal-procedure cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment equal-protection habeas-corpus intellectual-disability mental-health post-conviction-relief If hs er Ptn Ce oh Con po c indvda ~ W. h qua Ces o he .S. C ee a te ve e be inam? V. I ohe adilt murderer?
18-1109 James Erin McKinney v. Arizona Arizona 2019-02-26 Judgment Issued Amici (14)Relisted (2) aggravating-evidence arizona-supreme-court criminal-procedure death-penalty eddings-precedent eddings-v-oklahoma mitigating-evidence resentencing sentencing sentencing-review 1. Whether the Arizona Supreme Court was required to apply current law when weighing mitigating and aggravating evidence to determine whether a death …
18-8124 Tony Gross v. John Havlin, Warden Ohio 2019-02-25 Denied IFP 14th-amendment 6th-amendment criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process federal-jurisdiction fourteenth-amendment gideon-v-wainwright judicial-jurisdiction right-to-counsel rothgery-v-gillespie-county sixth-amendment state-jurisdiction zerbst-v-johnson Might the states and especially Ohio be required to accept and enforce the 6th and 14th amendment mandates of Gideon vWainwright, 772 U.S. 335, (196),…
18-8090 Edward J. Zakrzewski, II v. Florida Florida 2019-02-22 Denied IFP capital-punishment criminal-procedure death-penalty eighth-amendment florida-supreme-court fourteenth-amendment hurst-v-state jury-unanimity retroactive-application retroactivity savings-clause substantive-law Whether the Florida Supreme Court's decision in Hurst v. State, 202 So. 3d 40 (Fla. 2016), which retroactively changed the elements necessary for impo…
18-8057 Duane Allen Short v. Ohio Ohio 2019-02-21 Denied IFP capital-defense capital-punishment death-penalty death-row effective-assistance-of-counsel ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel mitigation mitigation-evidence plea-bargaining sixth-amendment 1. Is a capital defendant's Sixth Amendment right to the effective assistance of counsel violated where, but for counsel's intervention and unfounded …
18-8052 Michael Duane Zack, III v. Florida Florida 2019-02-21 Denied IFP apprendi-v-new-jersey capital-punishment death-penalty death-sentence eighth-amendment equal-protection fourteenth-amendment hurst-retroactivity retroactivity Does the partial retroactivity formula for Hurst u. Florida, 136 S. Ct. 616 (2016), claims designed by the Florida Supreme Court, as applied to a pris…
18-8027 Michael Eugene Sample v. Tennessee Tennessee 2019-02-19 Denied IFP case-remand collateral-review criminal-justice death-penalty death-penalty-sentencing due-process habeas-corpus intellectual-disability judicial-review montgomery-v-louisiana moore-v-texas retroactive-application retroactivity supreme-court-precedent welch-v-united-states writ-of-certiorari 1. Does Moore v. Texas, 581 U.S. ___, 137 S.Ct. 1039 (2017) apply retroactively to cases on collateral review? 2. Should this Court grant certiorari,…
18-8016 James Goff v. Ohio Ohio 2019-02-19 Denied IFP capital-punishment death-penalty hurst-v-florida judicial-fact-finding jury-trial mitigation-evidence resentencing sentencing sixth-amendment Is a trial judge's independent weighing of new mitigation evidence and imposition of the death penalty at a resentencing hearing unconstitutional unde…
18-1077 Akil Jahi, aka Preston Carter v. Tennessee Tennessee 2019-02-19 Denied atkins-v-virginia collateral-review constitutional-protection death-penalty death-penalty-eligibility hall-v-florida intellectual-disability moore-v-texas retroactive-application retroactivity supreme-court-precedent 1. Does Hall v. Florida, 572 U.S. 701 (2014) apply retroactively to cases on collateral review? 2. Does Moore v. Texas, 137 S. Ct. 1039 (2017) apply …
18-8002 Brad Hunter Smith v. Arkansas Arkansas 2019-02-15 Denied IFP aggravating-circumstance aggravating-circumstances arbitrary-imposition capital-sentencing death-penalty eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment mitigating-circumstance mitigating-circumstances Whether the Arkansas Supreme Court's holding that a capital-sentencing jury permissibly declined to weigh an existent statutory mitigating circumstanc…
18-7912 Eriese Alphonso Tisdale v. Florida Florida 2019-02-12 Denied IFP 14th-amendment 5th-amendment 6th-amendment 8th-amendment constitutional-law constitutional-rights death-penalty double-jeopardy due-process jury jury-vote statutory-amendment statutory-interpretation 1. Whether the Florida Supreme Court's failure to apply a statutory amendment, Chapter 2016-13, Laws of Florida, which required a vote of no less than…
18-7835 Iouri Mikhel v. United States Ninth Circuit 2019-02-07 Denied IFP burden-of-proof competency competency-hearing criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process federal-criminal-procedure federal-judiciary hostage-taking judicial-discretion mental-health recusal standard-of-proof treaty-power trial-procedure 1. Due process requires the trial court to order a competency hearing whenever the uncontradicted evidence raises a doubt as to the defendant's compet…
18-7809 James Were v. Ohio Ohio 2019-02-07 Denied IFP buck-v-davis competency-hearing death-penalty death-penalty-eligibility eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment intellectual-disability iq-scores racial-bias 1. Did the Supreme Court of Ohio violate the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments when it refused to reopen Petitioner's direct appeal to consider evidenc…
18-1022 Julius Jerome Murphy v. Texas Texas 2019-02-05 Denied brady-v-maryland brady-violation criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment habeas-corpus witness-testimony I. Whether the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals misapplied established federal law when it held that the State's failure to disclose threats and promis…
18-7620 Emmanuel Adeyinka v. Harris County Jail, et al. Fifth Circuit 2019-01-31 Denied IFP civil-procedure civil-rights competency criminal-conviction cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment eleventh-amendment immunity mental-illness monetary-damages personal-involvement rational-understanding section-1983 standing Question not identified.
18-7643 Billy Leon Kearse v. Florida Florida 2019-01-29 Denied IFP apprendi-v-new-jersey capital-punishment death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment equal-protection fourteenth-amendment retroactivity ring-v-arizona supremacy-clause Does the Florida Supreme Court's partial retroactivity approach providing for relief pursuant to Hurst v. Florida, 136 S. Ct. 616 (2016) and Hurst v. …
18-7594 James Randall Rogers v. Benjamin Ford, Warden Georgia 2019-01-28 Denied Relisted (3)IFP capital-cases civil-rights death-penalty equal-protection habeas-corpus jury-discrimination jury-selection peremptory-challenges prosecutorial-misconduct racial-discrimination racial-exclusion standing Does Lanier's systematic discrimination against African Americans violate Strauder v. West Virginia, 100 U.S. 303 (1880), Swain v. Alabama, 380 U.S. 2…
18-7568 Richard Earl Shere, Jr. v. Florida Florida 2019-01-25 Denied IFP co-defendant constitutional-review death-penalty equal-protection equal-protection,death-penalty,sentencing,retroact hurst-v-florida mccloud-v-state retroactivity ring-v-arizona sentencing-disparity 1. Whether Mr. Shere's case is no longer one of the most aggravated and least mitigated following Hurst v. Florida and he should have been convicted o…
18-7569 Paul William Scott v. Julie L. Jones, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections Florida 2019-01-25 Denied IFP codefendant-comparison constitutional-proportionality cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment equal-protection sentencing-disparity Whether Florida's refusal to consider the disparity between the 15-year prison term of his equal or more culpable codefendant and Scott's death senten…
18-7576 Jordaan Stanly Creque v. Alabama Alabama 2019-01-25 Denied IFP capital-murder constitutional-rights credibility death-penalty due-process law-enforcement-testimony law-enforcement-witness reliable-process summation summation-and-bolstering trial-by-jury witness-credibility Where a law enforcement witness who has been seated at counsel table throughout trial gives testimony bolstering other witnesses' credibility and summ…
18-7540 David Dewayne Riley v. Alabama Alabama 2019-01-24 Denied IFP capital-post-conviction-proceedings capital-proceedings collateral-review death-penalty death-sentence effective-assistance-of-counsel ineffective-assistance martinez-v-ryan murray-v-giarratano post-conviction-counsel precedent state-court David Riley filed a pro se state post-conviction petition because, unlike every other state, Alabama does not provide counsel to death-sentenced inmat…
18-7547 Michael Joseph Mulder v. Nevada Nevada 2019-01-24 Denied IFP competency cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty dementia eighth-amendment intellectual-disability memory-loss Whether the Eighth Amendment categorically excludes from the death penalty an individual who, because of a stroke that caused dementia, is functionall…
18-7516 Joseph Adam Mora v. California California 2019-01-22 Denied IFP 14th-amendment 5th-amendment 6th-amendment constitutional-amendments criminal-sentencing death-penalty jury-finding jury-trial reasonable-doubt statutory-maximum Does the California death penalty scheme violate the requirement under the Fifth, Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments that any fact, other than a prior co…
18-7503 Abdur Rahim Ambrose v. Mississippi Mississippi 2019-01-18 Denied Amici (1)IFP contemporary-standards-of-decency cruel-and-unusual death-penalty eighth-amendment geographic-arbitrariness racial-arbitrariness I. Does the death penalty in and of itself violate the Eighth Amendment in light of contemporary standards of decency and the geographic and racial ar…
18-7442 Kevin Underwood v. Mike Carpenter, Warden Tenth Circuit 2019-01-16 Denied IFP aggravating-circumstances apprendi-v-new-jersey beyond-reasonable-doubt capital-punishment capital-punishment-scheme capital-sentencing death-penalty due-process jury-findings jury-instructions mitigating-circumstances reasonable-doubt supreme-court-precedent tenth-circuit Whether the Tenth Circuit's decision – that the "beyond the reasonable doubt" standard does not apply to the critical and prerequisite finding by Okla…
18-7457 Charles Edward Case v. California California 2019-01-16 Denied IFP capital-punishment constitutional-amendment criminal-sentencing death-penalty fifth-amendment fourteenth-amendment jury jury-finding reasonable-doubt sixth-amendment Does California's death penalty scheme violate the requirement under the Fifth, Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments that every fact other than a prior con…
18-7428 Harry Jones v. Florida Florida 2019-01-15 Denied IFP arbitrary-cutoff capital-murder capital-punishment death-penalty death-penalty-retroactivity eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment hurst-v-florida jury-unanimity retroactivity 1. Whether the Florida Supreme Court's partial retroactivity rule as to violations pursuant to Hurst v. Florida, which is based on an arbitrary cutoff…
18-7431 Teddrick Batiste v. Lorie Davis, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Correctional Institutions Division Fifth Circuit 2019-01-15 Denied IFP 28-usc-2254 death-penalty due-process evidentiary-hearing habeas-corpus ineffective-assistance organic-brain-damage procedural-bar state-court-deference wilson-v-sellers The post-conviction state court process in Batiste's case was inadequate for ascertaining the truth and lacked critical components of an adjudication …
18-7353 Nathaniel Jackson v. Ohio Ohio 2019-01-10 Denied IFP capital-punishment death-penalty eighth-amendment judge-sentencing judicial-sentencing jury-recommendation jury-sentencing jury-trial sixth-amendment spaziano-v-florida Is Ohio's death penalty scheme unconstitutional under Hurst v. Florida?
18-7332 James Dellinger v. Tennessee Tennessee 2019-01-09 Denied IFP atkins-claim atkins-v-virginia civil-rights constitutional-prohibition cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment intellectual-disability moore-v-texas procedural-vehicle roper-v-simmons Where a petitioner establishes uncontested proof that despite effort he never progressed beyond the first grade level and dropped out of third grade a…
18-7293 Neil Walker v. Alabama Alabama 2019-01-08 Denied Response WaivedIFP civil-rights conflict-of-laws criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process jurisdiction sentencing standing venue 1. WHERE THERE ONLY BEED ONE PRONOCNIEMENT IN COURT, WHAT SENTENCE IS THE LEGAL SENTENCE, NATURAL LIFE, OR 5? 2. DID THE COUDT HAVE TURISDICTION TO P…
18-7242 Dauntorian Lyndel Sanders v. Arizona Arizona 2019-01-07 Denied IFP constitutional-interpretation criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment precedent sixth-amendment supreme-court-precedent Whether Arizona follows the precedent of Simmons v. South Carolina, 512 U.S. 154 (1994), as set forth in Lynch v. Arizona, 136 S. Ct. 1818 (2016).
18-852 Anne L. Precythe v. Ernest Johnson Eighth Circuit 2019-01-04 GVR administrative-procedure cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty eighth-amendment execution-method feasible-alternative glossip-v-gross method-of-execution nitrogen-gas pentobarbital pleading-requirements Inmates who wish to challenge a method of execution under the Eighth Amendment must plead and prove an alternative method that is "feasible, readily i…
18-7226 Omar Blanco v. Florida Florida 2019-01-03 Denied IFP 14th-amendment 8th-amendment capital-punishment civil-rights death-penalty due-process retroactivity supremacy-clause 1. Did Hall v. Florida , 134 S. Ct. 1986 (2014), announce a substantive rule of constitutional law? 2. May a state court hold that a substantive rule…
18-7216 Jason Duhamel v. Michelle Miller, Warden Sixth Circuit 2019-01-02 Denied Response WaivedIFP 8th-amendment affidavit appellate-review buck-v-davis certificate-of-appealability civil-procedure civil-rights death-penalty declaration due-process habeas-corpus in-forma-pauperis intellectual-disability miller-el-standard poverty redress sixth-circuit threshold-merits Whether the Sixth Circuit correctly applied this court's guidance from Miller-El v. Cockrell, 537 U.S. 322, 326 (2003) and Buck v. Davis, 137 S. Ct. 7…
18-7101 John Samuel Ghobrial v. California California 2018-12-19 Denied IFP capital-punishment constitutional-rights criminal-procedure criminal-sentencing death-penalty due-process fifth-amendment fourteenth-amendment jury-finding jury-trial reasonable-doubt sentencing sixth-amendment statutory-maximum Does California's death penalty scheme violate the requirement under the Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendments that every fact that serves to increa…
18-7118 Richard E. Lynch v. Florida Florida 2018-12-19 Denied IFP death-penalty eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment hurst-v-florida ineffective-assistance-of-counsel jury-fact-finding sixth-amendment Whether the State of Florida violated Petitioner's rights under the Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution by deny…
18-7034 Shawn Sadik v. Pennsylvania Pennsylvania 2018-12-14 Denied Response WaivedIFP 8th-amendment criminal-sentencing cruel-and-unusual-punishment culpability death-penalty developmental-disability eighth-amendment intellectual-disability life-without-parole mandatory-life-imprisonment mandatory-sentencing parole Does the Eighth Amendment bar individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities from mandatory life without parole sentences?
18-6992 Brandon Bernard v. United States Fifth Circuit 2018-12-11 Denied Amici (1)IFP certificate-of-appealability civil-rights death-penalty due-process federal-courts habeas-corpus ineffective-assistance-of-counsel judicial-bias judicial-misconduct judicial-misconduct-allegations standing 1. Did the Fifth Circuit err in its reading of Gonzalez , given that five other Circuits read Gonzalez to allow Rule 60(b) motions to remedy a wide r…
18-6898 Joseph C. Garcia v. Lorie Davis, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Correctional Institutions Division Fifth Circuit 2018-12-04 Denied IFP 18-u.s.c.-§-3599 18-usc-3599 certificate-of-appealability death-penalty federal-habeas-corpus habeas-corpus indigent-defendant ineffective-assistance-counsel ineffective-assistance-of-counsel rule-60(b)(6) rule-60b 1. Whether the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit imposed an improper and unduly burdensome Certificate of Appealability (COA) stand…
18-6916 Troy Lincoln Powell v. California California 2018-12-04 Denied IFP constitutional-rights criminal-sentencing death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment fifth-amendment fourteenth-amendment mental-illness sixth-amendment 1) DOES THE IMPOSITION OF THE DEATH PENALTY ON A SEVERELY MENTALLY ILL DEFENDANT VIOLATE THE FIFTH, SIXTH, EIGHTH AND FOURTEENTH AMENDMENTS?
18-6901 Enoch D. Hall v. Florida Florida 2018-12-03 Denied IFP advisory-panel aggravating-circumstances Caldwell-v-Mississippi civil-rights constitutional-due-process death-penalty due-process harmless-error hurst-decision jury-instructions jury-role jury-sentencing sentencing sentencing-process unanimous-recommendation On remand from the Florida Supreme Court's decision in Hurst v. Florida, the Florida Supreme Court held, as a state constitutional consequence, that a…
18-6902 Scott Mansfield v. Florida Florida 2018-12-03 Denied IFP criminal-conviction criminal-procedure death-penalty death-sentence due-process fact-finding findings-of-fact jury-findings jury-instructions notice procedural-due-process sentencing unnoticed-defendant Whether a conviction and death sentence may stand where a jury made no specific findings of fact that subjected an unnoticed individual to conviction …
18-6906 David E. Miller v. Tony Parker, Commissioner, Tennessee Department of Correction, et al. Sixth Circuit 2018-12-03 Denied IFP coercion cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty eighth-amendment ex-post-facto execution-method lethal-injection waiver waiver-of-rights (1) When an inmate alleges that both his original and later-imposed punishments for the same crime violate the Eighth Amendment but the later-imposed …
18-6882 Willie Seth Crain, Jr. v. Florida Florida 2018-11-30 Denied IFP remedies prior constitutional defects in capital which requires unanimous jury findings of aggrava advisory-sentencing-panel aggravating-circumstances caldwell-v-mississippi capital-sentencing civil-rights constitutional-error death-penalty death-penalty-sentencing due-process harmless-error Hurst-decision hurst-v-florida jury-instructions jury-role jury-unanimity mitigating-circumstances sentencing sentencing-procedure On remand from the Florida Supreme Court's decision in Hurst v. Florida, the Florida Supreme Court held, as a state constitutional consequence, that a…
18-6884 Isaiah Glenndell Tryon v. Oklahoma Oklahoma 2018-11-30 Denied IFP aggravating-factors appellate-review criminal-procedure death-penalty hurst-v-florida jury-trial mitigating-circumstances ring-v-arizona sixth-amendment After invalidating one of four (4) aggravating factors found by the jury, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals reweighed the remaining aggravating c…
18-6889 Stephen Todd Booker v. Florida Florida 2018-11-30 Denied IFP apprendi-v-new-jersey criminal-procedure death-penalty death-penalty-sentencing eighth-amendment equal-protection fourteenth-amendment hurst-retroactivity montgomery-v-louisiana retroactivity 1. Does the partial retroactivity formula for Hurst v. Florida, 136 S. Ct. 616 (2016), claims designed by the Florida Supreme Court, as applied to a p…
18-6890 In Re Joseph C. Garcia 2018-11-30 Denied IFP actual-innocence capital-punishment cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty death-row eighth-amendment eighth-amendment-cruel-and-unusual-punishment fourteenth-amendment fourteenth-amendment-due-process psychological-stress 1. Whether Joseph Garcia's extended stay on Texas' death row for nearly 16 years has resulted in his suffering additional severe psychological stress …
18-6891 Joseph C. Garcia v. Texas Texas 2018-11-30 Denied IFP 8th-amendment capital-punishment civil-rights criminal-intent cruel-and-unusual-punishment culpability death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment intent-to-kill mens-rea non-triggerman state-execution Whether the Eighth Amendment now forbids a State from executing a person when there is no evidence that he killed or intended to kill another person.
18-6834 Dexter Johnson v. Lorie Davis, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Correctional Institutions Division Fifth Circuit 2018-11-27 Denied IFP death-penalty eighth-amendment federal-death-penalty federal-habeas federal-procedure final-judgment fourteenth-amendment habeas-corpus rule-58 WHAT ARE THE REQUIREMENTS UNDER RULE 58 FOR A FINAL JUDGMENT IN DISTRICT COURT FOR A FEDERAL DEATH PENALTY HABEAS PETITION UNDER THE EIGHTH AND FOURTE…
18-6843 James Milton Dailey v. Florida Florida 2018-11-27 Denied IFP capital-punishment death-penalty eighth-amendment equal-protection fourteenth-amendment hurst-error hurst-v-florida retroactivity ring-v-arizona supremacy-clause 1. Does the Florida Supreme Court's partial retro activity decision, which lim its the class of deathsentenced individuals entitled to a jury de termi…
18-6848 Robert Mitchell Jennings v. Texas Texas 2018-11-27 Denied IFP death-penalty equal-protection habeas-corpus penry procedural-default subsequent-habeas 1. Did the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals deny Jennings equal protection of the law by dismissing on procedural grounds subsequent habeas corpus appl…
18-6818 Ruben Rangel v. California California 2018-11-26 Denied IFP capital-punishment capital-sentencing constitutional-amendments death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment jury-determination jury-trial sentencing 1. Does California's death penalty statute violate the Fifth, Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution by failing to…
18-6819 Keith Tharpe v. Benjamin Ford, Warden Eleventh Circuit 2018-11-26 Denied Amici (1)Relisted (2)IFP certificate-of-appealability collateral-review death-penalty due-process equal-protection habeas-corpus juror-misconduct jury-selection pena-rodriguez racial-bias racial-bias-in-jury retroactivity 1. Does Pena-Rodriguez apply retroactively to cases on collateral review? 2. The Eleventh Circuit first denied a certificate of appealability ("COA")…
18-6826 Carlos David Caro v. United States Fourth Circuit 2018-11-26 Denied IFP §-2255-claim bop-data brady-violation criminal-procedure-brady death-penalty due-process exculpatory-evidence federal-prison government-misconduct procedural-bar sentencing sentencing-procedure suppression-of-evidence Whether the Fourth Circuit erred in ruling Caro was procedurally barred from raising a § 2255 claim that the Government's suppression of available exc…
18-679 Erick Virgil Hall v. Idaho Idaho 2018-11-23 Denied Amici (1) aggravating-circumstances capital-punishment capital-sentencing constitutional-standards death-penalty felony-murder heinous-atrocious-cruel jury-sentencing narrowing-requirement propensity-to-commit-murder sentencing-guidance utter-disregard To prevent arbitrary imposition of the death penalty, this Court has required use of "'clear and objective standards' that provide 'specific and detai…
18-6766 David Gulbrandson v. Charles L. Ryan, Director, Arizona Department of Corrections Ninth Circuit 2018-11-21 Denied IFP capital-punishment capital-punishment-sentencing death-penalty eighth-amendment habeas-corpus procedural-default procedural-ruling second-in-time-petition statutory-aggravating-factors statutory-aggravator successive-petitions (1) Whether reasonable jurists would debate the correctness of the district court's procedural ruling that Gulbrandson's second-in-time § 2254 petitio…
18-6735 Perry Alexander Taylor v. Florida Florida 2018-11-20 Denied IFP caldwell-v-mississippi death-penalty eighth-amendment equal-protection flawed-scientific-testimony hurst-retroactivity medical-examiner-testimony non-unanimous-jury retroactivity Perry Alexander Taylor was denied relief under Hurst v. Florida, 136 S. Ct. 616 (2016) in the State of Florida because his case was one of many that b…
18-640 Nicholas Bernard Acklin v. Alabama Alabama 2018-11-16 Denied Amici (2) attorney-client-relationship conflict-of-interest criminal-defense death-penalty fourteenth-amendment ineffective-assistance-counsel ineffective-assistance-of-counsel sixth-amendment third-party-payment Whether a criminal defendant is deprived of his Sixth and Fourteenth Amendment rights to conflict-free counsel when his lawyer is paid by a third part…
18-6708 Clifford D. Williams v. Ohio Ohio 2018-11-15 Denied IFP capital-punishment death-penalty eighth-amendment judge-sentencing jury-trial jury-verdict sentencing-phase sixth-amendment spaziano-v-florida Is Ohio's death penalty scheme unconstitutional under Hurst v. Florida?
18-6709 Lawrence Alfred Landrum v. Ohio Ohio 2018-11-15 Denied IFP capital-sentencing death-penalty eighth-amendment judge-sentencing judicial-discretion jury-recommendation jury-sentencing jury-trial sixth-amendment spaziano-v-florida In Hurst u. Florida, _ U.S. _, 136 S. Ct. 616 (2016), this Court: (a) overruled (1989), (b) invalidated Florida's capital punishment statute, and (c) …
18-6713 Donald Anthony Grant v. Mike Carpenter, Interim Warden Tenth Circuit 2018-11-15 Denied IFP 8th-amendment constitutional-rights criminal-procedure death-penalty eddings-precedent eddings-v-oklahoma eighth-amendment lockett-rule lockett-v-ohio mental-health mental-health-evidence mitigating-evidence moral-culpability Whether Oklahoma's "moral culpability" jury instruction, which restricts consideration of mitigating evidence of a defendant's mental health and backg…
18-6680 Roberto Moreno Ramos v. Lorie Davis, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Correctional Institutions Division Fifth Circuit 2018-11-14 Denied IFP calderon-v-thompson circuit-court conflict-of-interest counsel-conflict death-penalty due-process habeas-corpus ineffective-assistance-of-counsel mandate-recall miscarriage-of-justice standard-of-review Given that Petitioner Moreno Ramos requested the circuit court recall its mandate solely to address a defect in the integrity of his habeas proceeding…
18-6582 Kareem Glass v. Melissa Hainsworth, Superintendent, State Correctional Institution at Somerset Third Circuit 2018-11-06 Denied Response WaivedIFP appellate-procedure appellate-rights capital-punishment constitutional-rights death-penalty due-process ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel mitigating-circumstances penalty-phase sixth-amendment waiver waiver-of-rights WHERE CAPITAL COUNSEL INDUCED PETITIONER INTO A WAIVER OF HIS ENTIRE PENALTY PHASE AND A WAIVER OF HIS APPELLATE RIGHTS IN RETURN FOR A GUARANTEED LIF…
18-6588 Lesley Eugene Warren v. Edward Thomas, Warden Fourth Circuit 2018-11-06 Denied IFP capital-punishment character-evidence circuit-split civil-rights death-penalty due-process future-dangerousness parole parole-ineligibility prosecutorial-misconduct sentencing sentencing-procedure simmons-v-south-carolina Is it an unreasonable application of Simmons v. South Carolina for a State court to deny a parole ineligibility instruction where the prosecution repe…
18-6530 Edmund Zagorski v. Bill Haslam, Governor of Tennessee, et al. Sixth Circuit 2018-11-01 Denied IFP constitutional-protections constitutional-rights cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty death-penalty-challenges due-process involuntary-waiver method-of-execution procedural-technicalities state-secrecy stewart-v-lagrand 1. Did Glossip v. Gross, 135 S.Ct. 2726 (2015), modify centuries-old jurisprudence prohibiting involuntary waiver of constitutional protections in the…
18-6532 Austin Myers v. Ohio Ohio 2018-11-01 Denied IFP capital-punishment death-penalty death-penalty-statute eighth-amendment judge-sentencing judicial-sentencing jury-trial jury-verdict sixth-amendment spaziano-v-florida Did Hurst v. Florida render Ohio's death penalty scheme unconstitutional?
18-553 Juliet Yackel v. South Dakota, et al. South Dakota 2018-10-29 Denied atkins-claim atkins-v-virginia conflict-of-interest counsel-representation death-penalty death-penalty-appeal eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment ineffective-assistance-of-counsel intellectual-disability moore-v-texas 1. Was Rodney Berget arbitrarily deprived of his entitlement to conflict free counsel in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment when his counsel determ…
18-6378 Robert Ira Peede v. Florida Florida 2018-10-18 Denied IFP arbitrary-cutoff capital-murder capital-punishment death-penalty death-penalty-retroactivity due-process eighth-amendment evolving-standards-of-decency fourteenth-amendment hurst-v-florida jury-unanimity retroactivity 1. Whether the Florida Supreme Court's partial retroactivity rule as to violations pursuant to Hurst v. Florida, which is based on an arbitrary cutoff…
18-6362 Edwin Darrell Lett v. Mississippi Mississippi 2018-10-17 Denied Response WaivedIFP 14th-amendment 6th-amendment civil-rights continuance counsel criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process fair-trial fourteenth-amendment ineffective-assistance-counsel sixth-amendment state-procedure trial WHETHER THE MISSISSIPPI SUPREME COURT'S DECISIONS AND JUDGMENTS ARE FINAL UNDER 28 U.S.C. SECTION 1257. WHETHER CONSTRUCTIVE AMENDMENT OF THE INDICTM…
18-6315 David Ivy v. Tennessee Tennessee 2018-10-16 Denied IFP atkins-claim atkins-v-virginia constitutional-prohibition cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment intellectual-disability moore-v-texas procedural-mechanism roper-v-simmons state-procedure Where this Court has declared, "States may not execute anyone in 'the entire category of [intellectually disabled] offenders." Moore v. Texas, 137 S. …
18-6252 Hersie Wesson v. Ohio Ohio 2018-10-09 Denied IFP capital-defendant capital-punishment constitutional-right death-penalty due-process intellectual-disability opportunity-to-be-heard procedural-due-process state-courts threshold-showing Question #1: When a capital defendant can make a substantial threshold showing of intellectual disability, are the state courts constitutionally requi…
18-6262 Richard Penunuri v. California California 2018-10-09 Denied IFP constitutional-requirement criminal-sentencing death-penalty eighth-amendment fact-finding fifth-amendment fourteenth-amendment jury-beyond-reasonable-doubt jury-finding reasonable-doubt sixth-amendment Does California's death penalty scheme violate the requirement under the Fifth, Sixth, Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments that every fact that serves to…
18-6207 Manuel Ernesto Paiz Guevara v. United States Fourth Circuit 2018-10-03 Denied Response RequestedResponse WaivedRelisted (2)IFP abuse-of-discretion capital-crime capital-punishment criminal-procedure death-penalty eighth-amendment fourth-circuit-split mandatory-sentencing miller-v-alabama right-to-counsel sentencing sentencing-discretion statutory-interpretation 1. Whether the Fourth Circuit erroneously held - in conflict with the plain language of 18 U.S.C. § 3005 and in conflict with a 45-year split between …
18-6167 Ronald Wayne Clark, Jr. v. Florida Florida 2018-10-02 Denied IFP capital-case capital-case,eighth-amendment,cruel-and-unusual-pu capital-punishment codefendant-culpability codefendants cruel-and-unusual-punishment cruel-unusual-punishment death-penalty death-sentence eighth-amendment proportionality-review reliability-of-death-sentence 1. Whether an assessment of the relative culpability of codefendants in a capital case in Florida is required pursuant to the Eighth Amendment in orde…
18-6175 Victor Tony Jones v. Florida Florida 2018-10-02 Denied IFP 1981-homicide 1990-homicide capital-murder criminal-law death-penalty death-penalty-sentencing,hurst-v-state,jury-unanim hurst-v-state jury-unanimity reasonable-doubt retroactive-application retroactivity substantive-criminal-law 1. Given that the elements of capital murder identified by the Florida Supreme Court in Hurst v. State are being applied in a prosecution for a 1981 h…
18-6110 Mikal Mahdi v. South Carolina South Carolina 2018-09-28 Denied IFP appointment-of-counsel capital-punishment constitutional-rights criminal-procedure death-penalty death-sentence habeas-corpus indigent-counsel ineffective-assistance-of-counsel post-conviction-relief procedural-history right-to-counsel sixth-amendment south-carolina-supreme-court state-court Question not identified.
18-6115 Jose Antonio Jimenez v. Florida Florida 2018-09-27 Denied IFP capital-murder criminal-sentencing death-penalty due-process elements-of-offense hurst-v-state jury-unanimity retrospective-application 1. Given that the elements of capital murder set out by the Florida Supreme Court in Hurst v. State will govern as to whether James Card is guilty of …
18-6086 In Re Daniel Clate Acker 2018-09-24 Denied IFP 8th-amendment actual-innocence constitutional-claims death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment false-evidence habeas-corpus new-evidence state-liability state-repudiation wrongful-conviction Whether an original writ of habeas corpus is appropriate in the case of a death-sentenced individual who was convicted and sentenced to death on a the…
18-6075 Daniel Clate Acker v. Texas Texas 2018-09-21 Denied IFP adversarial-testing capital-punishment criminal-justice-system-legitimacy criminal-liability death-penalty due-process fairness false-theory-of-liability miscarriage-of-justice post-conviction-review This case weaves these threads together and asks whether due process requires a state post-conviction review process in those rare instances where a S…
18-6059 Cedric Carter v. Ohio Ohio 2018-09-20 Denied IFP capital-punishment capital-sentencing death-penalty eighth-amendment judge-sentencing jury-trial jury-verdict sentencing-phase sixth-amendment spaziano-v-florida Is Ohio's death penalty scheme unconstitutional under Hurst v. Florida ?
18-5985 Jeffery Dana Sparks v. Jeff Premo, Superintendent, Oregon State Penitentiary Oregon 2018-09-14 Denied IFP constitutional-rights criminal-procedure cross-examination death-penalty evidence-presentation expert-testimony expert-witnesses ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel prosecution-experts prosecution-theory trial-strategy Whether defense counsel in a death penalty trial provided effective assistance where that counsel failed thoroughly to prepare to cross-examine forese…
18-5948 Patrick Henry Murphy v. Lorie Davis, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Correctional Institutions Division Fifth Circuit 2018-09-12 Denied IFP conspiracy criminal-conspiracy death-penalty death-penalty-sentencing eighth-amendment enmund-v-florida-tison-v-arizona felony felony-murder jury-findings sentencing-requirements sixth-amendment Does the Sixth or Eighth Amendment require that before a party may be sentenced to death as a conspirator (rather than a trigger-person), the jury mus…
18-5937 Charles Lee Burton v. Alabama Alabama 2018-09-11 Denied IFP aggravating-factors caldwell-v-mississippi capital-sentencing capital-sentencing-scheme constitutional-review death-penalty eighth-amendment evolving-standards-of-decency hurst-v-florida jury-instructions jury-recommendation mitigating-factors 1. Under Hurst v. Florida, 136 S. Ct. 616 (2016), and Caldwell v. Mississippi , 472 U.S. 320 (1985), is Alabama's capital sentencing scheme constituti…
18-5892 Andre Jackson v. Ohio Ohio 2018-09-06 Denied IFP 6th-amendment 8th-amendment capital-punishment death-penalty eighth-amendment judge-sentencing judicial-sentencing jury-recommendation jury-sentencing jury-trial sixth-amendment Is Ohio's death penalty scheme unconstitutional under Hurst v. Florida?
18-5841 Juan David Rodriguez v. Julie L. Jones, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections Florida 2018-08-31 Denied IFP 1981-homicide capital-murder death-penalty death-penalty-sentencing due-process hurst-v-state jury-unanimity reasonable-doubt retroactivity substantive-criminal-law 1. Given that the elements of capital murder identified by the Florida Supreme Court in Hurst v. State are being applied in a prosecution for a 1981 h…
18-5837 David Lee Roberts v. Alabama Alabama 2018-08-30 Denied IFP capital-sentencing criminal-procedure death-penalty federal-law hurst-v-florida judicial-findings jury-sentencing jury-verdict retroactivity ring-v-arizona David Roberts was sentenced to death based solely on findings by a judge after his sentencing jury voted that he should live. In Hurst v. Florida, 136…
18-5793 Ray Lamar Johnston v. Florida Florida 2018-08-28 Denied Relisted (4)IFP caldwell-v-mississippi capital-punishment capital-punishment-system death-penalty due-process equal-protection florida harmless-error hurst-relief hurst-v-florida jury-trial sixth-amendment 1. Does the Florida Supreme Court's holding that a Hurst error is per se harmless where a jury issues a generalized unanimous recommendation for death…
18-5648 Anthony Lamarca v. Florida Florida 2018-08-20 Denied IFP apprendi-v-new-jersey capital-case death-penalty eighth-amendment eighth-amendment-cruel-and-unusual-punishment fourteenth-amendment fourteenth-amendment-due-process hurst-v-florida jury-unanimity retroactivity ring-v-arizona 1. Whether the Florida Supreme Court's partial retroactivity rule as to violations pursuant to Hurst v. Florida, which is based on an arbitrary cutoff…
18-192 J. B. R. v. United States Fifth Circuit 2018-08-14 Denied age-of-criminal-responsibility constitutional-limits constitutional-punishment criminal-prosecution death-penalty due-process first-degree-murder juvenile-justice juvenile-offender juvenile-offenders life-imprisonment prosecutorial-discretion statutory-interpretation statutory-punishment Whether the Due Process Clause forbids the Government from prosecuting an individual who was a juvenile at the time of the crime under a statute that …
18-5518 Norman Mearle Grim v. Florida Florida 2018-08-08 Denied Relisted (5)IFP advisory-jury burden-of-proof caldwell-v-mississippi capital-case death-penalty death-penalty-sentencing eighth-amendment harmless-error hurst-v-florida hurst-violation sixth-amendment sullivan-v-louisiana 1. Can a violation of Hurst v. Florida , 136 S. Ct. 616 (2016), be ruled harmless beyond a reasonable doubt, based solely on a pre-Hurst "advisory " j…
18-5494 Blaine Keith Milam v. Lorie Davis, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Correctional Institutions Division Fifth Circuit 2018-08-07 Denied IFP buck-v-davis certificate-of-appealability civil-rights death-penalty due-process fifth-circuit habeas-corpus ineffective-assistance-of-counsel intellectual-disability judicial-review mitigating-evidence procedural-default right-to-counsel Did the Fifth Circuit err in not granting a certificate of appealability on the claims presented in violation of the holding of Buck v. Davis, 137 S. …
18-5495 In Re Billy Ray Irick 2018-08-07 Denied Amici (1)IFP cruel-and-unusual-punishment cruel-unusual-punishment death-penalty eighth-amendment evolving-standards-of-decency fourteenth-amendment mental-illness personal-culpability sentencing Does the imposition of the death penalty on a person who was severely mentally ill at the time of the offense constitute cruel and unusual punishment …
18-5434 Troy Victorino v. Florida Florida 2018-08-02 Denied IFP 14th-amendment 5th-amendment capital-punishment criminal-punishment death-penalty double-jeopardy due-process ex-post-facto fifth-amendment florida-supreme-court fourteenth-amendment jury-sentencing resentencing statutory-interpretation 1. Does the Florida Supreme Court ruling that the automatic-resentencing-tolife provision of Florida Statutes Section 775.082(2) applies only if death…
18-5441 Milford Wade Byrd v. Florida Florida 2018-08-02 Denied IFP capital-murder criminal-procedure death-penalty ex-post-facto hurst-v-state jury-unanimity retroactive-application retroactivity 1, Given that the elements of capital murder which were identified by the Florida Supreme Court in Hurst v. State will be applied to determine if Jame…
18-5375 Christopher Henriquez v. California California 2018-07-27 Denied IFP aggravating-factors burden-of-proof capital-punishment constitutional-rights criminal-sentencing death-penalty due-process equal-protection jury-trial mitigating-circumstances reasonable-doubt Whether the California death penalty scheme violates the Fifth, Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments by permitting the trier of fact to impose a sentence o…
18-5376 Mark Allen Geralds v. Florida Florida 2018-07-27 Denied IFP arbitrary-cutoff capital-murder capital-punishment death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment equal-protection fourteenth-amendment hurst-v-florida jury-unanimity retroactivity 1. Whether the Florida Supreme Court's partial retroactivity rule as to violations pursuant to Hurst v. Florida, which is based on an arbitrary cutoff…
18-5359 Ernest D. Suggs v. Florida Florida 2018-07-26 Denied IFP appellate-review caldwell-v-mississippi capital-sentencing death-penalty death-penalty-sentencing eighth-amendment hurst-v-florida judicial-responsibility jury-instructions jury-recommendation Does a Florida death sentence imposed pursuant to the capital sentencing scheme overruled in Hurst v. Florida, 136 S. Ct. 616 (2016), in a case where …
18-113 Jeremiah Rodgers v. Florida Florida 2018-07-25 Denied Amici (1) constitutional-rights death-penalty due-process hurst-v-florida jury-trial jury-waiver retroactivity sentencing-procedure sixth-amendment waiver Does waiving a state-law right to have a jury make an advisory sentencing recommendation constitute a knowing and intelligent waiver of the federal co…
18-5352 Paul Anthony Brown v. Florida Florida 2018-07-25 Denied IFP arbitrary-cutoff capital-punishment constitutional-rights death-penalty death-penalty-retroactivity due-process eighth-amendment equal-protection fourteenth-amendment hurst-v-florida jury-unanimity retroactivity 1. Whether the Florida Supreme Court's partial retroactivity rule as to violations pursuant to Hurst v. Florida, which is based on an arbitrary cutoff…
18-5354 Darryl Brian Barwick v. Florida Florida 2018-07-25 Denied IFP arbitrary-cutoff capital-murder capital-punishment death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment hurst-v-florida jury-unanimity retroactivity 1. Whether the Florida Supreme Court's partial retroactivity rule as to violations pursuant to Hurst v. Florida, which is based on an arbitrary cutoff…
18-5331 Ralph Simon Jeremias v. Nevada Nevada 2018-07-24 Denied IFP aggravating-circumstances confrontation-clause constitutional-standard death-penalty due-process hurst-v-florida jury-finding jury-trial mitigating-circumstances ring-v-arizona 1. Whether the Consti tution requi res – i n a state i n whi ch a jury i s requi red to fi nd that mi tigating ci rcumstances do not outwei gh the agg…
18-100 Leonard Maurice Drane v. Eric Sellers, Warden Georgia 2018-07-23 Denied actual-innocence constitutional-review death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment enmund-v-florida fourteenth-amendment habeas-corpus proportionality wrongful-conviction 1. When a prisoner under a sentence of death has acquired compelling and undisputed evidence of his actual innocence after his trial that the state co…
18-5303 Maurice Mason v. Ohio Ohio 2018-07-20 Denied IFP capital-sentencing death-penalty hurst-v-florida jury-decision jury-recommendation ohio-death-penalty ring-v-arizona sixth-amendment A capital sentencing jury in Ohio has the responsibility of finding that one or more statutory aggravating circumstances were proven to exist beyond a…
18-5228 Quawn M. Franklin v. Florida Florida 2018-07-13 Denied Relisted (5)IFP caldwell-error constitutional-claim death-penalty eighth-amendment harmless-error hurst-v-florida hurst-violation individualized-review jury-recommendation sullivan sullivan-v-louisiana Whether the per se harmless-error rule adopted by the Florida Supreme Court, pursuant to which violations of Hurst v. Florida, 136 S.Ct. 616 (2016) ar…
18-5218 Allen Robertson, Jr. v. Louisiana Louisiana 2018-07-12 Denied IFP atkins-v-virginia criminal-behavior death-penalty eighth-amendment eighth-amendment-cruel-and-unusual-punishment hall-v-florida intellectual-disability jury-misconduct moore-v-texas racial-bias sixth-amendment I. Whether it violates the Eighth Amendment and this Court's decisions in Moore v. Texas, 137 S. Ct 1039 (2017), Hall v. Florida, 134 S. Ct. 1986 (201…
18-56 Tim Shoop, Warden v. Danny Hill Sixth Circuit 2018-07-10 GVR Relisted (9) aedpa antiterrorism-and-effective-death-penalty-act atkins-standard atkins-v-virginia clinical-judgment clinical-judgments death-penalty eighth-amendment habeas-corpus intellectual-disability moore-v-texas Did the Sixth Circuit properly use the Moore decision from 2017 to find that an Ohio court unreasonably applied Atkins in 2008, even though the Ohio c…
18-5160 Michael Anthony Tanzi v. Florida Florida 2018-07-09 Denied Relisted (5)IFP caldwell-v-mississippi capital-punishment death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment harmless-error hurst-v-florida hurst-violation judicial-procedure per-se-rule supreme-court-precedent 1. Does the Florida Supreme Court's application of a per se harmless–error rule to violations of Hurst v. Florida, 136 S. Ct. 616 (2016), in every pre…
18-5179 Ronnie Johnson v. Florida Florida 2018-07-09 Denied IFP 6th-amendment 8th-amendment cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty due-process equal-protection hurst-v-florida jury-trial retroactivity ring-v-arizona WHETHER THE BLACK LINE DRAWN BY THE FLORIDA SUPREME COURT IN ASAY v. STATE, 210 S0.3d 1 (Fla. 2016), LIMITING THE RETROACTIVE EFFECT OF HURST v. FLORI…
18-5181 Michael Gordon Reynolds v. Florida Florida 2018-07-09 Denied Relisted (4)IFP caldwell-v-mississippi capital-sentencing death-penalty death-penalty-sentencing eighth-amendment hurst-error jury-instructions ring-v-arizona structural-error 1. Whether the Florida Supreme Court's plurality decision rejecting Mr. Reynolds' Caldwell v. Mississippi, 472 U.S. 320 (1985) claim is error. The jur…
18-5065 Manuel Antonio Rodriguez v. Florida Florida 2018-07-05 Denied IFP caldwell-v-mississippi capital-punishment death-penalty death-penalty-sentencing eighth-amendment furman-v-georgia hurst-v-florida retroactivity ring-v-arizona supremacy-clause 1. Whether the Florida Supreme Court's per se harmless-error rule, which deems Hurst errors harmless in every case in which the defendant's pre-Hurst …
18-5122 Thomas Overton v. Florida Florida 2018-07-05 Denied IFP apprendi-v-new-jersey capital-punishment constitutional-rights death-penalty death-penalty-retroactivity due-process eighth-amendment equal-protection fourteenth-amendment hurst-v-florida retroactivity ring-v-arizona supremacy-clause supreme-court 1. Does the Florida Supreme Court's partial retroactivity approach providing for relief pursuant to Hurst v. Florida, 136 S. Ct. 616 (2016) and Hurst …
18-5081 Alvin Leroy Morton v. Florida Florida 2018-07-03 Denied IFP binding-precedent capital-sentencing criminal-procedure death-penalty death-penalty-sentencing federal-constitutional-rights judicial-discretion jury-instructions jury-responsibility jury-role sentencing-procedure structural-error unanimous-verdict 1. Whether structural error occurs when, after having been affirmatively misled regarding its role in the sentencing process so as to diminish its sen…
18-5088 Emanuel Johnson v. Florida Florida 2018-07-03 Denied IFP death-penalty eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment hurst-v-florida judicial-review retroactivity sixth-amendment supremacy-clause Did the Florida Supreme Court violate the Supremacy Clause and the Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments in affirming Emanuel Johnson's judicially-…
18-5084 Daniel Burns v. Florida Florida 2018-07-02 Denied IFP collateral-review constitutional-amendments constitutional-rights death-penalty death-penalty-sentencing due-process eighth-amendment equal-protection fourteenth-amendment hurst-decision hurst-v-florida retroactivity sixth-amendment supremacy-clause Did the Florida Supreme Court violate the Supremacy Clause and the Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments in affirming Daniel Burns' judicially-dete…
18-5091 Kevin Don Foster v. Florida Florida 2018-07-02 Denied IFP apprendi-v-new-jersey capital-punishment death-penalty death-penalty-retroactivity eighth-amendment equal-protection fourteenth-amendment hurst-v-florida retroactivity ring-v-arizona 1. Does the Florida Supreme Court's partial retroactivity approach providing for relief pursuant to Hurst v. Florida, 136 S. Ct. 616 (2016) and Hurst …
18-5040 Henry Perry Sireci v. Florida Florida 2018-06-29 Denied IFP constitutional-rights death-penalty eighth-amendment eighth-amendment-cruel-and-unusual-punishment,four eighth-amendment,fourteenth-amendment,death-penalt fourteenth-amendment hurst-v-florida jury-determination jury-sentencing retroactivity 1. Whether the Florida Supreme Court's partial retroactivity decision that limits the class of death-sentenced individuals entitled to a jury determin…
18-5042 Jack Sliney v. Florida Florida 2018-06-29 Denied IFP constitutional-rights death-penalty death-penalty-sentencing eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment hurst-v-florida jury-determination jury-sentencing retroactivity ring-v-arizona 1. Whether the Florida Supreme Court's partial retroactivity decision, which limits the class of death-sentenced individuals entitled to a jury determ…
18-5051 Samuel Jason Derrick v. Florida Florida 2018-06-29 Denied IFP arbitrary-cutoff capital-murder capital-punishment death-penalty death-penalty-retroactivity due-process eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment hurst-v-florida jury-unanimity retroactivity sentencing 1. Whether the Florida Supreme Court's partial retroactivity rule as to violations pursuant to Hurst v. Florida, which is based on an arbitrary cutoff…
18-5001 John Theodore Hancock v. United States Sixth Circuit 2018-06-28 Denied Response WaivedIFP burrage-standard but-for-causation causation criminal-law criminal-procedure death-penalty death-resulting due-process jury-instruction jury-instructions sentencing statutory-interpretation Does a jury instruction that submits the question of whe- ther a death was the result of the accused's offense by simply tracking the statutory lang…
18-5018 Kenneth Darcell Quince v. Florida Florida 2018-06-28 Denied IFP atkins-v-virginia death-penalty diagnostic-criteria eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment hall-v-florida intellectual-disability medical-standards moore-v-texas Did Florida violate Atkins v. Virginia, Hall v. Florida, Moore v. Texas, and the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution wh…
18-5021 Paul Alfred Brown v. Florida Florida 2018-06-28 Denied IFP constitutional-rights criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment equal-protection fourteenth-amendment hurst-retroactivity hurst-v-florida retroactivity ring-v-arizona supremacy-clause supreme-court-review 1. Does the Florida Supreme Court's partial retroactivity formula, designed to limit the class of condemned prisoners obtaining a life-or-death jury d…
25A577 Richard Barry Randolph v. Florida, et al. Florida Denied capital-punishment death-penalty eighth-amendment irreparable-harm mental-competency method-of-execution Question not identified.
25A532 Bryan Frederick Jennings v. Florida, et al. Florida Denied capital-sentencing death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment postconviction-counsel Question not identified.
24A948 Michael Tanzi v. Ricky D. Dixon, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections Florida Denied constitutional-law death-penalty federal-review jury-trial procedural-bar sixth-amendment Question not identified.
24A1037 Jeffrey Glenn Hutchinson v. Florida Florida Denied death-penalty diminished-moral-culpability eighth-amendment gulf-war-illness postconviction-relief traumatic-brain-injury Question not identified.
24A771 James D. Ford v. Florida Florida Denied death-penalty developmental-age due-process eighth-amendment mental-impairment roper-exclusion Question not identified.
25A693 Frank A. Walls v. Florida, et al. Florida Denied atkins-claim constitutional-interpretation death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment intellectual-disability Question not identified.
25A698 Frank Walls v. Ricky D. Dixon, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections, et al. Eleventh Circuit Denied cruel-and-unusual death-penalty eighth-amendment lethal-injection medical-vulnerability pulmonary-edema Question not identified.
25A191 Kayle Barrington Bates v. Ron DeSantis, Governor of Florida Eleventh Circuit Denied constitutional-rights death-penalty eighth-amendment execution-stay fourteenth-amendment legal-review Question not identified.
25A356 Victor Tony Jones v. Florida, et al. Florida Denied atkins-v-virginia death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment intellectual-disability supreme-court-precedent Question not identified.
24A723 Marion Bowman, Jr. v. Bryan P. Stirling, Director, South Carolina Department of Corrections, et al. South Carolina Denied death-penalty ineffective-assistance racial-bias sixth-amendment strickland-standard trial-counsel Question not identified.
25A335 In Re Blaine Milam Denied actual-innocence death-penalty eighth-amendment forensic-evidence intellectual-disability junk-science Question not identified.
25A280 David Joseph Pittman v. Florida Florida Denied atkins-claim death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment intellectual-disability time-bar Question not identified.
25A216 Curtis Windom v. Florida, et al. Florida Denied capital-counsel death-penalty evolving-standards ineffective-assistance right-to-counsel sixth-amendment Question not identified.
24A409 Richard Bernard Moore v. Bryan P. Stirling, Director, South Carolina Department of Corrections South Carolina Denied batson-challenge death-penalty equal-protection jury-selection peremptory-strikes racial-discrimination Question not identified.
24A302 Garcia Glen White v. Texas Texas Denied atkins-claim death-penalty dna-evidence fourteenth-amendment habeas-corpus intellectual-disability Question not identified.
24A592 Tahina Corcoran, as next friend on behalf of Joseph E. Corcoran v. Ron Neal, Warden Seventh Circuit Denied competency death-penalty eighth-amendment execution-stay mental-illness schizophrenia Question not identified.
24A284 Freddie Owens v. Bryan Stirling, et al. Fourth Circuit Denied capital-punishment competency cruel-and-unusual death-penalty eighth-amendment mental-illness Question not identified.
24A202 Loran Cole v. Florida Florida Denied death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment equal-protection lethal-injection parkinson's-disease Question not identified.
23A1160 Ruben Gutierrez v. Luis Saenz, et al. Fifth Circuit Presumed Complete article-iii-standing death-penalty dna-testing due-process habeas-corpus post-conviction-relief Whether the Fifth Circuit panel majority's analysis of Article III standing conflicts with this Court's decision in Reed v. Goertz, 598 U.S. 230 (2023…
18A1200 Robert Joe Long v. Mark S. Inch, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections Florida Presumed Complete capital-punishment constitutional-violation death-penalty eighth-amendment execution-stay habeas-corpus Question not identified.
18A1202 Robert Joe Long v. Florida Florida Presumed Complete cruel-and-unusual death-penalty eighth-amendment etomidate lethal-injection medical-condition Question not identified.
18A1216 Bobby Joe Long v. Mark S. Inch, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections, et al. Eleventh Circuit Presumed Complete constitutional-rights death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment federal-review irreparable-harm Question not identified.
18A1345 Marion Wilson, Jr. v. Georgia Georgia Presumed Complete clemency constitutional-rights death-penalty dna-testing execution-stay forensic-evidence Question not identified.
18A1346 Marion Wilson, Jr. v. Benjamin Ford, Warden Georgia Presumed Complete capital-punishment clemency death-penalty eighth-amendment execution-stay prosecutorial-misconduct Question not identified.