Supreme Court Throws Out 3 Death Sentences

Reversals, All In Texas, Stem From Problems With Instructions Given To Jurors

(AP)  The Supreme Court threw out death sentences for three Texas killers Wednesday because of problems with instructions given jurors who were deciding between life in prison and death.

In the case of LaRoyce Lathair Smith, the court set aside the death penalty for the second time. It also reversed death sentences for Brent Ray Brewer and Jalil Abdul-Kabir.

The cases all stem from jury instructions that Texas hasn't used since 1991. Under those rules, courts have found that jurors were not allowed to give sufficient weight to factors that might cause them to impose a life sentence instead of death.

The three 5-4 rulings had the same lineup of justices, with Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Anthony Kennedy, David Souter and John Paul Stevens forming the majority.

"When the jury is not permitted to give meaningful effect or a 'reasoned moral response' to a defendant's mitigating evidence ... the sentencing process is fatally flawed," Stevens wrote in Abdul-Kabir's case.

Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas dissented.

Roberts took aim at his colleagues in the majority in dissents he wrote in the Abdul-Kabir and Brewer cases. The court should have deferred to lower court rulings against the defendants because there was no clearly established federal law that judges could have followed to grant relief.

"Whatever the law may be today, the Court's ruling that 'twas always so — and that state courts were 'objectively unreasonable' not to know it — is utterly revisionist," Roberts said.

Smith was sentenced to die for the murder of Jennifer Soto, a former coworker at a Taco Bell who was stabbed and shot in a failed robbery.

In 2004, the justices overturned Smith's sentence because jurors were not allowed to consider sufficiently the abuse and neglect that Smith had suffered as a child.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals reinstated the death penalty, however, saying any errors involving the jury instructions were harmless.

Abdul-Kabir, also known as Ted Calvin Cole, was convicted in 1988 of using a dog leash to strangle Raymond Richardson, 66, during a $20 robbery at his San Angelo home. Abdul-Kabir's lawyers contend the jury that condemned him had no way to take into account the mistreatment and abandonment that contributed to his violent adult behavior.

The same sentencing problems applied to Brewer, convicted of fatally stabbing 66-year-old Robert Laminack, who was attacked in 1990 outside his Amarillo flooring business and robbed of $140. Brewer was abused as a child and suffered from mental illness, factors his jurors weren't allowed to consider, according to his petition.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had upheld the death penalty for Brewer and Abdul-Kabir.

Forty-seven inmates on Texas' death row were sentenced under the rules that the state abandoned in 1991.

The cases are Smith v. Texas, 05-11304, Brewer v. Quarterman, 05-11287, and Abdul-Kabir v. Quarterman, 05-11284.

[toolmangler-2009]

Posted earlier:

I want you ppl to think on this. If you go in for surgery (heart, liver, back whatever) what is the first thing the Dr's do? PUT YOU TO SLEEP!!!! IF everthing goes ok whats the next thing? THEY WAKE YOU UP!!!! I have been through many surgeries and never felt PAIN til I woke up. This B.S. is a dodge by dogooders & bleeding hearts to stop something that is merciful and quick. If it isn't, then someone deliberately wanted the 'termanee' to suffer and I would be checking their stories and credentials first. When I woke up from my last little adventure (2 flatlines in one night) I felt so 'GOOD' I could willingly cut my own leg off and handed it to the Dr's in the room. Don't give me this guff about 'pain & suffering' I've been there before and it ain't nuthin' (excuse me, the fears of death are GREATLY overblown)

[galaxiana]

OMG I can just see it now.

Every sniveling criminal murderer is going to claim he was abused as a child, and by this excuse will he avoid proper punishment.

I was abused as a child, too, horribly and violently raped as a 5th grader by my mother's boyfriend. But I didn't turn into a criminal, and I don't use it as an excuse to justify antisocial behavior.

What is our society turning into? A hypocritical mass of hubris that cries over childhood abuses but lets a good percentage of our population live homeless in the streets? If we're going to be a sniveling, empathetic, crybaby citizenry that coddles murderers because of childhood wrongs, then where is the empathy for the hungry children and homeless families?

[whatithink-2009]

lestb35,

The death penalty is not justice. The death penalty is revenge. You can't prove that murder is wrong by murdering people.

[gunnerone2]

As a previous post stated, murder is a state crime, not federal. Therefore, the states set the guidelines for punishment. Just because someone didn't have a happy childhood does not excuse murder. Many of us may have wanted happier childhoods but didn't go out and murder someone because of it. This should not have been a federal issue.

[consciousnes]

The guy killed someone by strangling him for 20 bucks. Do animals like that deserve mercy? He could have pan-handled that much just by standing on a corner somewhere without murdering someone. Even animals arn't that bad.

[r-u-kidding]

I don't understand why the Texas Supreme Court wouldn't have the final say. Murder is a state crime. I think the Justices who dissented did the right thing is not voting on this issue. Perhaps they should have voted to keep the current ruling since it's not their part to rule on such issues.

[sclaires]

I am sick and tired of the supreme court overturning sentences just because they do not like the death penalty and will find every excuse to overturn it. Let us go back to the days when there was only one appeal and that was that instead of these long drawn out appeals that cost the taxpayers money. And, yes, we are paying for all these appeals one way or the other. Now the lawyers will file one appeal after the other instead of lumping all the reasons into one.

The supreme court was set up by our foundling fathers to interpret the law instead of making laws the way they are doing now. Maybe we should do away with the supreme court.

[lestb35]

I think the courts should stop acting like psychologists and do their job which is administering justice. NO pardons no special circumstances. A crime is a crime.

[candy-apple]

Why is it that everytime someone does something wtong it's not their fault?? I'm really tired of people using their past as an excuse for unexcusable behaviour insociety. For once just stand up and admit what you did was wrong and take your punishment.