The American Supreme court has really lost it - rules that innocence is inadequate to avoid the death penalty.

[BacktoCricaddict]

https://verdict.justia.com/2022/05/31/can-finality-be-more-important-than-justice-even-if-it-means-executing-the-innocent

 

The Court’s ruling came in a case in which two Arizona death row inmates sought federal habeas relief under 28 U.S.C. § 2254. The state court lawyers for one of them, Barry Jones, had not bothered to investigate available evidence that Jones was actually innocent.

In 2018, a federal court overturned Jones’ conviction, concluding that he had failed to receive effective counsel, a violation of his Sixth Amendment rights. Had his lawyers done their job, a federal judge ruled, “there is a reasonable probability that his jury would not have convicted him of any of the crimes with which he was charged and previously convicted.”

Nonetheless, during oral argument before the Supreme Court in December 2021, lawyers for the state of Arizona “repeatedly argued that ‘innocence isn’t enough’ of a reason to throw out Jones’ conviction.”

The Court agreed and held that federal judges may not intervene in state cases to protect the Sixth Amendment right to the effective assistance of counsel. It denied relief even when there is evidence that the condemned might be actually innocent.

 

Tagging @Mariyam