Supreme Court Adds Two Death Penalty Cases for Next Term

Today's Washington Post carries carries the AP report, "Decisions, Decisions, Decisions..."  The justices:

Accepted two death penalty cases that involve the issue of effectiveness of counsel.

The court will consider throwing out the death sentence for Holly Wood, a mentally impaired Alabama man who killed his former lover. His attorney, described in court papers as lacking criminal-law experience, failed to tell jurors that Wood has an IQ of less than 70 and had been classified as mentally retarded.

The justices will consider reinstating the death sentence for a convicted murderer in Pennsylvania who twice escaped from prison after being found guilty of bludgeoning and drowning a man planning to testify against him. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit said that Joseph Kindler's attorney was ineffective during the sentencing phase of his trial and that there were problems with the instructions given to the jury.

More on the Alabama case is in this AP report, "Supreme Court to review death penalty for mentally impaired Ala. man with inexperienced lawyer," via the Los Angeles Times.

Holly Wood was convicted in the shooting death of his former girlfriend, Ruby Lois Gosha, in 1993. She was killed by a shotgun blast to her head as she slept in her home in Troy, Ala.

A federal judge tossed out the death sentence on the basis of the poor performance of Wood's lawyer in the sentencing phase of his trial. The lawyer, described in court papers as lacking criminal law experience, failed to tell jurors that Wood has an IQ of less than 70 and had been classified as mentally retarded.

The Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated the death sentence, ruling that Wood had failed to show that the lawyers was unconstitutionally ineffective.

The Alabama case is Wood v. Allen, 08-9156.

More on the Pennsylvania case is in this AP report, "High court to rule in Pennsylvania death case," via Google News.

The justices said they will hear an appeal filed by prosecutors in Pennsylvania after the federal appeals court in Philadelphia upheld a lower court order throwing out the death sentence against Joseph Kindler for killing one-time accomplice David Bernstein in 1982.

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Kindler's lawyer was ineffective at the sentencing phase of his trial and also found problems with the instructions given to the jury.

State courts had never decided on Kindler's claims. Instead, those courts said Kindler forfeited the right to be heard on those issues because of his escapes.

The Pennsylvania case is Beard v. Kindler, 08-992.  More at this SCOTUS Blog post.  Both cases will be taken up in the Supreme Court's next term which will begin in October 2009.  The Court's current term ends later next month.