Brandon D. Woodruff v. Lorie Davis, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Correctional Institutions Division
DueProcess HabeasCorpus
Whether the denial of a certificate of appealability by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals constituted reversible error, given the prosecutor's violation of the petitioner's Sixth Amendment rights by recording, listening to, and making notes from the petitioner's jail telephone calls
QUESTION PRESENTED FOR REVIEW A prosecutor had Petitioner’s jail telephone calls recorded, listened to them, made notes from them and had at least one witness listen to them. This blatant violation of Petitioner’s Sixth Amendment rights should have resulted in dismissal of the charge under United States v. Morrison, 449 U.S. 361, 365-366 (1981). The district court held otherwise and the Fifth Circuit denied a certificate of appealability. Did this denial constitute reversible error? ii