No. 18-6625

Darnell Bernard Blagmon v. Virginia

Lower Court: Virginia
Docketed: 2018-11-09
Status: Denied
Type: IFP
Response WaivedIFP Experienced Counsel
Tags: actual-innocence constitutional-rights due-process evidentiary-hearing federal-constitution recantation state-court state-court-procedure witness-recantation writ-of-innocence
Key Terms:
DueProcess HabeasCorpus
Latest Conference: 2018-12-07
Question Presented (AI Summary)

Did the state court violate petitioner's federal constitutional right to due process by making this ruling without having held an evidentiary hearing?

Question Presented (from Petition)

Question Presented Virginia law provides for filing of a Petition for Writ of Actual Innocence (Va. Code Ann. § 19.2-327.10 (West)) in Virginia state court. Petitioner filed for this relief on ground that the main witness against him at trial, Angel Berdecia, recanted his testimony and has affirmed that petitioner was not involved in the crimes. The state courts denied the Petition without an evidentiary hearing, however, ruling that the Affirmation of the witness Berdecia was “not shown to be true.” Did the state court violate petitioner’s federal constitutional right to due process by making this ruling without having held an evidentiary hearing?

Docket Entries

2018-12-10
Petition DENIED.
2018-11-21
DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 12/7/2018.
2018-11-19
Waiver of right of respondent Virginia to respond filed.
2018-10-17
Petition for a writ of certiorari and motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis filed. (Response due December 10, 2018)

Attorneys

Darnell Bernard Blagmon
Michael James ConfusioneHegge & Confusione, Petitioner
Michael James ConfusioneHegge & Confusione, Petitioner
Virginia
Toby Jay HeytensOffice of the Attorney General, Respondent
Toby Jay HeytensOffice of the Attorney General, Respondent