No. 19-8927

Alfred Brian Mitchell v. Tommy Sharp, Warden

Lower Court: Tenth Circuit
Docketed: 2020-07-08
Status: Denied
Type: IFP
IFP
Tags: age-of-culpability cognitive-science constitutional-vagueness criminal-procedure cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment sentencing-aggravator standing statutory-interpretation
Key Terms:
Punishment HabeasCorpus
Latest Conference: 2020-09-29
Question Presented (AI Summary)

Whether Oklahoma's application of the 'heinous, atrocious, or cruel' death-penalty aggravator is unconstitutionally vague

Question Presented (OCR Extract)

QUESTIONS PRESENTED 1. Given this Court’s prior ruling that the text of Oklahoma’s “heinous, atrocious, or cruel” death-penalty aggravator is unconstitutionally vague, is the state applying a valid narrowing construction to the statute when all murders are subject to the aggravator, save those few in which the victim dies instantly upon the fatal blow? 2. Do shifting attitudes about the death penalty and new science showing the absence of meaningful differences in cognition among young adults below the age of twenty-one compel this Court to bar the execution of those who committed crimes shy of their twenty-first birthday? ii

Docket Entries

2020-10-05
Petition DENIED.
2020-09-03
DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 9/29/2020.
2020-08-31
Reply of petitioner Alfred Mitchell filed. (Distributed)
2020-08-19
Brief of respondent Tommy Sharp in opposition filed.
2020-07-30
Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is extended to and including September 8, 2020. See Rule 30.1.
2020-07-29
Motion to extend the time to file a response from August 7, 2020 to September 6, 2020, submitted to The Clerk.
2020-07-01
Petition for a writ of certiorari and motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis filed. (Response due August 7, 2020)

Attorneys

Alfred Mitchell
John CarlsonRidley McGreevy & Winocur, Petitioner
Tommy Sharp
Jennifer L. CrabbOffice of the Attorney General, Respondent