death-penalty

602 cases — ← All topics

Case Title Lower Court Docketed Status Flags Tags Question Presented
25-6774 Charles Don Flores v. Texas Texas 2026-02-10 Pending IFP actual-innocence death-penalty due-process habeas-corpus liberty-interest state-procedural-rule Where a state has created liberty interests that give death-sentenced prisoners with credible claims of innocence vehicles for proving their innocence…
25A877 Dylann Storm Roof v. United States District Court for the District of South Carolina Fourth Circuit 2026-02-04 Application criminal-justice death-penalty federal-procedure judicial-recusal post-conviction writ-of-mandamus Question not identified.
25-6647 Emanuel Johnson, Sr. v. Ricky D. Dixon, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections, et al. Eleventh Circuit 2026-01-22 Pending IFP certificate-of-appealability conflict-of-interest death-penalty federal-review habeas-corpus postconviction-review 1. Under the threshold certificate of appealability standard, could reasonable jurists debate a district court's refusal to consolidate inextricably i…
25A821 Taylor Rene Parker v. Texas Texas 2026-01-16 Application capital-punishment criminal-culpability death-penalty eighth-amendment intellectual-disability mental-capacity Question not identified.
25-6451 Thomas Steven Sanders v. United States Fifth Circuit 2025-12-30 Pending Response RequestedResponse WaivedIFP appellate-review case-or-controversy commutation death-penalty federal-sentencing mootness Following commutation of a death sentence to life in prison without the possibility of release, does a case or controversy regarding the death penalty…
25A752 Charles Don Flores v. Texas Texas 2025-12-29 Application actual-innocence death-penalty due-process fourteenth-amendment habeas-corpus state-court-review Question not identified.
25-6357 Frank A. Walls v. Florida, et al. Florida 2025-12-15 Denied IFP atkins-rule constitutional-protection death-penalty hall-v-florida intellectual-disability procedural-bar 1. Has Florida's partial retroactive treatment of Hall v. Florida denied intellectually disabled people the protections of Atkins and should procedura…
25-6353 Marcin Sosniak v. Charles Mims, Warden Eleventh Circuit 2025-12-12 Denied Response WaivedIFP criminal-procedure death-penalty evidence-retrieval ineffective-assistance police-interview right-to-counsel Whether Petitioner has received ineffective assistance of counsel where Petitioner's counsel allowed Petitioner who was facing the death penalty to ac…
25A676 Jimmy ONeal Spencer v. Alabama Alabama 2025-12-09 Application capital-case constitutional-rights criminal-appeals death-penalty due-process habeas-corpus Question not identified.
25A671 Emanuel Johnson, Sr. v. Ricky D. Dixon, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections, et al. Eleventh Circuit 2025-12-09 Application death-penalty docket-consolidation eleventh-circuit federal-habeas ineffective-assistance pro-se Question not identified.
25-6279 Steven Matthew Wolf v. Florida Florida 2025-12-03 Denied IFP capital-punishment death-penalty fourteenth-amendment juror-bias jury-selection sixth-amendment Whether Mr. Wolf was deprived of a jury of his peers as guaranteed by the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments where the trial court removed a juror who pr…
25A534 Roderick Leshun Rankin v. Dexter Payne, Director, Arkansas Department of Correction Eighth Circuit 2025-11-07 Application arkansas constitutional-review death-penalty eighth-circuit habeas-corpus standard-of-review Whether the Eighth Circuit applied the correct standard of review in denying habeas corpus relief for a death-row inmate challenging the constitutiona…
25-6061 Bryan Fredrick Jennings v. Florida, et al. Florida 2025-11-07 Denied IFP death-penalty due-process fourteenth-amendment meaningful-access postconviction-counsel state-representation Mr. Jennings was deprived of counsel for three years before his death warrant was signed. On the day his death warrant was signed, the State requested…
25A481 Steven J. Hecke v. United States Seventh Circuit 2025-10-28 Application constitutional-rights criminal-procedure death-penalty extension-of-time supreme-court writ-of-certiorari Whether the lower court's ruling in Sockwell v. Hamm improperly applied constitutional protections in a criminal proceeding
25A477 Amos Wells v. Eric Guerrero, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Correctional Institutions Division Fifth Circuit 2025-10-27 Application death-penalty future-dangerousness genetic-evidence ineffective-assistance sixth-amendment strickland-standard Whether defense counsel's introduction of genetic predisposition evidence constitutes ineffective assistance of counsel under the Sixth Amendment when…
25A475 Aubrey C. Trail v. Nebraska Nebraska 2025-10-24 Application certiorari death-penalty eighth-circuit habeas-corpus post-conviction supreme-court Whether the state of Nebraska provides an adequate post-conviction process for death row inmates consistent with federal constitutional standards
25-5920 Donald Otis Williams v. Florida Florida 2025-10-21 Denied IFP aggravating-factors constitutional-challenge death-penalty first-degree-murder legislative-expansion proportionality-review Whether the Florida Legislature's expansion of the applicability of our statute's "aggravating factors" requirements, Section 921.141(6), Florida Stat…
25-5928 Anthony Boyd v. John Q. Hamm, Commissioner, Alabama Department of Corrections, et al. Eleventh Circuit 2025-10-21 Denied IFP comparative-analysis cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty eighth-amendment execution-method nitrogen-hypoxia When performing a comparative analysis to determine whether an alternative means of execution would significantly reduce a substantial risk of severe …
25A445 Thomas Steven Sanders v. United States Fifth Circuit 2025-10-17 Application criminal-conviction death-penalty double-jeopardy executive-clemency federal-prosecution fifth-amendment Whether the Double Jeopardy Clause of the Fifth Amendment precludes a defendant from being convicted of two separate offenses arising from the same cr…
25-5869 Lance Shockley v. Richard Adams, Warden, et al. Eighth Circuit 2025-10-13 Denied IFP death-penalty free-exercise missouri-law ramirez-precedent religious-rights spiritual-advisor 1. Does the State of Missouri's decision to deny a condemned his choice of spiritual advisor solely on the basis of the individual's familial relation…
25-5829 Samuel Lee Smithers v. Florida Florida 2025-10-08 Denied IFP constitutional-rights cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty eighth-amendment elderly-defendant standards-of-decency 1. Does the execution of the elderly violate the Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment…
25A406 Samuel Lee Smithers v. Florida Florida 2025-10-08 Denied constitutional-rights death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment execution-stay meaningful-hearing Whether the Eighth Amendment prohibits the execution of a death row inmate when substantial constitutional questions remain unresolved and the defenda…
25-5459 Robert Keith Woodall v. Kentucky Kentucky 2025-08-25 Denied Relisted (2)IFP confrontation-clause death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment intellectual-disability The Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments forbid the execution of persons with intellectual disability. Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U.S. 304, 321 (2002). Perso…
25-5370 Kayle B. Bates v. Florida, et al. Florida 2025-08-14 Denied IFP constitutional-violation cruel-unusual-punishment death-penalty ineffective-assistance neuropsychological-evidence sentencing-procedure After a questionable conviction, Kayle Bates has twice been sentenced to death. His first death sentence was reversed on collateral review for ineffec…
25A185 Kayle B. Bates v. Florida, et al. Florida 2025-08-14 Denied capital-punishment constitutional-protection cruel-and-unusual death-penalty eighth-amendment irreparable-harm Whether the Eighth Amendment prohibits the execution of a death row inmate when the state supreme court has denied constitutional protections that saf…
25-5325 Robert W. Hassett, III v. Delaware Delaware 2025-08-12 Denied Relisted (2)IFP capital-sentencing constitutional-amendments criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process jury-instructions 1. Whether the Eighth^hdil '4th Amendments to the United States Constitution are violated, and this Court 's holdings are contradicted, 1 when a cour…
25-5219 Mao Hin v. California California 2025-07-29 Denied IFP capital-sentencing constitutional-rights death-penalty jury-unanimity reasonable-doubt sentencing-procedure Whether California's capital-sentencing scheme violates the Fifth, Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments because it fails to require the jury to fi…
25-5214 Byron Lewis Black v. Tennessee Tennessee 2025-07-28 Denied IFP atkins-claim death-penalty federal-precedent intellectual-disability liberty-interest state-procedure Next Term, this Court will resolve a significant dispute among the federal Circuit Courts of Appeal : "Whether and how courts may consider the cumulat…
25A118 Byron Lewis Black v. Tennessee Tennessee 2025-07-28 Denied atkins-claim death-penalty eighth-amendment intellectual-disability iq-scores medical-standards Whether the Eighth Amendment prohibits the execution of an individual with intellectual disability when their IQ scores and diagnostic evidence demons…
25-5184 Matthew Lee Caylor v. Florida Florida 2025-07-24 Dismissed IFP aggravating-factors capital-sentencing constitutional-rights death-penalty due-process jury-waiver I. Whether accepting a defendant's waiver of the right to a trial by jury and the jury's full consideration of mitigating evidence in a death penalty …
25-5194 Edward J. Zakrzewski, II v. Florida Florida 2025-07-24 Denied IFP constitutional-rights criminal-sentencing death-penalty florida-law judicial-override jury-recommendation Given that it is illegal to sentence an individual to death as the result of a bare majority jury vote or judicial override of a life sentence anywher…
25A104 Edward J. Zakrzewski, II v. Florida Florida 2025-07-24 Denied arbitrary-and-capricious cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment jury-override Whether the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments prohibit executing a defendant whose death sentences were imposed by bare majority jury votes and judicia…
25A93 Kevin Don Foster v. Ricky D. Dixon, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections Eleventh Circuit 2025-07-23 Presumed Complete constitutional-violations death-penalty eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment ineffective-assistance sixth-amendment Question not identified.
25-5153 Steven Catlin v. Edward J. Silva, Acting Warden Ninth Circuit 2025-07-21 Denied IFP death-penalty federal-review habeas-corpus ineffective-assistance mitigation-evidence voir-dire 1. Was the state court's summary denial of Petitioner's habeas claims alleging defense counsel's failure to investigate, develop and present available…
25-5145 Nicholas Bernard Acklin v. John Q. Hamm, Commissioner, Alabama Department of Corrections, et al. Eleventh Circuit 2025-07-18 Denied IFP attorney-ethics conflict-of-interest constitutional-rights death-penalty habeas-corpus ineffective-assistance-of-counsel This is a death penalty case from Alabama in which the following occurred: (1) the defense attorney was being paid in substantial part by the defenda…
25-5096 Christopher John Spreitz v. Arizona Arizona 2025-07-14 Denied Amici (1)Relisted (2)IFP capital-sentencing constitutional-review death-penalty habeas-corpus mitigating-evidence ninth-circuit 1. Whether in conducting independent sentencing review to cure a constitutional error in a capital case, a court must consider all of the evidence in …
25A53 Victor Saldano v. Texas Texas 2025-07-14 Presumed Complete atkins-claim competency-to-execute death-penalty eighth-amendment expert-testimony intellectual-disability Whether the Eighth Amendment prohibits the execution of an individual with intellectual disability under Atkins v. Virginia when multiple experts, inc…
25-5085 Donald Perry v. Ricky D. Dixon, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections Florida 2025-07-11 Denied IFP actual-innocence death-penalty florida-supreme-court habeas-corpus procedural-bar trial-court-jurisdiction 1. Questia (9) /ReseuTeD - wien, on Nor THE SUPREME CounT OF RD Can Procedyfa lly Barked By ICTUAL TANCE Clzagse, ON TNR Z D625, 0) Spal PezeTEosser's…
25-5083 Michael Bernard Bell v. Florida Florida 2025-07-10 Denied IFP death-penalty eighth-amendment evidentiary-hearing fourteenth-amendment prosecutorial-misconduct witness-recantation Does the Petitioner's execution violate the Eighth and Fourteenth amendments to the United States Constitution when the conduct of the government and …
25-5056 Edward Lee Busby, Jr. v. Texas Texas 2025-07-08 Denied IFP atkins-standard cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty eighth-amendment expert-testimony intellectual-disability Where the clinical criteria unequivocally establish that a death row inmate is intellectually disabled, and where all the experts -- including the exp…
25A28 Mica Alexander Martinez v. Christe Quick, Warden Tenth Circuit 2025-07-08 Presumed Complete capital-punishment constitutional-error death-penalty eighth-amendment execution-protocol habeas-corpus Whether the Eighth Amendment permits the imposition and execution of a death sentence in light of systemic delays and potential constitutional errors …
25A15 Ali Awad Mahmoud Irsan v. Texas Texas 2025-07-03 Presumed Complete capital-conviction constitutional-review death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment texas-criminal-procedure Whether the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals applied constitutionally adequate standards of review in affirming a capital conviction and death sentence
24-7483 DeAngelo Zieglar v. Pennsylvania Pennsylvania 2025-06-24 Denied Response WaivedIFP caldwell-precedent capital-punishment constitutional-procedure death-penalty jury-selection moratorium-impact In light of Caldwell v. Mississippi, 472 U.S. 320 (1985), where a state has instituted an indefinite and formal moratorium on the death penalty, wheth…
24A1268 Carl G. Lindsey v. Ohio Ohio 2025-06-23 Presumed Complete constitutional-review death-penalty fetal-alcohol-spectrum-disorder habeas-corpus newly-discovered-evidence post-conviction Whether a state court's denial of a post-conviction petition raising claims of newly discovered evidence related to Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (F…
24-7474 Richard Gerald Jordan v. Mississippi Mississippi 2025-06-20 Denied IFP arbitrary-denial constitutional-claim death-penalty due-process ex-post-facto state-court Whether the State of Mississippi has run afoul of due process by arbitrarily denying an available state court forum to adjudicate a federal constituti…
24-7457 Thomas Lee Gudinas v. Florida Florida 2025-06-18 Denied IFP constitutional-rights death-penalty eighth-amendment executive-discretion fourteenth-amendment public-records Whether Florida abused its discretion in denying public records and whether the Governor's unbridled discretion in death warrant selection is unconsti…
24A1253 Daniel Raul Santiago Vasquez v. Oklahoma Oklahoma 2025-06-18 Presumed Complete capital-murder death-penalty eighth-amendment extension-of-time post-conviction pro-bono-counsel Whether the Eighth Amendment prohibits the imposition of a death sentence where the defendant was represented by pro bono counsel during post-convicti…
24-7436 Hans Thomas Reiser v. California California 2025-06-16 Denied IFP constitutional-review death-penalty federal-courts habeas-corpus procedural-errors state-remedies Whether the split between Federal Courts and the California Supreme Court over state remedies for procedural errors in death penalty cases constitutes…
24A1239 Robert Keith Woodall v. Kentucky Kentucky 2025-06-13 Presumed Complete capital-case constitutional-error death-penalty fair-trial sentencing supreme-court-review Whether the death sentence imposed on the petitioner violated his constitutional right to a fair and reliable sentencing proceeding in a capital case
24A1198 James Randall Rogers v. Georgia Georgia 2025-06-05 Presumed Complete bitemark-evidence capital-punishment constitutional-due-process death-penalty new-trial recantation Whether the recantation of bitemark evidence used to convict a death row inmate warrants a new trial under federal constitutional due process standard…
24-7346 Seaga Edward Gillard v. North Carolina North Carolina 2025-06-03 Denied IFP capital-punishment criminal-sentencing death-penalty felony-murder jury-instructions supreme-court-precedent Whether the Supreme Court of North Carolina violated Supreme Court precedent regarding jury instructions for death sentences in felony murder cases in…
24A1150 Stephen Corey Bryant v. Joel Anderson, Acting Director, South Carolina Department of Corrections, et al. Fourth Circuit 2025-05-27 Presumed Complete capital-punishment constitutional-rights death-penalty fourth-circuit habeas-corpus ineffective-assistance Whether the Fourth Circuit's denial of a death-sentenced prisoner's appeal violates his constitutional rights to effective assistance of counsel or du…
24A1094 Nicholas Noelani D. Smith v. Alabama Alabama 2025-05-14 Presumed Complete capital-case certiorari constitutional-review death-penalty direct-appeal penalty-proceeding Whether the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals properly applied constitutional standards in affirming Mr. Smith's capital conviction and death sentence…
24-7117 Jeffrey Hutchinson v. Ricky D. Dixon, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections Eleventh Circuit 2025-05-01 Denied IFP competency-to-execute death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment mental-health panetti-standard Does the Panetti standard for competency to be executed require more than a mere rational understanding of the physical fact of execution, and must it…
24-7087 Jeffrey G. Hutchinson v. Florida, et al. Florida 2025-04-29 Denied IFP constitutional-review criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment fundamental-fairness Whether due process requires more than the arbitrary truncation of pending substantive review by an unnoticed death warrant signed midway through acti…
24-7079 Jeffrey Glenn Hutchinson v. Florida Florida 2025-04-27 Denied Amici (1)IFP combat-trauma constitutional-law death-penalty mental-health scientific-evidence veterans-rights Is it unconstitutional to execute a Gulf War veteran without considering the impact of new scientific evidence demonstrating diminished moral culpabil…
24-6933 Mikal Mahdi v. Bryan Stirling, Director, South Carolina Department of Corrections South Carolina 2025-04-08 Denied IFP capital-punishment childhood-trauma death-penalty ineffective-assistance mitigating-evidence sixth-amendment Whether a capital defendant's Sixth Amendment right to effective assistance of counsel is violated when trial counsel fails to fully investigate and p…
24-6932 Michael Tanzi v. Ricky D. Dixon, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections Florida 2025-04-04 Denied IFP death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment jury-recommendation sixth-amendment Whether Florida may limit a jury's penalty phase role under the Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments despite the Supreme Court's overruling of Spa…
24-6885 Thomas Creech v. Idaho Idaho 2025-03-28 Denied IFP constitutional-law death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment evolving-standards execution-attempts Should Resweber be overruled?
24-6847 Richard Darren Emery v. Missouri Missouri 2025-03-25 Denied IFP death-penalty due-process fourteenth-amendment impartiality religious-consideration sentencing Does a sentencing court violate the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment when it invokes a defendant's lack of spirituality—while crediting …
24A274 Marcellus Williams v. Missouri, ex rel. Michael L. Parson, Governor of Missouri, et al. Missouri 2025-03-18 Denied actual-innocence capital-punishment clemency death-penalty eighth-amendment post-conviction-relief Whether the Eighth Amendment prohibits the execution of a death row inmate who has presented substantial new evidence of actual innocence after his or…
24-6798 Karl Douglas Roberts v. Dexter Payne, Director, Arkansas Division of Correction Eighth Circuit 2025-03-18 Denied Amici (2)IFP aedpa-standard atkins-claim death-penalty federal-claim habeas-corpus state-court-adjudication Whether a claim has been adjudicated on the merits by a state court under § 2254(d), where the defendant did not present a federal claim for relief an…
24-6775 Edward Thomas James v. Florida Florida 2025-03-17 Denied IFP constitutional-error death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment evolving-standards-of-decency non-unanimous-jury Whether a state law prohibiting Florida courts from considering evolving standards of decency may preclude a death row inmate from challenging a non-u…
24-6709 Brad Keith Sigmon v. South Carolina South Carolina 2025-03-05 Denied IFP death-penalty due-process execution-method lethal-injection prisoner-rights statutory-right Does South Carolina's compressed timeline and arbitrary denial of information necessary for a condemned prisoner to exercise his statutory right 'neve…
24-6594 Jermaine Alexander Foster v. Florida Florida 2025-02-19 Denied IFP atkins-standard death-penalty intellectual-disability procedural-hurdles retroactivity supreme-court-precedent Whether the Florida Supreme Court's procedural interpretation of Hall v. Florida circumvents the categorical prohibition against executing intellectua…
24A774 Darrel Eston Lee v. Ryan Thornell, Director, Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry Ninth Circuit 2025-02-11 Presumed Complete conviction-challenge death-penalty federal-review habeas-corpus ninth-circuit standard-of-review Whether the Ninth Circuit applied the correct standard of review in denying a death row prisoner's habeas corpus petition challenging his conviction a…
24-6519 Larry R. Steele v. United States Postal Service, et al. Fifth Circuit 2025-02-10 Denied Response WaivedIFP constitutional-rights criminal-procedure death-penalty habeas-corpus post-conviction texas-procedure Whether the Supreme Court of Texas improperly denied post-conviction relief to a death row inmate based on procedural grounds
24-6510 James D. Ford v. Florida Florida 2025-02-08 Denied IFP death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment evolving-standards fourteenth-amendment post-conviction-relief Whether Florida's use of the 'conformity clause' in the Florida constitution improperly violates Ford's Fourteenth Amendment Due Process rights and hi…
24A763 Kayle B. Bates v. Florida Florida 2025-02-06 Presumed Complete constitutional-rights criminal-procedure death-penalty juror-interview post-conviction rule-3.575 Whether a Florida criminal defendant's constitutional rights were violated by the state supreme court's denial of a post-conviction motion seeking to …
24-6472 Willie R. Burgess, Jr. v. Alabama Alabama 2025-02-05 Denied IFP capital-murder death-penalty expert-testimony ineffective-assistance post-conviction-relief strickland-standard Under the extreme circumstances of this case, can a state court deny a Strickland claim on the merits without conducting an evidentiary hearing?
24A698 Randy W. Duck v. Dexter Payne, Director, Arkansas Division of Correction Eighth Circuit 2025-01-15 Presumed Complete constitutional-challenge cruel-and-unusual death-penalty eighth-amendment method-of-execution prisoner-rights Whether a state corrections director's denial of a prisoner's request for a specific method of execution violates the Eighth Amendment's prohibition o…
24A688 Thomas Creech v. Idaho Idaho 2025-01-14 Presumed Complete botched-execution cruel-and-unusual death-penalty eighth-amendment execution-attempt resweber-precedent Whether the Eighth Amendment prohibits a second execution attempt after a botched first attempt that poses a substantial risk of serious harm or cruel…
24A675 Jermaine Alexander Foster v. Florida Florida 2025-01-10 Presumed Complete capital-punishment death-penalty eighth-amendment intellectual-disability postconviction-relief supreme-court-review Whether the Eighth Amendment prohibits the execution of a death-sentenced inmate with an intellectual disability claim that was rejected by the Florid…
24A659 Karl Douglas Roberts v. Dexter Payne, Director, Arkansas Division of Correction Eighth Circuit 2025-01-02 Presumed Complete certiorari circuit-court death-penalty eighth-amendment habeas-corpus time-extension Whether the Eighth Amendment permits the execution of a death row inmate after a significant delay in seeking federal habeas review
24-6212 Raymond Anthony Lewis v. Raul Morales, Acting Warden Ninth Circuit 2024-12-30 Denied IFP capital-sentencing death-penalty extraneous-evidence habeas-corpus jury-misconduct religious-bias Whether post-trial evidence of a jury foreperson introducing extra-record religious evidence during capital sentencing deliberations establishes jury …
24-695 Bill Cool, Warden v. Nathaniel Jackson Sixth Circuit 2024-12-30 Denied criminal-procedure death-penalty lockett-precedent mitigation-evidence remand sentencing-review Whether state courts must reopen mitigation evidence in every death-penalty remand when the original error did not affect the defendant's opportunity …
24A637 Davone Unique Anderson v. Pennsylvania Pennsylvania 2024-12-30 Presumed Complete capital-punishment criminal-culpability death-penalty eighth-amendment intellectual-disability supreme-court-review Whether the Eighth Amendment permits the imposition of a death sentence where the defendant's intellectual disability substantially impairs his capaci…
24A630 Jesse Guardado v. Ricky D. Dixon, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections Eleventh Circuit 2024-12-27 Presumed Complete capital-case certiorari constitutional-claims death-penalty eleventh-circuit habeas-corpus Whether the Eleventh Circuit applied the correct legal standard in reviewing a death-sentenced prisoner's constitutional claims in a complex capital c…
24-6172 Tyrone T. Johnson v. Florida Florida 2024-12-18 Denied IFP arbitrary-capricious capital-sentencing death-penalty eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment proportionality-review Has the Florida Supreme Court misapplied Pulley v. Harris and rendered Florida's capital sentencing scheme unconstitutional by abandoning comparative …
24A582 Stacey Ian Humphreys v. Shawn Emmons, Warden Eleventh Circuit 2024-12-13 Presumed Complete aedpa cause-and-prejudice circuit-split death-penalty juror-misconduct procedural-default Whether the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA) applies to procedural default analysis in reviewing claims of juror misconduct that …
24A575 Bryan Frederick Jennings v. Ricky D. Dixon, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections Eleventh Circuit 2024-12-12 Presumed Complete death-penalty eleventh-circuit federal-review habeas-corpus second-petition statutory-interpretation Whether the Eleventh Circuit correctly applied the standard for granting habeas corpus relief under 18 U.S.C. § 2254 in dismissing a death-row inmate'…
24A523 Willie R. Burgess, Jr. v. Alabama Alabama 2024-11-27 Presumed Complete capital-murder death-penalty eighth-amendment evidentiary-hearing postconviction state-review Whether the Eighth Amendment permits the imposition of a death sentence following a capital murder conviction where the defendant was denied an eviden…
24-581 Utah v. Douglas A. Lovell Utah 2024-11-26 Denied Relisted (2) aggravating-factors criminal-sentencing death-penalty ineffective-assistance-counsel mitigation-evidence strickland-standard Did the Utah Supreme Court violate binding case law by improperly assessing Strickland deficient performance and prejudice in a death penalty case inv…
24A479 Von Clark Davis v. Charlotte Jenkins, Warden Sixth Circuit 2024-11-13 Presumed Complete constitutional-claims death-penalty habeas-corpus resentencing sixth-circuit supreme-court-precedent Whether the Sixth Circuit improperly denied habeas corpus relief by failing to fully address a defendant's constitutional claims and an intervening Su…
24-5939 James Herard v. Florida Florida 2024-11-07 Denied IFP death-penalty due-process expert-testimony fifth-amendment interrogation-techniques miranda-rights Whether the trial court erred in refusing to suppress statements made by James Herard under the 5th and 14th Amendments and Miranda v. Arizona, and wh…
24-5916 Javance Mickey Wilson v. California California 2024-11-05 Denied IFP capital-sentencing constitutional-amendments criminal-procedure death-penalty jury-findings reasonable-doubt Does California's capital-sentencing scheme violate the Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendments by failing to require jury factual findings for death …
24-5791 Paul David Storey v. Texas Texas 2024-10-21 Denied Amici (2)IFP brady-violation death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment habeas-corpus prosecutorial-misconduct Whether the State's suppression of favorable evidence and presentation of false arguments at a death penalty case's penalty phase violates due process…
24-5775 Timothy Robert Ronk v. Mississippi Mississippi 2024-10-17 Denied IFP constitutional-claim death-penalty expert-testimony ineffective-assistance-of-counsel procedural-rule sixth-amendment Does the failure of death penalty defense counsel to seek funding for an independent expert and not challenge the State's expert testimony constitute …
24A347 Blaine Keith Milam v. Texas Texas 2024-10-11 Presumed Complete atkins-v-virginia capital-case death-penalty eighth-amendment habeas-corpus intellectual-disability Whether the Eighth Amendment prohibits the imposition of the death penalty for a defendant with an intellectual disability
24A318 Allen Ward Cox v. Florida Florida 2024-10-02 Presumed Complete capital-collateral constitutional-rights death-penalty direct-appeal ineffective-assistance postconviction-relief Whether the Florida Supreme Court's denial of direct appeal relief violated the petitioner's constitutional rights to effective appellate review in a …
24-5658 Garcia Glen White v. Texas Texas 2024-09-27 Denied IFP constitutional-amendments death-penalty due-process intellectual-disability moore-v-texas texas-criminal-procedure Do Articles 11.073 and 11.071 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure create a due process problem by preventing the presentation of evidence that mig…
24A298 James Herard v. Florida Florida 2024-09-27 Presumed Complete capital-sentencing constitutional-rights death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment jury-unanimity Whether the Eighth Amendment requires jury unanimity in capital sentencing decisions and whether a judge may impose a death sentence after a non-unani…
24A290 Prosecuting Attorney, 21st Judicial Circuit, ex rel. Marcellus Williams v. Missouri Missouri 2024-09-23 Denied Amici (1) capital-crime death-penalty eighth-amendment execution-stay innocence-project new-evidence Whether the Eighth Amendment prohibits the execution of a death row inmate who has presented new evidence potentially exculpating him from the underly…
24A279 John Esposito v. Shawn Emmons, Warden Georgia 2024-09-19 Presumed Complete death-penalty due-process fair-trial juror-misconduct outside-influences voir-dire Whether a juror's undisclosed consultation with a pastor about biblical views on the death penalty during jury selection constitutes a violation of th…
24A242 Paul David Storey v. Texas Texas 2024-09-06 Presumed Complete capital-sentencing constitutional-claims death-penalty habeas-corpus prosecutorial-misconduct victim-impact Whether prosecutorial misconduct that deliberately misrepresents victim's family's views during a capital sentencing proceeding constitutes a violatio…
24-5347 Devin Allen Bennett v. Mississippi Mississippi 2024-08-20 Denied IFP death-penalty eighth-amendment ineffective-assistance mitigation-evidence sixth-amendment strickland-standard Whether trial counsel's failure to investigate, uncover, and present evidence of defendant's reduced moral culpability may be categorically discounted…
24-5309 Andrew R. Allred v. Ricky D. Dixon, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections, et al. Eleventh Circuit 2024-08-13 Denied IFP criminal-procedure death-penalty ineffective-assistance-of-counsel mental-health-evaluation mitigation-testimony sixth-amendment Whether Mr. Allred's convictions and death sentences are unconstitutional due to receiving ineffective assistance of counsel at his trial in violation…
24A159 LeGregory Davis v. Louisiana Louisiana 2024-08-09 Presumed Complete capital-punishment constitutional-violation death-penalty eighth-amendment lethal-injection procedural-due-process Whether the Eighth Amendment prohibits the execution of a death row inmate based on claims of procedural irregularities or constitutional violations i…
24-5221 Arthur Lee Burton v. Texas Texas 2024-08-04 Denied IFP atkins-claim atkins-v-virginia capital-punishment death-penalty diagnostic-criteria hall-v-florida intellectual-disability moore-v-texas-i moore-v-texas-ii procedural-review supreme-court-precedent Whether the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals' refusal to authorize plenary review of an unrebutted prima facie case of intellectual disability rendered…
24A124 Arthur Lee Burton v. Texas Texas 2024-08-04 Denied atkins-claim death-penalty eighth-amendment intellectual-disability iq-testing moore-v-texas Whether the Eighth Amendment prohibits the execution of a death-row inmate with intellectual disability when new clinical evidence demonstrates he mee…
24-5192 Matthew Nicholson v. Ohio Ohio 2024-07-31 Denied IFP arbitrariness constitutional-proportionality county-geography criminal-sentencing death-penalty eighth-amendment equal-protection geographic-disparity gregg-v-georgia sentencing-disparities Is Ohio's death penalty being arbitrarily applied in violation of Gregg v. Georgia, when geography dictates whether a defendant will be subject to the…
24-5142 Thomas E. Creech v. Tim Richardson, Warden Ninth Circuit 2024-07-25 Denied IFP circuit-split competency-to-be-executed death-penalty federal-courts federal-procedure habeas-corpus late-evolving-facts second-or-successive-petition statutory-interpretation successive-petitions Is a federal habeas petition based on late-evolving facts second or successive when it is not based on a claim that the inmate is incompetent to be ex…
24A33 Michael Dale Iervolino v. Alabama Alabama 2024-07-11 Presumed Complete appellate-review capital-conviction constitutional-rights criminal-appeal death-penalty due-process Whether the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals violated the defendant's constitutional rights by improperly denying his direct appeal in a capital case
24A12 Andrew R. Allred v. Ricky D. Dixon, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections, et al. Eleventh Circuit 2024-07-09 Presumed Complete constitutional-review death-penalty eleventh-circuit habeas-corpus postconviction section-2254 Whether a death-sentenced inmate's habeas corpus petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2254 was improperly denied by the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, poten…
23A1164 Charles Grover Brant v. Ricky D. Dixon, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections, et al. Eleventh Circuit 2024-06-27 Presumed Complete certificate-of-appealability death-penalty eleventh-circuit first-degree-murder habeas-corpus post-conviction Whether the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals improperly denied a Certificate of Appealability for a federal habeas corpus petition challenging a stat…
23A1146 Ramiro F. Gonzales v. Texas Texas 2024-06-24 Denied capital-murder death-penalty eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment future-dangerousness jury-determination Whether the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments prohibit executing a capital defendant who may not meet state-law eligibility criteria for the death pena…
23A1147 In Re Ramiro Felix Gonzales 2024-06-24 Denied death-penalty eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment future-dangerousness habeas-corpus jury-prediction Whether the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments prohibit the execution of a prisoner whose demonstrated character and rehabilitation fundamentally challe…
23-7791 Ramiro F. Gonzales v. Texas Texas 2024-06-24 Denied IFP capital-punishment capital-punishment-eligibility death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment future-dangerousness jury-determination post-conviction-review Can a state refuse to recognize challenges to the accuracy of a jury's determination of 'future dangerousness' as cognizable grounds for postconvictio…
23-7792 In Re Ramiro Felix Gonzales 2024-06-24 Denied IFP capital-punishment constitutional-review death-penalty eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment future-dangerousness post-conviction-review state-law Does it violate the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to execute an individual who does not meet the eligibility criteria for a sentence of death under…
23-7765 Leon Davis, Jr. v. Florida, et al. Florida 2024-06-20 Denied IFP capital-punishment cumulative-error death-penalty ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel jury-selection prosecutorial-discretion strickland-prejudice strickland-standard Counsel's-failure-to-object-to-trial-court's-comments-during-jury-selection
23-7726 Jason Robles v. Jeffery Artrip, Warden Fourth Circuit 2024-06-14 Denied Response WaivedIFP antiterrorism-act antiterrorism-and-effective-death-penalty-act civil-rights constitutional-law death-penalty due-process habeas-corpus judicial-review post-conviction-relief standing Whether should prevail, The Constitution of the United States of America, coupled with the Constitution of Virginia or the Antiterrorism and Effective…
23-7727 Everett G. Miller v. Florida Florida 2024-06-14 Denied IFP aggravating-factor constitutional-challenge constitutional-law cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty due-process first-degree-murder florida-supreme-court sentencing-statute Whether the Florida Supreme Court's expansion of the applicability of the CCP aggravating factor has rendered Florida's death penalty scheme unconstit…
23A1106 Lamar Z. Brooks v. Ricky D. Dixon, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections, et al. Eleventh Circuit 2024-06-11 Presumed Complete certificate-of-appealability death-penalty eleventh-circuit habeas-corpus hurst-v-florida section-2254 Whether the Eleventh Circuit improperly denied a Certificate of Appealability for a state prisoner's federal habeas corpus petition challenging his mu…
23A1088 Anthony Mungin v. Ricky D. Dixon, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections, et al. Eleventh Circuit 2024-06-06 Presumed Complete constitutional-review criminal-procedure death-penalty habeas-corpus ineffective-assistance trial-counsel Whether the Eleventh Circuit applied an unreasonable standard in evaluating claims of ineffective assistance of counsel in a death penalty case involv…
23A1065 Jamie Mills v. John Q. Hamm, Commissioner, Alabama Department of Corrections, et al. Eleventh Circuit 2024-05-29 Denied constitutional-rights cruel-and-unusual death-penalty eighth-amendment execution-gurney prolonged-restraint Whether prolonged restraint on an execution gurney without access to counsel constitutes a violation of the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel an…
23-7567 Michael David Carruth v. John Q. Hamm, Commissioner, Alabama Department of Corrections Eleventh Circuit 2024-05-28 Denied IFP alabama appellate-counsel constitutional-right criminal-procedure death-penalty exhaustion ineffective-assistance procedural-bar right-to-counsel state-procedure writ-of-certiorari Whether a defendant-appellant has a right to counsel through the filing of a petition for a writ of certiorari
23A1052 Richard E. Glossip v. Oklahoma Oklahoma 2024-05-24 Presumed Complete certiorari criminal-appeals death-penalty eighth-amendment execution supreme-court Whether the Eighth Amendment permits the execution of a death row inmate who challenges the constitutionality of the state's method of execution
23A999 Thomas E. Creech v. Tim Richardson, Warden Ninth Circuit 2024-05-09 Presumed Complete capital-punishment constitutional-challenge death-penalty eighth-amendment habeas-corpus judge-sentencing Whether judge-sentencing in death-penalty trials violates the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment
23-7391 Markeith D. Loyd v. Florida Florida 2024-05-06 Denied Relisted (2)IFP capital-punishment death-penalty eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment individual-responsibility jury-instructions sentencing-phase Where the court in a capital case allows the State to argue that the jury should, or must, try its best to reach a unanimous penalty phase verdict, is…
23-7364 Jorge Galindo v. Nebraska Nebraska 2024-05-02 Denied Relisted (2)IFP capital-punishment death-penalty eddings-v-oklahoma ineffective-assistance lockett-v-ohio mitigation sentencing-considerations supreme-court-precedent tennard-v-dretke youth youth-mitigation May a state categorically exclude youth as a mitigating factor in a capital case?
23A978 Chuong Duong Tong v. Bobby Lumpkin, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Correctional Institutions Division Fifth Circuit 2024-05-02 Presumed Complete death-penalty habeas-corpus ineffective-assistance rhines-stay voir-dire wiggins-claim Whether a death row inmate can obtain a Rhines stay to return to state court and exhaust a procedurally defaulted ineffective assistance of trial coun…
23-7318 Michael P. Crenshaw v. Illinois Illinois 2024-04-26 Denied IFP civil-rights constitutional-interpretation cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty due-process equal-protection executive-power individual-rights intellectual-disability judicial-review separation-of-powers state-sovereignty Whether the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment prohibits the execution of a prisoner who was intellectually disabled at th…
23-7261 Geary Wayne Walton v. Ryan Thornell, Director, Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry, et al. Ninth Circuit 2024-04-19 Denied Response WaivedIFP cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty eighth-amendment execution mental-illness rational-understanding Whether the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment prohibits the execution of a prisoner who has a severe mental illness that …
23-7274 In Re Joseph T. Swift 2024-04-19 Denied IFP appeal capital-punishment civil-rights death-penalty due-process ineffective-assistance-of-counsel Whether the Florida Supreme Court's denial of petitioner's claims of ineffective assistance of counsel and due process violations in his capital murde…
23-7187 Leslie Galloway, III v. Mississippi Mississippi 2024-04-09 Denied IFP constitutional-rights criminal-defense death-penalty ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel investigation-standard mitigation post-hoc-strategy post-traumatic-stress-disorder procedural-history sixth-amendment whether-post-hoc-speculation-about-strategy-can-excuse-a-failure-to-conduct-reasonable-investigation
23A890 Brian J. Dorsey v. David Vandergriff, Warden Missouri 2024-04-07 Denied capital-punishment certiorari-standard death-penalty eighth-amendment penological-goals rehabilitation Whether the Eighth Amendment prohibits the execution of a death-sentenced individual who has demonstrated full rehabilitation and for whom the penolog…
23-7128 Harvey Windsor v. Steven T. Marshall, Attorney General of Alabama, et al. Eleventh Circuit 2024-04-02 Denied IFP accomplice-liability capital-murder certificate-of-appealability death-penalty discovery-limitation habeas-corpus head-injury ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel postconviction-relief Whether a habeas petitioner is entitled to a certificate of appealability when the state trial court and federal district court agree that the petitio…
23A868 Steven Vernon Bixby v. Bryan P. Stirling, Commissioner, South Carolina Department of Corrections, et al. Fourth Circuit 2024-03-28 Presumed Complete capital-case certiorari-extension constitutional-review death-penalty fourth-circuit habeas-corpus Whether the Fourth Circuit applied the correct legal standard in reviewing a death-sentenced prisoner's habeas corpus petition challenging the constit…
23A864 Manuel Sepulveda v. Laurel Harry, Secretary, Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, et al. Third Circuit 2024-03-27 Presumed Complete capital-case death-penalty habeas-corpus ineffective-assistance penalty-phase post-conviction Whether ineffective assistance of counsel during a capital case's penalty phase warrants federal habeas relief when state post-conviction proceedings …
23A852 Melvin Bonnell v. Chris McBee, Warden Sixth Circuit 2024-03-20 Presumed Complete circuit-review death-penalty habeas-corpus prosecutorial-misconduct ripeness-doctrine youngblood-claim Whether the ripeness doctrine applies to an Arizona v. Youngblood claim for habeas relief when specific findings demonstrate a petitioner's diligence …
23A856 Willie James Pye v. Shawn Emmons, Warden Georgia 2024-03-20 Denied adaptive-deficits death-penalty eighth-amendment intellectual-disability iq-testing woodard-precedent Whether the Eighth Amendment categorically bars the execution of an intellectually disabled defendant whose IQ scores and adaptive deficits demonstrat…
23-7042 Willie James Pye v. Shawn Emmons, Warden Georgia 2024-03-20 Denied IFP atkins-standard atkins-v-virginia burden-of-proof capital-punishment constitutional-rights death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment intellectual-disability Can the State under Atkins v. Virginia execute a person who is intellectually disabled by all clinical standards?
23-7024 Thomas Bevel v. Florida Florida 2024-03-19 Denied IFP aggravating-factors arbitrary-sentencing capital-sentencing death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment proportionality-review reasonable-doubt Whether Florida's capital sentencing scheme violates the Eighth Amendment
23-7029 Byron James Shepard v. Oklahoma Oklahoma 2024-03-19 Denied IFP aggravating-circumstance aggravating-factors capital-punishment capital-sentencing criminal-procedure death-penalty eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment jury-discretion Does Oklahoma's continuing threat aggravating circumstance violate this Court's capital sentencing jurisprudence and the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendme…
23A806 Russell William Tucker v. North Carolina North Carolina 2024-03-01 Presumed Complete batson-challenge death-penalty equal-protection jury-selection peremptory-strikes racial-discrimination Whether the prosecution's peremptory jury strikes of African American jurors violated the Equal Protection Clause under Batson v. Kentucky, given evid…
23-6830 Thomas E. Creech v. Josh Tewalt, Director, Idaho Department of Correction, et al. Ninth Circuit 2024-02-26 Denied IFP civil-rights constitutional-challenge criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment execution-secrecy lethal-injection Whether it comports with due process for a state to refuse to provide a condemned inmate information about his method of execution that would enable h…
23A772 Jorge Galindo v. Nebraska Nebraska 2024-02-23 Presumed Complete capital-sentencing death-penalty eddings-standard eighth-amendment mitigating-circumstances youthful-offender Whether a trial court's refusal to consider a defendant's youthful age as a mitigating circumstance in a capital sentencing proceeding violates the Ei…
23A761 Thomas Eugene Creech v. Idaho Idaho 2024-02-21 Denied constitutional-proportionality cruel-and-unusual death-penalty eighth-amendment execution mental-illness Whether the Eighth Amendment prohibits the execution of an individual with a demonstrated history of severe mental illness under the Eighth Amendment'…
23-6791 Thomas Eugene Creech v. Idaho Idaho 2024-02-21 Denied IFP capital-punishment death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment evolving-standards judicial-sentencing post-conviction state-court Whether it comports with due process for a state court to reject as untimely an evolving-standards claim on a theory that would never allow for such a…
23-6776 Robert Shawn Ingram v. Warden, Holman Correctional Facility Eleventh Circuit 2024-02-16 Denied IFP criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process ineffective-assistance-of-counsel plea-bargaining right-to-counsel Is an attorney constitutionally ineffective when he does not realistically convey to his client the consequences of failing to honor his plea agreemen…
23A756 Harvey Windsor v. Steven T. Marshall, Attorney General of Alabama, et al. Eleventh Circuit 2024-02-16 Presumed Complete capital-case certificate-of-appealability constitutional-challenges death-penalty eleventh-circuit habeas-corpus Whether the Eleventh Circuit improperly denied a certificate of appealability in a capital case involving potentially meritorious constitutional chall…
23-6755 Robert Ybarra, Jr. v. William Gittere, Warden Ninth Circuit 2024-02-14 Denied IFP aedpa aedpa-deference atkins-v-virginia death-penalty federal-habeas habeas-corpus intellectual-disability state-court-deference state-court-review supreme-court-review Whether the rule announced in Wetzel applies where the rationales offered by the state court are so dependent upon one another that they cannot be acc…
23-6738 Ellis Louis Mashburn, Jr. v. John Q. Hamm, Commissioner, Alabama Department of Corrections Eleventh Circuit 2024-02-13 Denied IFP capital-murder capital-trial death-penalty habeas-corpus ineffective-assistance-of-counsel mental-illness mitigation-evidence prejudice sixth-amendment strickland-standard strickland-v-washington Whether a death row inmate is precluded from establishing prejudice from his trial counsel's deficient performance during the penalty phase if his cou…
23-6655 Ralph Hall v. Anthony J. Annucci, et al. Second Circuit 2024-02-05 Denied Response WaivedIFP administrative-action constitutional-rights cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment federal-law habeas-corpus intellectual-disability judicial-review legal-procedure Whether the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment prohibits the execution of a prisoner who has been found to be intellectual…
23A713 Richard Lee Tabler v. Bobby Lumpkin, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Correctional Institutions Division Fifth Circuit 2024-02-01 Presumed Complete agency-duties death-penalty ineffective-assistance procedural-default state-habeas waiver-of-rights Whether an attorney's complete abdication of agency duties during a client's waiver of state habeas review can constitute cause to excuse a procedural…
23A664 Kenneth Eugene Smith v. Alabama Alabama 2024-01-19 Denied cruel-and-unusual death-penalty eighth-amendment execution-attempt iv-access lethal-injection Whether the Eighth Amendment prohibits a state from executing a condemned prisoner after multiple failed execution attempts involving repeated difficu…
23A663 Brandon De McCall v. Texas Texas 2024-01-18 Presumed Complete capital-case constitutional-review death-penalty due-process ineffective-assistance texas-criminal-procedure Whether the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals applied constitutionally adequate standards of ineffective assistance of counsel review in a capital case
23-6515 John Edward Hall v. Bobby Lumpkin, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Correctional Institutions Division Fifth Circuit 2024-01-18 Denied IFP burden-of-proof death-penalty due-process federal-habeas standard-of-review state-court Whether the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA) (28 U.S.C. 2254(d)) governing federal habeas review of state court decisions…
23A654 Isaiah Glenndell Tryon v. Christe Quick, Acting Warden, Oklahoma State Penitentiary Tenth Circuit 2024-01-16 Presumed Complete capital-case constitutional-error death-penalty eighth-amendment fair-trial sentencing-review Whether the Eighth Amendment prohibits the imposition of a death sentence that may involve constitutional error warranting further judicial review
23A627 Byron James Shepard v. Oklahoma Oklahoma 2024-01-08 Presumed Complete continuing-threat death-penalty eighth-amendment fair-trial fourteenth-amendment sentencing-hearing Whether the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments permit the imposition of a death sentence based on vague and overly broad continuing threat testimony tha…
23-6431 Mariano Madrid v. Aaron D. Ford, Attorney General of Nevada, et al. Ninth Circuit 2024-01-08 Denied Response WaivedIFP 8th-amendment civil-rights constitutional-rights cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty due-process federal-law judicial-review juvenile-justice legal-procedure Whether the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment prohibits the execution of a person who was a juvenile at the time of the o…
23-6415 Christian Cruz v. Florida Florida 2024-01-05 Denied IFP capital-case capital-punishment criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process equal-protection first-degree-murder pulley-v-harris relative-culpability sentencing supreme-court-review Whether the affirmance by the Supreme Court of the State of Florida of defendant's conviction for first degree murder and sentence of death was clearl…
23-6383 Guillermo Octavio Arbelaez v. Florida, et al. Florida 2023-12-28 Denied IFP atkins-v-virginia constitutional-law death-penalty eighth-amendment hall-v-florida intellectual-disability medical-standards retroactivity teague-rule teague-v-lane Whether Hall's holding that the 3-pronged test for assessing intellectual disability must be informed by prevailing medical practice and standards ann…
23A586 Anthony F. Wainwright v. Ricky D. Dixon, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections, et al. Eleventh Circuit 2023-12-27 Presumed Complete certiorari civil-procedure death-penalty eleventh-circuit habeas-corpus sixty-b Whether a federal habeas petitioner may seek relief under Civil Procedure Rule 60(b) to reopen a judgment dismissing his habeas corpus proceedings
23A583 Ellis Louis Mashburn, Jr. v. John Hamm, Commissioner, Alabama Department of Corrections Eleventh Circuit 2023-12-26 Presumed Complete capital-case constitutional-challenge death-penalty eleventh-circuit federal-review habeas-corpus Whether the Eleventh Circuit applied the correct legal standard in affirming the denial of a capital defendant's federal habeas petition challenging t…
23A572 Darrell Wayne Frederick v. Christe Quick, Warden Tenth Circuit 2023-12-21 Presumed Complete capital-case constitutional-error death-penalty eighth-amendment fair-sentencing habeas-corpus Whether the Eighth Amendment permits the imposition of a death sentence in a manner that potentially violates fundamental principles of fair and relia…
23A508 Robert Ybarra, Jr. v. William Gittere, Warden Ninth Circuit 2023-12-05 Presumed Complete atkins-claim death-penalty exhaustion-doctrine habeas-corpus intellectual-disability rule-60b Whether a death row inmate with an intellectual disability claim under Atkins v. Virginia can seek federal habeas relief through a Rule 60(b) motion a…
23-6046 Antonio Lebaron Melton v. Florida Florida 2023-11-17 Denied IFP age-of-culpability age-of-offender criminal-procedure cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment roper-v-simmons scientific-evidence Does the Eighth Amendment prohibit the death penalty for individuals whose crimes occurred at age 18 years and 25 days?
23A436 Guillermo Octavio Arbelaez v. Florida, et al. Florida 2023-11-15 Presumed Complete capital-punishment death-penalty eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment postconviction-relief sixth-amendment Whether the Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments prohibit the imposition of a death sentence that fails to comply with evolving standards of decen…
23-503 Casey A. McWhorter v. Alabama Alabama 2023-11-14 Denied alabama constitutional-rights death-penalty due-process equal-protection execution execution-notice notice statute statutory-compliance Does a state violate a prisoner's right to due process and equal protection of the laws when it complies with an execution related statute for some pr…
23A429 Casey A. McWhorter v. Alabama Alabama 2023-11-14 Denied constitutional-challenge death-penalty eighth-amendment execution-stay irreparable-harm supreme-court-alabama Whether the Eighth Amendment permits the execution of a death row inmate where there are substantial legal challenges to the method of execution or un…
23-5996 Lyndon Fitzgerald Pace v. Shawn Emmons, Warden Eleventh Circuit 2023-11-13 Denied Relisted (9)IFP aedpa capital-sentencing constitutional-error death-penalty due-process ineffective-assistance jury-argument jury-instructions prosecutorial-misconduct right-to-silence Whether the lower court was bound by Darden v. Wainwright under AEDPA
23A424 Kevin Keith v. Harold May, Warden Sixth Circuit 2023-11-13 Presumed Complete death-penalty federal-review habeas-corpus procedural-default sixth-circuit successive-petition Whether a state court's denial of a successive habeas corpus petition challenging a criminal conviction and death sentence comports with due process a…
23A410 Brent Ray Brewer v. Bobby Lumpkin, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Correctional Institutions Division Fifth Circuit 2023-11-07 Denied certificate-of-appealability constitutional-claim death-penalty expert-testimony future-dangerousness habeas-corpus Whether a state court dissent on a constitutional claim requires granting a certificate of appealability in a death penalty habeas proceeding
23A402 Casey A. McWhorter v. Alabama Alabama 2023-11-03 Denied constitutional-challenge death-penalty eighth-amendment execution-stay irreparable-harm supreme-court-alabama Whether the Eighth Amendment permits the execution of a death row inmate where there are substantial legal challenges to the method of execution or un…
23-5851 Hector Sanchez-Torres v. Florida Florida 2023-10-20 Denied IFP appellate-review criminal-sentencing culpability death-penalty eighth-amendment equal-protection mitigation-evidence Whether sentencing a 19-year-old codefendant to death violates the Eighth Amendment or Equal Protection Clause when his similarly culpable 17-year-old…
23-5823 Ramiro Felix Gonzales v. Texas Texas 2023-10-17 Denied IFP constitutional-claim death-penalty eighth-amendment expert-testimony fourteenth-amendment future-dangerousness recantation texas-code-criminal-procedure Whether a state court errs in refusing to entertain a cognizable Eighth or Fourteenth Amendment claim based on a state expert's recantation of trial t…
23-5740 Jedidiah Isaac Murphy v. Texas Texas 2023-10-10 Denied IFP catastrophic-event catastrophic-fire civil-rights death-penalty discovery drug-administration due-process execution execution-protocol inmate-rights procedural-due-process Is an inmate who is to be executed entitled to procedural due process to discover the effects of a catastrophic fire on the drugs to be used in his ex…
23A272 Jessie Dotson v. Tennessee Tennessee 2023-09-28 Presumed Complete capital-post-conviction death-penalty due-process expert-assistance fourteenth-amendment habeas-corpus Whether a state violates the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment by denying a capital post-conviction petitioner necessary expert assistanc…
23A276 Michael Duane Zack v. Ron Desantis, Governor of Florida, et al. Eleventh Circuit 2023-09-28 Denied clemency-proceedings death-penalty due-process executive-clemency fetal-alcohol-syndrome intellectual-disability Whether the Due Process Clause requires that death-sentenced individuals have meaningful access to executive clemency proceedings that afford an oppor…
23-5652 Brian J. Dorsey v. David Vandergriff, Warden Eighth Circuit 2023-09-26 Denied Relisted (2)IFP comity death-penalty due-process federal-counsel federal-jurisdiction habeas-corpus jurisdiction statutory-interpretation Whether the court below erroneously denied jurisdiction pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3599 based on a failure to follow fundamental rules of statutory inter…
23A262 Michael Duane Zack, III v. Florida Florida 2023-09-26 Denied atkins-exemption death-penalty eighth-amendment fetal-alcohol-syndrome intellectual-developmental-disability unanimous-jury-requirement Whether Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, recognized by the medical community as functionally identical to Intellectual Developmental Disability, categorically …
23-5630 Jack R. Sliney v. Florida Florida 2023-09-21 Denied Relisted (2)IFP 14th-amendment 8th-amendment age-of-defendant death-penalty death-sentence due-process eighth-amendment evidentiary-hearing fourteenth-amendment juvenile-offenders Whether Florida may impose a death sentence upon an individual under 21
23A254 Anthony Castillo Sanchez v. Christe Quick, Warden Tenth Circuit 2023-09-20 Denied access-to-files constitutional-violations death-penalty ineffective-assistance-of-counsel post-conviction-relief stay-of-execution Whether a death row inmate has a constitutional right to adequate access to his complete case files and effective assistance of counsel in the final s…
23A250 Lyndon Fitzgerald Pace v. Shawn Emmons, Warden Eleventh Circuit 2023-09-18 Presumed Complete AEDPA death-penalty habeas-corpus ineffective-assistance-of-counsel prosecutorial-misconduct Strickland-standard Whether the Eleventh Circuit properly applied the Antiterrorism Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 in affirming the denial of habeas corpus relief ba…
23-5592 Beau John Greene v. Arizona Arizona 2023-09-15 Denied IFP appellate-review arizona constitutional-bias death-penalty due-process judicial-bias judicial-recusal prosecutorial-conflict recusal williams-v-pennsylvania Did the appellate court violate Greene's due process rights by creating an impermissible risk of actual bias by allowing Justice Montgomery to decide …
23-5565 William E. Wells, III v. Florida Florida 2023-09-13 Denied IFP aggravating-factors apprendi-v-new-jersey capital-sentencing death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment mental-illness proportionality-review Whether Florida's capital sentencing scheme violates the Eighth Amendment
23A233 Jerry Smith v. Alabama Alabama 2023-09-12 Presumed Complete appellate-review capital-punishment constitutional-review death-penalty habeas-corpus penalty-phase Whether the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals properly applied constitutional standards in affirming a capital conviction and death sentence after mul…
23A178 Andrew P. Witt v. United States Armed Forces 2023-08-25 Presumed Complete capital-sentencing court-martial death-penalty ineffective-assistance-of-counsel prosecutorial-misconduct uniform-code-of-military-justice Whether prosecutorial misconduct during capital sentencing proceedings in a military court-martial, specifically arguments urging panel members to con…
23-5375 Isidro Miguel Delacruz v. Texas Texas 2023-08-17 Denied IFP 8th-amendment capital-sentencing constitutional-proportionality death-penalty due-process jury-instructions mitigation-evidence moral-culpability Can the Texas death penalty statute be reconciled with this Court's long-established mitigation jurisprudence?
23A134 William Glenn Rogers v. Tony Mays, Warden Sixth Circuit 2023-08-15 Presumed Complete capital-habeas death-penalty forensic-evidence ineffective-assistance-of-counsel prejudice-prong strickland-standard Whether a state court unreasonably applies Strickland v. Washington when it imposes a prejudice standard requiring a defendant to 'eliminate or comple…
23-5249 Ryan David Green v. United States Fifth Circuit 2023-08-01 Denied Response WaivedIFP 8th-amendment appellate-review certiorari-request civil-rights court-filing death-penalty due-process legal-petition mental-health solitary-confinement supreme-court Whether the conditions of confinement and treatment of a death-row inmate violate the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment
23-5244 Johnny Johnson v. David Vandergriff, Warden Eighth Circuit 2023-07-31 Denied IFP 28-usc-2254 capital-punishment competency-to-be-executed death-penalty delusional-beliefs habeas-corpus mental-competency mental-illness panetti-standard state-court-review Whether the state court's finding that the petitioner did not meet the Panetti threshold for incompetence to be executed was unreasonable under 28 U.S…
23A93 Johnny Johnson v. David Vandergriff, Warden Missouri 2023-07-31 Denied death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment habeas-corpus mental-illness panetti-competency Whether the Eighth Amendment and Due Process Clause prohibit executing a prisoner who, due to severe mental illness, lacks rational understanding of t…
23A24 Margaret A. Allen v. Ricky D. Dixon, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections, et al. Eleventh Circuit 2023-07-12 Presumed Complete certificate-of-appealability death-penalty federal-review habeas-corpus postconviction-relief state-conviction Whether the Eleventh Circuit applied the correct standard for granting a certificate of appealability in a federal habeas corpus proceeding challengin…
22-7764 Duane E. Owen v. Florida Florida 2023-06-12 Denied IFP competency competency-to-be-executed criminal-procedure death-penalty dementia due-process eighth-amendment insanity legal-insanity rational-understanding Whether the State of Florida's perfunctory evaluation of Owen's claim that he is legally insane and incompetent to be executed violated the Eighth Ame…
22-7700 Michael Tisius v. David Vandergriff, Warden Eighth Circuit 2023-06-04 Denied IFP death-penalty due-process habeas-corpus juror-disqualification jury-selection procedural-claim state-concealment statutory-disqualification statutory-violation voir-dire Whether a federal petition raising a Hicks v. Oklahoma, 447 U.S. 348 (1980) claim is 'second or successive' under 28 U.S.C. § 2244(b)(2)
22-7625 Michael Tisius v. David Vandergriff, Warden Missouri 2023-05-24 Denied IFP brain-development criminal-responsibility cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty eighth-amendment juvenile-offender juvenile-offenders mental-impairment Do executions of persons who committed their crimes when they were under the age of 21, or, at the least, the execution of a 19-year-old offender who …
22-1114 James Harris, Jr. v. Texas Texas 2023-05-15 Denied death-penalty eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment ineffective-assistance intellectual-disability medically-accepted-standards moore-v-texas strickland-v-washington Whether the TCCA contravened the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments, and this Court's precedents, when it evaluated petitioner's intellectual-disability…
22-7373 Victor M. Miranda-Guerrero v. California California 2023-04-26 Denied IFP aggravating-circumstances apprendi-v-new-jersey constitutional-rights criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process jury-determination jury-trial mitigating-circumstances sentencing sentencing-procedure Does the mandatory weighing of aggravating and mitigating circumstances under the California death penalty statute violate the Fifth, Sixth and Fourte…
22-7382 Tarus Vandell Sales v. Texas Texas 2023-04-26 Denied IFP actual-innocence constitutional-rights criminal-procedure death-penalty eighth-amendment enmund-v-florida fourteenth-amendment habeas-corpus law-of-parties sixth-amendment tison-v-arizona Whether Mr. Sales's death sentence violates the Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments
22-7337 Toforest Onesha Johnson v. Alabama Alabama 2023-04-20 Denied Amici (2)IFP brady-v-maryland brady-violation capital-murder death-penalty post-conviction-proceedings post-conviction-relief prosecutorial-misconduct reward-payment suppressed-evidence witness-testimony Did the State suppress evidence under Brady in the extraordinary circumstances of this death penalty case?
22-7233 Justin Heath Thomas v. California California 2023-04-06 Denied IFP apprendi-v-new-jersey capital-punishment constitutional-requirement criminal-sentencing death-penalty due-process jury-finding jury-trial reasonable-doubt ring-v-arizona statutory-maximum Whether California's death penalty scheme violates the constitutional requirement that any fact, other than a prior conviction, that serves to increas…
22-7236 Louis Gaskin v. Florida Florida 2023-04-06 Denied IFP constitutional-rights cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty eighth-amendment espinosa-v-florida fourteenth-amendment post-conviction-relief procedural-due-process procedural-rules sixth-amendment Whether Mr. Gaskin's execution violates the US Constitution due to a malfunctioned process
22-7184 Darrell Kelly Middlekauff v. Sue Washburn, Superintendent, Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution Oregon 2023-04-03 Denied Response WaivedIFP capital-sentencing death-penalty fourteenth-amendment ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel jury-trial jury-trial-waiver post-conviction-relief sixth-amendment Is trial counsel ineffective for failing to advise client of death penalty factors prior to waiving jury?
22-6960 James Jonathan Mitchell v. Florida Florida 2023-03-08 Denied Response WaivedIFP cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment habeas-corpus mental-competency Whether the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment prohibits the execution of a prisoner who is incompetent to understand the …
22-6955 Jaime Piero Cole v. Bobby Lumpkin, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Correctional Institutions Division Fifth Circuit 2023-03-07 Denied IFP caldwell-v-mississippi caldwell-violation certificate-of-appealability death-penalty fifth-circuit-ruling ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel jury-selection procedural-default voir-dire Was the Fifth Circuit's ruling that a court's comments during voir dire cannot give rise to a Caldwell violation erroneous and in tension with rulings…
22-6895 Heather Leavell-Keaton v. Alabama Alabama 2023-03-01 Denied Amici (1)Relisted (4)IFP capital-punishment capital-sentencing constitutional-rights death-penalty due-process evidence prison-behavior sentencing skipper-precedent skipper-v-south-carolina When a capital defendant's death sentence is vacated and the case is remanded for a new sentencing at which the death penalty is an available sentence…
22-6882 David Byron Russ v. Florida Florida 2023-02-28 Denied IFP capital-defendant capital-punishment criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process federal-courts habeas-corpus mental-competency review-claim state-court state-courts substantive-incompetency Whether a state court may refuse to review a capital defendant's claim of substantive incompetency?
22-6725 Michael A. Gordon v. Florida Florida 2023-02-08 Denied IFP capital-sentencing death-penalty eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment proportionality-review pulley-v-harris Has the Florida Supreme Court by abandoning comparative proportionality review in death penalty appeals while dismantling other safeguards, and in vie…
22-6713 Leonard Taylor v. David Vandergriff, Superintendent, Potosi Correctional Center Missouri 2023-02-06 Denied IFP actual-innocence death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment habeas-corpus scientific-evidence Whether a freestanding claim of actual innocence presents a cognizable constitutional claim under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments
22-6690 Steven Vernon Bixby v. Bryan P. Stirling, Commissioner, South Carolina Department of Corrections, et al. Fourth Circuit 2023-02-02 Denied IFP certificate-of-appealability death-penalty federal-courts federal-review habeas-corpus ineffective-assistance-counsel ineffective-assistance-of-counsel mental-illness Whether 28 U.S.C. § 2253(c)(1), F-R.A.P. 22(b) and this Court's decisions in Miller-El v. Cockrell, 537 U.S. 322 (2003), Barefoot v. Estelle, 463 U.S.…
22-6662 Wesley Ruiz v. Texas Texas 2023-01-31 Denied IFP constitutional-rights death-penalty due-process equal-protection juror-misconduct jury-selection racial-bias sixth-amendment Does Peria-Rodriguez apply to Petitioner's evidence that at least one juror relied on anti-Hispanic racial stereotypes and animus to find that he was …
22-6514 Santiago Pineda v. California California 2023-01-11 Denied IFP aggravating-circumstances constitutional-rights death-penalty jury-determination jury-fact-finding mitigating-circumstances reasonable-doubt sentencing-procedure Does the mandatory weighing of aggravating and mitigating circumstances under the California death penalty statute violate the Fifth, Sixth, and Fourt…
22-6445 Juan Villa Ramirez v. California California 2023-01-04 Denied IFP aggravating-circumstances constitutional-rights death-penalty fifth-amendment fourteenth-amendment jury-finding ring-v-arizona sixth-amendment Does California's death penalty scheme violate the requirement that every fact, other than a prior conviction, that serves to increase the statutory m…
22-6396 John Edward Sansing v. Ryan Thornell, Director, Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry, et al. Ninth Circuit 2022-12-27 Denied IFP appellate-review clearly-established-law criminal-procedure death-penalty eighth-amendment federal-habeas mitigating-evidence mitigating-factors sentencing-procedure victim-impact Did the appellate court err in affirming the denial of Sansing's petition on this meritorious claim?
22-580 John Q. Hamm, Commissioner, Alabama Department of Corrections v. Kenneth Eugene Smith Eleventh Circuit 2022-12-22 Denied Relisted (9) alternative-method comity death-penalty eighth-amendment feasibility finality method-of-execution nitrogen-hypoxia Whether an alternative method of execution is feasible and readily implemented merely because the executing State has statutorily authorized the metho…
22-6340 Ramon Simpson v. United States Eighth Circuit 2022-12-19 Denied Response WaivedIFP aiding-and-abetting criminal-liability custodial-interrogation death-penalty fifth-amendment jury-instructions kidnapping miranda-rights Does a conviction for aiding and abetting kidnapping resulting in death require proof of intent or advance knowledge of death?
22-6252 In Re James E. Hitchcock 2022-12-08 Denied IFP actual-innocence appeals constitutional-rights death-penalty due-process federal-courts federal-habeas post-conviction state-habeas writ-of-habeas-corpus Whether the federal courts' refusal to hear Mr. Hitchcock's meritorious federal claims amounted to a suspension of the writ
22-490 Lydell Chestnut, Deputy Warden v. Quincy J. Allen Fourth Circuit 2022-11-23 Denied Amici (1)Relisted (3) aedpa death-penalty death-sentence eating-disorder federal-habeas fourth-circuit-review mental-health mental-health-evidence schizophrenia sentencing-consideration state-post-conviction statutory-limitations Did the Fourth Circuit violate 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d) limitations and needlessly overturn a state death sentence on an insubstantial premise that Allen's…
22-6088 Tupoutoe Mataele v. California California 2022-11-17 Denied IFP 14th-amendment 5th-amendment 6th-amendment 8th-amendment aggravating-circumstances constitutional-requirements criminal-sentencing death-penalty jury-finding jury-trial reasonable-doubt Does California's death penalty scheme violate the requirement that every fact, other than a prior conviction, that serves to increase the statutory m…
22-6071 Manuel Bracamontes v. California California 2022-11-16 Denied IFP aggravating-circumstances constitutional-rights death-penalty due-process jury-determination jury-trial mitigating-circumstances reasonable-doubt Does the mandatory weighing of aggravating and mitigating circumstances under the California death penalty statute violate the Fifth, Sixth and Fourte…
22-6049 Kenneth Eugene Smith v. Alabama Alabama 2022-11-14 Denied IFP capital-sentencing cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment jury-determination jury-override state-federal-practice Does executing a condemned person contrary to a capital sentencing jury's determination that he should be sentenced to life imprisonment without the p…
22-5947 Kevin Johnson v. Missouri Missouri 2022-10-31 Denied IFP criminal-procedure criminal-trial death-penalty eighth-amendment juror-misconduct juvenile-justice mental-health mental-impairment racial-bias Whether the retrial and death sentence of a 19-year-old offender with mental impairments remedied the constitutional violation from the first trial wi…
22-5906 William Lee Thompson v. Florida Florida 2022-10-25 Rehearing Relisted (2)IFP death-penalty eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment intellectual-disability iq-test iq-testing retroactivity standard-error teague-rule Whether Hall v. Florida announced a new rule of constitutional law or was simply an application of Atkins v. Virginia
22-5872 In Re Benjamin Cole 2022-10-20 Denied IFP competency death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment execution-protocol fourteenth-amendment habeas-corpus mental-competency mental-illness original-jurisdiction Whether a prisoner who is incompetent to be executed can be executed under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments
22-5814 Christopher Allan Allred v. Washington Washington 2022-10-12 Denied Relisted (2)IFP constitutional-rights criminal-procedure critical-stage cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment execution mental-illness rational-understanding right-to-counsel sixth-amendment Whether the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment prohibits the execution of a prisoner who has a severe mental illness that …
22-5695 Christopher Eric Poore v. California California 2022-09-28 Denied IFP 5th-6th-14th-amendments aggravating-circumstances constitutional-rights criminal-sentencing death-penalty due-process jury-finding jury-trial reasonable-doubt sentencing Does California's death penalty scheme violate the requirement that every fact that increases the statutory maximum penalty must be found by a jury be…
22-5329 Chadrick Fulks v. T. J. Watson, Warden Seventh Circuit 2022-08-10 Denied Relisted (2)IFP 28-U.S.C-2241 28-U.S.C-2255 collateral-review death-penalty eighth-amendment habeas-corpus intellectual-disability section-2241 section-2255 Is an intellectually disabled and death-sentenced prisoner entitled to review under 28-U.S.C-2241 because diligent counsel could not have raised this …
22-5225 Craig Anthony Ross v. Ron Bloomfield, Warden Ninth Circuit 2022-07-29 Denied IFP aider-and-abettor aiding-and-abetting cabana-v-bullock death-penalty enmund-v-florida habeas-corpus intent-to-kill jury-instructions murder-first-degree ninth-circuit-review shared-intent Did the Ninth Circuit err under Title 28, United States Code, Section 2254(d)(1) in affirming that the jury instructions given by the California Supre…
22-5088 Norman Blake McKenzie v. Florida Florida 2022-07-13 Denied IFP aggravating-factors constitutional-rights death-penalty due-process fourteenth-amendment jury-trial reasonable-doubt sixth-amendment Whether the failure to require the jury, and the jury alone, to find that the aggravating factors outweighed the mitigating factors, beyond and to the…
22-5093 Jerry Leon Haliburton v. Florida Florida 2022-07-13 Denied IFP burden-of-proof capital-punishment clear-and-convincing-evidence death-penalty eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment intellectual-disability state-law Whether the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments permit States to impose on a capital defendant the burden of proving intellectual disability by clear and…
22-5073 Leroy McGill v. David Shinn, Director, Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry, et al. Ninth Circuit 2022-07-12 Denied IFP arizona constitutional-law criminal-punishment criminal-sentencing death-penalty ex-post-facto ninth-circuit retroactive-increase retroactive-law Did the Ninth Circuit err in holding that Arizona did not violate the Ex Post Facto Clause by sentencing Mr. McGill to death under the later-enacted s…
21-1601 Areli Carbajal Escobar v. Texas Texas 2022-06-28 GVR Amici (3)Relisted (7) capital-murder criminal-procedure death-penalty dna-evidence due-process false-evidence federal-court habeas-corpus state-court Did the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals err in holding that the prosecution's reliance on admittedly false DNA evidence to secure petitioner's convict…
21-8177 Marlin Larice Joseph v. Florida Florida 2022-06-17 Denied IFP constitutional-safeguards cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment fourth-amendment geographic-arbitrariness sixth-amendment standards-of-decency Does the death penalty violate the Eighth Amendment?
21-8153 Michael Tisius v. Paul Blair, Warden Eighth Circuit 2022-06-16 Denied IFP 8th-circuit certificate-of-appealability conflict-of-interest death-penalty eighth-circuit habeas-corpus ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel statutory-interpretation Was the denial of a COA proper?
21-1558 John Curtis Dewberry v. Bobby Lumpkin, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Correctional Institutions Divisions Fifth Circuit 2022-06-14 Denied aedpa certificate-of-appealability death-penalty district-court evidentiary-hearing fifth-circuit ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel minor-sentencing Whether the United States District Court For The Eastern District Of Texas erred in denying Petitioner Dewberry a Certificate of Appealability
21-8083 In Re Frank Jarvis Atwood 2022-06-07 Denied IFP capital-murder death-penalty eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment prior-conviction state-ground statutory-elements Whether the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments prohibit the death penalty for a murder that does not fall within the narrow class of murders designated …
21-1512 San Bernardino County District Attorney, et al. v. Kevin Cooper, et al. Ninth Circuit 2022-06-02 Denied civil-procedure civil-rights death-penalty due-process federal-courts governor-powers judicial-intervention ninth-circuit standing state-law Whether the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit improperly denied Petitioners intervention in death-penalty-litigation
21-8042 Etheria Verdell Jackson v. Florida Florida 2022-06-02 Denied IFP aggravating-factors constitutional-rights death-penalty hurst-v-florida jury-recommendation jury-trial sixth-amendment sixth-amendment-right Whether a jury's advisory recommendation of death which does not identify the specific aggravators found, nor whether the aggravators were found unani…
21-7809 Urshawn Eric Miller v. Tennessee Tennessee 2022-05-09 Denied IFP arbitrary-and-capricious arbitrary-capricious capital-punishment comparative-proportionality-review death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment proportionality-review sentencing-review Whether Tennessee's comparative proportionality review satisfies the Eighth Amendment
21-7646 Jason Delacerda v. Texas Texas 2022-04-19 Denied IFP appellate-review criminal-conviction criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process future-dangerousness ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel psychiatric-evidence psychiatric-testimony sufficiency-of-evidence Did the appellate court err in failing to find that the evidence was insufficient to support the conviction and death sentence?
21-1268 Joe Clarence Smith, Jr. v. David Shinn, Director, Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry, et al. Ninth Circuit 2022-03-18 Denied 14th-amendment 42-usc-1983 8th-amendment civil-rights cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty death-row eighth-amendment habeas-relief method-of-execution section-1983 Whether Mr. Smith's method-of-execution challenge is cognizable under 42 U.S.C. § 1983
21-7381 Jessie D. Hoffman, Jr. v. Louisiana Louisiana 2022-03-16 Denied Amici (1)IFP capital-case criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process juror-misconduct jury-selection no-impeachment-rule peña-rodriguez racial-bias Did the Louisiana Supreme Court err in failing to consider clear evidence of juror racial bias under Peña-Rodriguez in the extraordinary circumstances…
21-7388 Amos Joseph Wells, III v. Texas Texas 2022-03-16 Denied IFP constitutional-violation death-penalty due-process fact-finding ineffective-assistance post-conviction post-conviction-relief racial-animus sixth-amendment When a state provides a mandatory procedure for fact-finding in post-conviction death penalty cases where a constitutional violation is pleaded, does …
21-7335 Charles Don Flores v. Texas Texas 2022-03-10 Denied IFP actual-innocence brady-violation death-penalty due-process habeas habeas-corpus state-procedural-law Is the right to due process violated when a death-sentenced individual is barred from developing substantial habeas claims by the arbitrary applicatio…
21-7300 LeMaricus Davidson v. Tennessee Tennessee 2022-03-08 Denied IFP actual-prejudice death-penalty fair-trial fundamental-fairness ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel jury-selection post-conviction prejudice-presumption structural-error Should prejudice in an ineffective-assistance-of-counsel case be presumed where the deficient performance of counsel resulted in a structural-error co…
21-7296 Frank C. Gonzalez v. California California 2022-03-07 Denied IFP 5th-amendment 6th-amendment aggravating-circumstances constitutional-rights death-penalty due-process fifth-amendment jury jury-finding sixth-amendment Does California's death penalty scheme violate the requirement that every fact, other than a prior conviction, that serves to increase the statutory m…
21-7039 Andrew Sasser v. Dexter Payne, Director, Arkansas Division of Correction Eighth Circuit 2022-02-01 Denied Relisted (3)IFP 28-usc-2244 adaptive-skills circuit-split death-penalty eighth-amendment habeas-corpus intellectual-disability remand second-or-successive second-or-successive-application Whether amending a petition for writ of habeas corpus after a remand by an appellate court makes it a second-or-successive application under 28 U.S.C.…
21-1021 Dexter Payne, Director, Arkansas Division of Correction v. Alvin Bernal Jackson Eighth Circuit 2022-01-20 Denied Relisted (4) adaptive-skills constitutional-rights criminal-sentencing cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty due-process evidence intellectual-disability judicial-interpretation Whether courts may consider adaptive strengths in deciding whether a defendant is intellectually disabled and thus ineligible for the death penalty
21-6818 Arron Lawson v. Ohio Ohio 2022-01-11 Denied IFP 5th-amendment 8th-amendment capital-offenses competency competency-evaluation constitutional-rights criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment fifth-amendment state-court-proceedings Does a state Court proceeding resulting in a death sentence violate the Fifth and Eighth Amendments when the court fails to ensure the defendant's com…
21-6669 Robert Walter Scully v. California California 2021-12-21 Denied IFP aggravating-circumstances beyond-reasonable-doubt constitutional-rights death-penalty due-process jury-determination jury-trial mitigating-circumstances statutory-maximum Does the mandatory weighing of aggravating and mitigating circumstances under the California death penalty statute—a factfinding determination that se…
21-6636 Leroy Fears v. Pennsylvania Pennsylvania 2021-12-16 Denied IFP appellate-procedure constitutional-review death-penalty due-process homophobia judicial-impartiality judicial-misconduct partiality racism religious-bigotry supreme-court Was Due Process Violated when A State Supreme Court Justice Showed Partiality
21-6590 Terry Lynn King v. Tennessee Tennessee 2021-12-14 Denied IFP 8th-amendment categorical-approach constitutional-vagueness death-penalty death-sentence due-process elements-based-approach johnson-precedent prior-conviction prior-violent-felony sentencing-aggravator vagueness Is the 'prior violent felony conviction' aggravating factor in Tennessee's death penalty statutes unconstitutional under Johnson v. United States, 135…
21-871 Louisiana v. David H. Brown Louisiana 2021-12-13 Denied capital-case death-penalty faretta-right faretta-v-california mccoy-v-louisiana self-representation structural-error trial-counsel Whether the Louisiana Supreme Court erred in vacating the three death sentences
21-6550 Wade Lay v. Aboutanaa El Habti, Warden, et al. Tenth Circuit 2021-12-07 Denied IFP 8th-amendment appellate-procedure civil-liberties civil-rights constitutional-rights criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process execution judicial-discretion standing Whether the execution protocol used by the State of Oklahoma violates the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment
21-6428 Danny Lee Hill v. Tim Shoop, Warden Sixth Circuit 2021-11-24 Denied Amici (1)Relisted (18)IFP atkins-claim atkins-v-virginia death-penalty diagnoses federal-review habeas-corpus historical-evidence intellectual-disability miscarriage-of-justice present-functioning state-court-review Whether a state court unreasonably applies Atkins v. Virginia when it focuses on the individual's 'present functioning' in a prison environment, disco…
21-6387 Richard Barry Randolph v. Florida Florida 2021-11-23 Denied IFP apprendi-v-new-jersey capital-sentencing constitutional-interpretation criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment retroactive-law statutory-construction Whether the Florida Supreme Court's decision in Hurst v. State constitutes statutory construction of substantive law, and if so, whether the Due Proce…
21-6271 Austin Myers v. Ohio Ohio 2021-11-15 Denied IFP access-to-courts criminal-procedure death-penalty discovery due-process eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment ineffective-assistance-of-counsel postconviction postconviction-relief summary-dismissal Whether the Ohio state courts deny a death-sentenced postconviction petitioner's rights to due process, access to the Ohio courts, and an adequate cor…
21-6198 Billy Dean Smith v. Lynnie Einerson, Acting Superintendent, Spring Creek Correctional Center Ninth Circuit 2021-11-08 Denied Response WaivedIFP civil-rights constitutional-protections death-penalty disadvantaged-groups due-process federal-habeas-corpus federal-review prisoner-rights standing state-prisoners state-procedure Can the US Supreme Court find that when litigating a state by way of a federal habeas corpus, the matter of what race, color or creed a state prisoner…
21-6083 James Osgood v. Alabama Alabama 2021-10-26 Denied IFP capital-punishment credibility-determinations death-penalty juror-challenge jury-selection sentencing-determination sixth-amendment trial-court witherspoon-v-illinois Can a reviewing court, consistent with the Sixth Amendment, uphold a challenge for cause in a capital case on the basis of a potential juror's persona…
21-6001 Terence Tramaine Andrus v. Texas Texas 2021-10-19 Denied Amici (8)Relisted (17)IFP capital-case criminal-procedure death-penalty effective-assistance-of-counsel habeas-corpus ineffective-assistance sixth-amendment stare-decisis strickland-v-washington vertical-stare-decisis Whether the Texas court rejected this Court's conclusions in Andrus v. Texas and disregarded the Court's express guidance for conducting a prejudice a…
21-466 Eric DeWayne Cathey v. Texas Texas 2021-09-28 Denied Amici (1) capital-punishment death-penalty eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment intellectual-disability medical-criteria medical-standards precedent supreme-court-precedent Whether the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals contravened the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments and this Court's precedents in rejecting a trial court's …
21-5800 Gerald Ross Pizzuto, Jr. v. Idaho Idaho 2021-09-28 Denied IFP atkins-standard Atkins-v-Virginia clinical-assessment clinical-standards conflict-between-lower-courts constitutional-interpretation criminal-sentencing death-penalty intellectual-disability national-concern sub-average-intellectual-functioning Did Atkins v. Virginia require the use of clinical standards for the determination of sub-average intellectual functioning?
21-5525 Thomas Richardson v. Nevada Nevada 2021-08-31 Denied IFP aggravating-circumstance court-martial death-penalty due-process ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel post-conviction-relief rompilla-standard rompilla-v-beard Whether the Nevada Supreme Court misapplied the law by failing to examine or analyze the failure of counsel to investigate readily available informati…
21-5515 Kenneth Hairston v. Pennsylvania Pennsylvania 2021-08-30 Denied IFP aggravating-factor criminal-procedure death-penalty felony-convictions ineffective-assistance prosecutorial-misconduct victim-impact victim-impact-testimony Did trial counsel provide ineffective assistance by failing to object to the prosecutor's improper argument regarding victim impact testimony used to …
21-5491 Alton Alexander Nolen v. Oklahoma Oklahoma 2021-08-26 Denied IFP capital-punishment constitutional-rights criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment intellectual-disability mental-retardation Whether Oklahoma's procedure for litigating the issue of intellectual disability comports with the Eighth Amendment
21-5375 Douglas Coley v. Ohio Ohio 2021-08-13 Denied IFP collateral-review counsel-abandonment death-penalty death-row-rights due-process ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel post-conviction-review right-to-counsel trial-court-duty trial-court-management Can a state provide a rational basis to deny a death row prisoner his right to the state's first collateral, conviction, review process, where the pri…
21-5356 Joel Dale Wright v. Florida Florida 2021-08-12 Denied IFP death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment procedural-law retroactivity statutory-construction substantive-law Whether the Florida Supreme Court's statutory construction in Hurst v. State constitutes substantive law, and if so, whether the Due Process Clause of…
21-5226 Faryion Edward Wardrip v. Bobby Lumpkin, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Correctional Institutions Division Fifth Circuit 2021-07-27 Denied IFP criminal-procedure death-penalty habeas-corpus ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel judicial-review strickland-standard strickland-v-washington unreasonable-factual-determinations Whether Faryion Wardrip's trial counsel was ineffective under Strickland v. Washington
21-5108 Victor Willis v. Illinois Illinois 2021-07-14 Denied IFP 8th-amendment civil-rights constitutional-law criminal-procedure cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment intellectual-disability juvenile-sentencing life-without-parole Whether the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment prohibits the execution of a prisoner who has been determined to be intelle…
21-5094 Stanley Jalowiec v. Ohio Ohio 2021-07-13 Denied IFP caldwell-v-mississippi capital-case capital-punishment constitutional-error death-penalty hurst-v-florida jury-responsibility jury-selection sentencing-responsibility trial-procedure Is telling the jury that their decision is only a mere recommendation unconstitutional under Hurst v. Florida?
21-5050 Kristopher Love v. Texas Texas 2021-07-09 Denied Relisted (12)IFP court-of-criminal-appeals death-penalty due-process fair-trial fourteenth-amendment jury-selection racial-bias sixth-amendment Whether Texas' Court of Criminal Appeals has decided an important federal question concerning a racially biased juror being allowed on a capital death…
21-5012 Brian David Johnsen v. California California 2021-07-06 Denied IFP death-penalty due-process jury reasonable-doubt ring-v-arizona sentencing Does California's death penalty scheme violate the requirement that every fact, other than a prior conviction, that serves to increase the statutory m…
20-8037 Quintin Phillippe Jones v. Texas Texas 2021-05-17 Denied IFP atkins-v-virginia constitutional-law death-penalty due-process expert-testimony fourteenth-amendment habeas-corpus intellectual-disability retroactive-rule retroactivity Does Moore v. Texas establish a new retroactive rule of constitutional law?
20-8043 Carl Wayne Buntion v. Bobby Lumpkin, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Correctional Institutions Division Fifth Circuit 2021-05-17 Denied IFP arbitrary capital-punishment cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty deterrence eighth-amendment retribution Whether carrying out the execution of a man who has spent thirty years under a sentence of death would violate the Eighth Amendment's prohibition agai…
20-8048 James Terry Colley, Jr. v. Florida Florida 2021-05-17 Denied IFP 14th-amendment 8th-amendment aggravating-factor constitutional-challenge cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty due-process first-degree-murder florida-supreme-court sentencing-scheme Whether Florida's death penalty scheme is unconstitutional as applied because the Florida Supreme Court's expansion of the 'especially heinous, atroci…
20-8038 Shawn Grate v. Ohio Ohio 2021-05-14 Denied Relisted (2)IFP capital-punishment criminal-defendant criminal-defense death-penalty due-process effective-assistance-of-counsel ineffective-assistance-of-counsel insanity-defense mental-health mitigation Whether a criminal defendant is deprived of the constitutional right to effective assistance of counsel and due process if trial counsel withdraws an …
20-1568 Teresa Miller v. United States Fourth Circuit 2021-05-12 Denied Response Waived appellate-review constitutional-rights criminal-procedure death-penalty death-sentence due-process judicial-procedure judicial-review Whether the court's decision to order the defendant to a death sentence was necessary to prevent review of their conduct or actions, and whether a tra…
20-7988 Robert Allen Poyson v. Arizona Arizona 2021-05-11 Denied IFP aggravating-factors capital-sentencing causal-nexus constitutional-review death-penalty eighth-amendment individualized-sentencing mitigation-evidence non-statutory-mitigation Is the individualized capital sentencing requirement guaranteed by the Eighth Amendment violated when a State predetermines that in all cases only min…
20-7930 Oscar Smith v. Tennessee Tennessee 2021-05-05 Denied IFP death-penalty death-sentence due-process fair-trial fundamental-rights juror-bias juror-misconduct procedural-rules state-court-proceedings Whether a state court violates the federal due process rights of a death-sentenced prisoner who has asserted a colorable claim of juror bias and/or mi…
20-7865 Terry Lee Froman v. Ohio Ohio 2021-04-27 Denied IFP capital-punishment constitutional-duty death-penalty fair-trial jury-selection racial-bias structural-error voir-dire Does trial counsel have an obligation to conduct a meaningful and comprehensive voir dire as it relates to racial bias, explicit or implicit, of juror…
20-7805 Melvin Knight v. Pennsylvania Pennsylvania 2021-04-20 Denied Relisted (13)IFP brumfield-v-cain clinical-standards death-penalty documentation-requirement intellectual-disability iq-score moore-v-texas supreme-court-precedent Whether a State may require a defendant to present an IQ score of 75 or below that was 'documented prior to age 18' to have his intellectual disabilit…
20-7732 Tina LaSonya Brown v. Florida Florida 2021-04-13 Denied IFP aggravating-factors appellate-review capital-sentencing constitutional-procedure death-penalty due-process ex-post-facto jury-finding jury-findings sixth-amendment Whether the Florida Supreme Court's procedure for imposing a death sentence violates the Sixth, Eighth, or Fourteenth Amendments
20-7665 Donald David Dillbeck v. Florida Florida 2021-04-06 Denied IFP capital-punishment death-penalty due-process evolving-standards habeas-corpus medical-evidence mental-health post-conviction post-conviction-relief scientific-advancements scientific-evidence What constitutes diligence in raising newly discovered medical and/or mental health evidence and diagnoses?
20-7615 Duane Eugene Owen v. Florida Florida 2021-03-31 Denied IFP capital-case constitutional-claims criminal-procedure death-penalty equal-protection florida-supreme-court fourteenth-amendment habeas-corpus penalty-phase procedural-history retroactivity supreme-court-review Whether Petitioner was denied equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution when the Florida Supreme Court decline…
20-7592 Alan Eugene Miller v. Jefferson S. Dunn, Commissioner, Alabama Department of Corrections Eleventh Circuit 2021-03-29 Denied IFP aggravating-factor aggravating-factors caldwell-v-mississippi capital-sentencing death-penalty eighth-amendment jury-instructions jury-verdict sixth-amendment Whether the Eighth Amendment allows a jury's non-unanimous advisory verdict to serve as the predicate for a death sentence, when the jurors were told …
20-7462 Anthony Kirkland v. Ohio Ohio 2021-03-17 Denied IFP capital-defendant death-penalty fair-trial fifth-amendment fourteenth-amendment impartial-jury ineffective-assistance sixth-amendment Are a capital defendant's rights to a fair trial by an impartial jury denied when a juror believes the death penalty should be used in all cases of mu…
20-7479 Benjamin Velayo v. Cheryl Fox, et al. Tenth Circuit 2021-03-17 Denied IFP cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty eighth-amendment mental-illness rational-understanding reasons-for-execution Whether the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment prohibits the execution of a prisoner who has a severe mental illness that …
20-7373 Christopher Mathew Payne v. Arizona Arizona 2021-03-09 Denied IFP resulting in prejudice capital-punishment death-penalty due-process ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel jury-instructions parole-ineligibility simmons-precedent Whether a death sentence may be carried out when defense counsel unreasonably fails to inform the jury of parole ineligibility under Simmons
20-7347 Warren Tarver v. Mark S. Inch, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections Florida 2021-03-05 Denied Response WaivedIFP capital-felony constitutional-standards death-penalty due-process federalism state-law state-laws unconstitutional Whether it is a violation of due process to detain a person under a statute that classifies an offense as a capital felony where the death penalty is …
20-7228 Leroy Pooler v. Florida Florida 2021-02-25 Denied IFP criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment hurst-v-state state-v-poole statutory-construction substantive-law Does the Florida Supreme Court's statutory construction in Hurst v. State constitute substantive law and, if so, does the Due Process Clause of the Fo…
20-7251 Eric Lyle Williams v. Texas Texas 2021-02-25 Denied Amici (1)IFP criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process fair-trial prosecutor-bias prosecutorial-misconduct recusal structural-error Does the participation of a conflicted and recused prosecutor in a death penalty trial violate due process?
20-7238 Alberto Julio Garcia v. Mississippi Mississippi 2021-02-24 Denied IFP competency cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty due-process dusky-standard eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment mental-competency pretrial-proceedings restorative-treatment Does Mississippi's 'presumption of competency' violate the Fourteenth Amendment, and/or the Eighth Amendment, when that presumption is expanded to all…
20-7192 Phillip Vance Smith, II v. Josh Stein, et al. Fourth Circuit 2021-02-22 Denied Response WaivedIFP civil-rights constitutional-review criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process fourth-circuit habeas-corpus ineffective-assistance-of-counsel retroactivity sixth-amendment teague-doctrine Whether the rule announced in Melony v. Louisiana, 138 U.S. 1500 (2018) applies retroactively to cases on collateral review
20-1136 Peter Capote v. Alabama Alabama 2021-02-19 Denied 6th-amendment aggravating-circumstances capital-punishment death-penalty judicial-fact-finding judicial-weighing jury-trial mitigating-circumstances sentencing-scheme sixth-amendment Whether the Alabama death penalty sentencing scheme violates a defendant's Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial
20-1125 Antonio Devoe Jones v. Alabama Alabama 2021-02-17 Denied 6th-amendment alabama-law constitutional-rights criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process ineffective-assistance mitigation-evidence mitigation-investigation Was Petitioner deprived of his constitutional right to effective counsel?
20-6915 Scott Lee Peterson v. California California 2021-01-22 Denied Response WaivedIFP capital-murder death-penalty eighth-amendment jury-selection sixth-amendment voir-dire witherspoon-challenge witherspoon-v-illinois Whether the Eighth Amendment permits a verdict of guilt returned by a jury from which all prospective jurors opposed to the death penalty have been im…
20-6875 Jason Pierce v. Nathan Brooks, Warden Eleventh Circuit 2021-01-14 Denied Response WaivedIFP certificate-of-appealability court-appointed-counsel criminal-procedure death-penalty faretta-protocol habeas-corpus ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel procedural-defect structural-defect Did the United States Court of Appeals err in failing to issue a Certificate of Appealability from the denial of the Petition for writ of habeas corpu…
20-6846 Tyrone Campbell v. Florida Florida 2021-01-12 Denied IFP cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment standing supreme-court Whether the arbitrariness of a death sentence under Bucklew v. Precythe, 139 S. Ct. 1112 (2019), entitles the petitioner to relief
20-6769 Juan David Rodriguez v. Mark S. Inch, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections Eleventh Circuit 2021-01-05 Denied IFP atkins-standard atkins-v-virginia death-penalty eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment intellectual-disability medical-consensus scientific-authority Whether the disregard of medical and scientific consensus and well-established clinical authority when evaluating a claim of intellectual disability c…
20-6709 Lance Hundley v. Ohio Ohio 2020-12-28 Denied IFP capital-defendant capital-sentencing constitutional-review death-penalty due-process fourteenth-amendment jury-determination mental-health self-representation sixth-amendment Do the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments forbid a trial court from allowing a capital defendant with questionable mental health to represent himself?
20-6658 Michael Brent Brown v. Bobby Lumpkin, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Correctional Institutions Division Fifth Circuit 2020-12-18 Denied IFP death-penalty district-court due-process federal-jurisdiction federal-petition fifth-circuit habeas-corpus ineffective-assistance-of-counsel prisoner-rights procedural-grounds statute-of-limitations Whether the courts erred in denying relief and review on procedural grounds
20-6633 Eduardo David Vargas v. California California 2020-12-15 Denied IFP aggravating-circumstances constitutional-rights criminal-sentencing death-penalty due-process fifth-amendment jury-finding jury-trial reasonable-doubt sixth-amendment Does California's death penalty scheme violate the requirement under the Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendments that every fact, other than a prior c…
20-808 Johnny Duane Miles v. California California 2020-12-15 Denied Amici (1) batson-challenge batson-claim comparative-juror-analysis death-penalty jury-selection peremptory-challenges pretext prosecutorial-discretion racial-discrimination Whether a court reviewing a Batson claim may consider reasons distinguishing stricken jurors from those accepted by the prosecutor when the prosecutor…
20-6570 Brandon Bernard v. United States Fifth Circuit 2020-12-08 Denied IFP brady-disclosure brady-violation death-penalty gang-affiliation government-misconduct napue-claim napue-violation procedural-default section-2255 successive-habeas successive-petition Where government action prevented Petitioner from bringing his claims under Brady and Napue in his initial § 2255 motion, should a second-in-time moti…
20-6500 Alfred Bourgeois v. T. J. Watson, Warden, et al. Seventh Circuit 2020-12-03 Denied Amici (1)IFP death-penalty diagnostic-standards due-process federal-death-penalty-act federal-statute habeas-corpus intellectual-disability judicial-review Does the Federal Death Penalty Act prohibit the execution of a federal prisoner who is intellectually disabled?
20-6518 Blaine Milam v. Texas Texas 2020-12-03 Denied IFP briseno-framework collateral-review court-of-criminal-appeals death-penalty due-process intellectual-disability moore-v-texas retroactive-rule retroactivity substantive-law Did Moore v. Texas announce a new substantive rule that is retroactive to cases on collateral review?
20-6386 James Ray Earl Walker v. Nevada Nevada 2020-11-19 Denied IFP batson-framework death-penalty juror-selection jury-selection peremptory-strike race-discrimination racial-discrimination state-courts voir-dire Did the Nevada courts err in failing to observe and follow the three step Batson framework and failing to recognize the prosecutor's blatant discrimin…
20-697 Orlando Cordia Hall v. T. J. Watson, Warden Seventh Circuit 2020-11-19 Denied Amici (1) 28-usc-2241 28-usc-2255 batson-claim batson-v-kentucky constitutional-error death-penalty federal-procedure habeas-corpus racial-discrimination Whether the savings clause of 28 U.S.C. § 2255(e) permits use of 28 U.S.C. § 2241 to present new evidence of racial discrimination in a federal death …
20-6307 Gary Lawrence v. Florida Florida 2020-11-13 Denied Relisted (2)IFP atkins-v-virginia death-penalty hall-v-florida intellectual-disability montgomery-v-louisiana retroactive-application retroactivity substantive-rule supreme-court-precedent Whether Hall v. Florida applies retroactively on collateral review
20-6218 Terance Valentine v. Florida Florida 2020-11-05 Denied IFP constitutional-waiver criminal-procedure death-penalty eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment hurst-v-florida jury-fact-finding jury-unanimity ring-v-arizona Whether a waiver to an advisory, non-unanimous jury verdict lacking in any fact finding requirement under a death penalty scheme later determined to b…
20-6202 Jimmy Don Wooten v. Arkansas Arkansas 2020-11-03 Denied Response WaivedIFP 18-usc-3005 capital-murder criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process error-coram-nobis statutory-interpretation Did 18 U.S.C.A. 3005 apply to Petitioner in 1994 when he was charged with Capital Murder and the Death Penalty was sought?
20-507 Tony Mays, Warden v. Anthony Darrell Dugard Hines Sixth Circuit 2020-10-16 Judgment Issued Relisted (4) antiterrorism-act antiterrorism-and-effective-death-penalty-act capital-trial death-penalty habeas-corpus ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel sixth-circuit sixth-circuit-review strickland-standard strickland-v-washington Whether the Sixth Circuit's decision conflicts with the Court's precedents governing claims of ineffective assistance of counsel under the Antiterrori…
20-6043 Robin Lee Archer v. Florida Florida 2020-10-16 Denied IFP criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment jury-role retroactivity statutory-construction substantive-criminal-law substantive-law Whether the Florida Supreme Court's statutory construction in Hurst v. State constitutes substantive law
20-5954 Meryl S. McDonald v. Florida Florida 2020-10-08 Denied IFP criminal-procedure death-penalty death-sentence due-process equal-protection fourteenth-amendment post-conviction postconviction-counsel pro-se-filing right-to-counsel Whether rule 3.851(b)(6)&(i) of the Florida Rules of Criminal Procedure is unconstitutional and violates the Equal Protection and Due Process clauses …
20-5923 Charles Don Flores v. Texas Texas 2020-10-06 Denied Amici (2)IFP constitutional-fairness death-penalty due-process eyewitness-identification fair-trial hypnosis investigative-hypnosis law-enforcement-procedure police-investigation Is the Constitution's guarantee of a fundamentally fair trial compromised when a conviction hinges on an in-court eyewitness identification obtained a…
20-5874 Jerry Lard v. Arkansas Arkansas 2020-10-01 Denied IFP categorical-prohibition death-penalty eighth-amendment execution intellectual-disability ripeness waiver Whether a death-sentenced inmate is permitted to waive a viable claim for an Eighth Amendment categorical probation against the execution of persons w…
20-5766 Christopher Andre Vialva v. United States Fifth Circuit 2020-09-21 Denied IFP attorney-general-power death-penalty death-sentence execution-procedures federal-courts federal-death-penalty-act federal-law judicial-precedent state-law state-law-implementation What law governs a federal court's implementation of a death sentence?
20-5734 Alfred Flores, III v. California California 2020-09-17 Denied IFP capital-punishment constitutional-requirements criminal-procedure criminal-sentencing death-penalty due-process jury-findings jury-trial reasonable-doubt ring-v-arizona sentencing whether-california's-death-penalty-scheme-violates-the-constitutional-requirement-that-any-fact-that-increases-the-penalty-for-a-crime-must-be-found-b…
20-5562 Jeffrey Hessler v. Nebraska Nebraska 2020-09-03 Denied IFP aggravating-circumstances constitutional-amendments death-penalty eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment hurst-v-florida judicial-panel jury-determination post-conviction-relief ring-v-arizona sixth-amendment Whether the Sixth, Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments, as well as Ring and Hurst, are violated when eligibility for the death penalty is asserted to be …
20-5563 Richard Bays v. Tim Shoop, Warden Sixth Circuit 2020-09-02 Denied IFP aedpa atkins-claim atkins-v-virginia certificate-of-appealability death-penalty habeas-corpus hall-v-florida ineffective-assistance-of-counsel intellectual-disability moore-v-texas Whether Petitioner was improperly denied the right to amend his federal habeas corpus petition to include a claim that he is intellectually disabled
20-250 Mark Anthony Poole v. Florida Florida 2020-09-01 Denied aggravating-circumstances capital-sentencing death-penalty eighth-amendment hurst-precedent hurst-v-florida jury-recommendation mitigating-circumstances sixth-amendment Whether the Florida Supreme Court erred in reinstating a capital sentence issued under Florida's pre-2016 scheme
20-5464 Dwayne Banks v. United States Fourth Circuit 2020-08-31 Denied Response WaivedIFP civil-procedure civil-rights death-penalty due-process habeas standing Whether the District Court abused its discretion by allowing the Petitioner's Motion/Response to be stricken and denying the Petitioner's request for …
20-5517 Scotty Ray Gardner v. Arkansas Arkansas 2020-08-27 Denied IFP access-to-courts aggravating-circumstance aggravating-circumstances appellate-review capital-punishment capital-sentencing death-penalty due-process jury-instructions Whether due process requires that every statutory element of an aggravating circumstance be proven beyond a reasonable doubt
20-5492 Ray Lamar Johnston v. Mark S. Inch, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections, et al. Eleventh Circuit 2020-08-25 Denied IFP appellate-review caldwell-v-mississippi capital-punishment constitutional-claims death-penalty due-process habeas-corpus hurst-v-florida ineffective-assistance jury-instructions procedural-default Whether the Eleventh Circuit should have remanded or expanded the appeal
20-5398 Lezmond Charles Mitchell v. United States Ninth Circuit 2020-08-18 Denied IFP civil-rights death-penalty due-process extraordinary-circumstance juror-interviews jury-selection pena-rodriguez racial-bias rule-60b Whether district courts can validly bar death-sentenced inmates from interviewing trial jurors post-verdict concerning racial bias
20-5362 David Wayne Allen v. Betty Mitchell, Warden Sixth Circuit 2020-08-14 Denied IFP biased-juror death-penalty due-process fourteenth-amendment habeas-corpus juror-bias ohio-supreme-court sixth-amendment supreme-court-precedent Did the trial court's refusal to dismiss a biased juror from a Death Penalty Panel, deprive Petitioner Allen of protection under the Sixth and Fourtee…
20-5263 Patrick W. Schroeder v. Nebraska Nebraska 2020-08-05 Denied IFP capital-punishment capital-sentencing death-penalty eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment mitigation mitigation-evidence pro-se pro-se-representation proportionality sentencing Whether the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments are violated when a capital sentencing panel issues a death sentence despite the defendant's refusal to i…
20-5243 Warren K. Henness v. Mike DeWine, et al. Sixth Circuit 2020-08-03 Denied Amici (3)IFP alternative-methods cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty eighth-amendment lethal-injection medical-aid-in-dying Whether the Eighth Amendment categorically permits the degree of pain caused by hanging
20-5119 Wayne Powell v. Ohio Ohio 2020-07-21 Denied IFP death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment expert-funding hurst-v-florida indigent-defendant ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel postconviction-relief sixth-amendment Does Ohio's postconviction process allow indigent defendants a substantive opportunity to develop claims that comport with Ohio's collateral review re…
19-8927 Alfred Brian Mitchell v. Tommy Sharp, Warden Tenth Circuit 2020-07-08 Denied IFP age-of-culpability cognitive-science constitutional-vagueness criminal-procedure cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment sentencing-aggravator standing statutory-interpretation Whether Oklahoma's application of the 'heinous, atrocious, or cruel' death-penalty aggravator is unconstitutionally vague
19-8904 William Clyde Gibson, III v. Indiana Indiana 2020-07-06 Denied IFP death-penalty ineffective-assistance-of-counsel mitigating-circumstances post-conviction-relief strickland-standard strickland-v-washington traumatic-brain-injury wiggins-v-smith williams-v-taylor Whether the Indiana Supreme Court's opinion contravened Williams v. Taylor and Wiggins v. Smith by failing to find deficient performance where counsel…
19-8873 Efrain Diaz, Jr. and Justin Smith v. Kentucky Kentucky 2020-07-01 Denied Response RequestedResponse WaivedRelisted (3)IFP criminal-defendant criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment justiciability party-presentation procedural-due-process standing-doctrine Does the requirement in Lujan v. Defs. of Wildlife apply to a motion filed by a defendant in a criminal case?
19-8845 Charles Grover Brant v. Florida Florida 2020-06-29 Denied IFP constitutional-challenge death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment fact-finding fourteenth-amendment hurst-v-florida jury-trial jury-unanimity jury-waiver Whether a waiver to an advisory, non-unanimous jury verdict lacking in any fact finding requirement under a death penalty scheme later determined to b…
19-8831 Eric Reid v. Arkansas Arkansas 2020-06-26 Denied IFP capital-case capital-cases constitutional-procedure criminal-trial death-penalty due-process jury-selection morgan-v-illinois voir-dire Whether the Arkansas' voir dire framework in capital cases conflicts with this Court's ruling in Morgan v. Illinois
19-8792 John Hummel v. Bobby Lumpkin, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Correctional Institutions Division Fifth Circuit 2020-06-23 Denied IFP 18-U.S.C.-3599 clemency clemency-proceedings death-penalty discretionary-review expert-assistance expert-services legal-representation reasonably-necessary statutory-funding unusual-character-or-duration When a death-sentenced inmate's appointed attorney shows that expert services have likely utility and are of unusual character or duration, but cost m…
19-8742 Harold Wayne Nichols v. Tennessee Tennessee 2020-06-18 Denied IFP arbitrary-and-capricious death-penalty death-sentence eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment judicial-override prior-felony-aggravator settlement-agreement vagueness-doctrine Does the judicial override of a life sentence settlement agreement result in an arbitrary and capricious death sentence in violation of the Eighth and…
19-8728 Joshua Harrell v. California California 2020-06-17 Denied Response WaivedRelisted (2)IFP cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty eighth-amendment habeas-corpus mental-illness rational-understanding Whether the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment prohibits the execution of a prisoner who has a severe mental illness that …
19-8712 Billy Joe Wardlow v. Texas Texas 2020-06-15 Denied Amici (1)IFP age-of-offender brain-development death-penalty eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment future-dangerousness neuroscience roper-v-simmons Whether Texas may continue to impose, and carry out previously imposed, death sentences for which future dangerousness is or was used to determine dea…
19-1361 Richard Jordan, et al. v. Georgia Department of Corrections Eleventh Circuit 2020-06-11 Denied 8th-amendment alternative-method availability capital-punishment death-penalty department-of-corrections departments-of-corrections execution-method feasibility Glossip-v-Gross legal-precedent Whether evidence of how other departments of corrections have obtained and successfully administered an alternative execution method is relevant to sh…
19-8660 Thomas Michael Riley v. Arizona Arizona 2020-06-10 Denied IFP aggravating-factors capital-punishment capital-sentencing constitutional-review death-penalty furman-v-georgia gregg-v-georgia narrowing-requirement sentencing-scheme To pass constitutional muster, must a death eligibility scheme collectively narrow the class of defendants eligible for the death penalty?
19-1348 Alfred Bourgeois, et al. v. William P. Barr, Attorney General, et al. District of Columbia 2020-06-09 Denied Amici (2) administrative-law agency-deference agency-rule capital-case death-penalty execution-protocol federal-death-penalty-act federal-law notice-and-comment procedural-rule statutory-interpretation Whether the phrase 'prescribed by the law of the State' in 18 U.S.C. § 3596(a) includes those procedures that state law requires state officials to es…
19-8600 Marco E. Torres, Jr. v. Nebraska Nebraska 2020-06-04 Denied IFP bill-of-attainder cruel-unusual-punishment death-penalty due-process equal-protection media-campaign referendum Whether the successful media campaign and referendum culminating in affirmance of Mr. Torres' death sentences qualify as cruel-and-unusual-punishment
19-8581 Marlon Deon Harmon v. Tommy Sharp, Warden Tenth Circuit 2020-06-02 Denied IFP brady-v-maryland brady-violation brecht-standard brecht-v-abrahamson confession confession-evidence constitutional-error death-penalty habeas-corpus mitigating-evidence sentencing Should federal courts provide uniform guidance in analyzing harm from unconstitutionally obtained confessions in death penalty cases?
19-8438 Rodney Lyn Emil v. Nevada Nevada 2020-05-12 Denied IFP aggravating-factors burden-of-proof capital-sentencing constitutional-procedure death-penalty jury-finding jury-instructions mitigating-circumstances reasonable-doubt Is Nevada's capital sentencing procedure unconstitutional after Hurst v. Florida?
19-8357 Jeffery J. Lout v. Montana Montana 2020-04-27 Denied Relisted (2)IFP 8th-amendment civil-rights constitutional-claims death-penalty due-process ex-post-facto intellectual-disability mental-illness procedural-challenges psychological-evaluation sentencing Whether the Montana Supreme Court violated the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment by failing to address Louis's claims of …
19-8335 Mitchell Willoughby v. Deedra Hart, Warden Sixth Circuit 2020-04-22 Denied IFP caldwell-precedent capital-sentencing closing-argument death-penalty jury jury-instructions prosecutor prosecutorial-misconduct sixth-circuit state-law voir-dire Did the Sixth Circuit panel misunderstand or frustrate the purpose behind this court's holding in Caldwell v. Mississippi
19-8239 Robert Ybarra, Jr. v. William Gittere, Warden, et al. Nevada 2020-04-10 Denied IFP aggravating-factors constitutional-rights death-penalty due-process jury-determination jury-trial mitigating-circumstances reasonable-doubt sentencing sentencing-procedure Did the Nevada Supreme Court violate Ybarra's constitutional rights by holding that the outweighing determination—a finding that exposed Ybarra to a g…
19-8197 Fred Furnish v. Kentucky Kentucky 2020-04-07 Denied IFP criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process habeas-corpus hearing-impairment impartial-jury juror-bias juror-impartiality jury-selection right-to-fair-trial When a juror realizes that he has been in an identical situation vis-a-vis the defendant as the victims of the defendant's crimes, is that juror unqua…
19-8192 John Bejarano v. William Gittere, Warden, et al. Nevada 2020-04-06 Denied IFP aggravating-factors appellate-reweighing apprendi clemons-v-mississippi constitutional-rights death-penalty jury-trial reweighing sixth-amendment Whether the Nevada Supreme Court's reweighing of aggravating and mitigating factors to uphold a death sentence violates the Sixth Amendment right to a…
19-8175 Kitrich A. Powell v. Nevada Nevada 2020-04-03 Denied IFP aggravating-factors burden-of-proof capital-punishment constitutional-rights death-penalty jury-instructions mitigating-circumstances sixth-amendment Did the Nevada Supreme Court violate Mr. Powell's constitutional rights by making the outweighing requirement an afterthought for the jury, used only …
19-8090 Joseph Weldon Smith v. Nevada Nevada 2020-03-24 Denied IFP aggravating-factors capital-punishment constitutional-rights death-penalty due-process jury-instructions mitigating-circumstances sixth-amendment Did the Nevada Supreme Court violate Mr. Smith's constitutional rights by making the outweighing requirement an afterthought for the jury, used only t…
19-8045 Raymond Mata, Jr. v. Nebraska Nebraska 2020-03-19 Denied IFP constitutional-challenge death-penalty due-process fourteenth-amendment legislative-veto nebraska nebraska-legislature referendum referendum-power standing veto Whether the citizens of Nebraska through improper use of their referendum power, or the trial court or Nebraska Supreme Court through erroneous approv…
19-8039 Jeffrey Clark v. Louisiana Louisiana 2020-03-18 Denied IFP counsel-conflict criminal-trial death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment faretta-waiver jury-trial right-to-counsel right-to-self-representation self-representation sixth-amendment Whether a defendant's waiver of counsel is not knowing, intelligent and voluntary when the defendant's only other option was to proceed to trial with …
19-8009 Hooman Ashkan Panah v. Ron Broomfield, Acting Warden Ninth Circuit 2020-03-17 Denied Amici (1)IFP civil-rights criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process evidence-review habeas-corpus ineffective-assistance-of-counsel judicial-procedure juror-contact juror-misconduct remmer sixth-amendment third-party-influence Does the Ninth Circuit's conclusion—that the state court's dismissal of this claim without a hearing was reasonable—conflict with this Court's decisio…
19-8011 James Anderson Dellinger v. Tennessee Tennessee 2020-03-16 Denied Relisted (2)IFP atkins-v-virginia constitutional-mandate death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment intellectual-disability judicial-abdication legislative-inaction procedural-vehicle May Tennessee evade the constitutional mandate of Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U.S. 304 (2002) via legislative inaction and judicial abdication?
19-1105 Tommy Sharp, Interim Warden v. Jimmy Dean Harris Tenth Circuit 2020-03-10 Denied death-penalty death-penalty-appeal deference-to-state-courts deferential-review habeas-corpus ineffective-assistance-of-counsel intellectual-disability standard-of-review Whether the Tenth Circuit contravened Supreme Court precedent in holding that the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals made an unreasonable determinatio…
19-1100 Leroy D. Cropper v. Arizona Arizona 2020-03-09 Denied Amici (2) capital-punishment death-penalty due-process ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel jury-instructions parole-eligibility parole-ineligibility simmons-v-south-carolina sixth-amendment Whether a death sentence may be carried out when defense counsel unreasonably fails to inform the jury of parole ineligibility under Simmons v. South …
19-7880 Nathaniel Woods v. Jefferson S. Dunn, Commissioner, Alabama Department of Corrections, et al. Eleventh Circuit 2020-03-05 Denied IFP arbitrary-and-capricious arbitrary-discrimination arbitrary-punishment death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment equal-protection execution-method nitrogen-hypoxia suppressed-information Does the Eighth Amendment apply only to imposition of a death sentence, or may a petitioner challenge how a death sentence is carried out?
19-1054 Christa Gail Pike v. Gloria Gross, Warden Sixth Circuit 2020-02-25 Denied Amici (1) cumulative-evidence death-penalty eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel mitigation-evidence prejudice strickland-standard strickland-v-washington Whether a defendant who asserts that trial counsel failed to present key evidence is precluded from showing prejudice under Strickland v. Washington
19-7745 Willie B. Smith, III v. Jefferson S. Dunn, Commissioner, Alabama Department of Corrections Eleventh Circuit 2020-02-24 Denied Relisted (3)IFP batson-challenge collateral-review death-penalty death-penalty-law hall-v-florida intellectual-disability moore-v-texas peremptory-strikes prosecutor-conduct prosecutorial-discretion retroactive-application retroactivity substantive-rules Whether Hail v. Florida and Moore v. Texas apply retroactively to cases on collateral review
19-7696 In Re Nicholas Todd Sutton 2020-02-18 Denied IFP 14th-amendment 5th-amendment capital-sentencing constitutional-rights criminal-procedure criminal-trial death-penalty due-process fifth-amendment fourteenth-amendment habeas-corpus physical-restraints visible-jury Whether the Court should exercise its authority to issue an original writ of habeas corpus and hold that Mr. Sutton's conviction and death sentence sh…
19-7680 Samuel Howard v. Nevada Nevada 2020-02-14 Denied IFP appellate-review capital-punishment constitutional-law criminal-procedure death-penalty death-penalty-sentencing due-process hurst-v-florida judicial-precedent retroactivity sentencing sentencing-procedure sixth-amendment Whether appellate reweighing is constitutional after Hurst v. Florida, 136 S. Ct. 616 (2016)
19-7647 William P. Castillo v. Nevada Nevada 2020-02-12 Denied Amici (1)IFP aggravating-factors appellate-review apprendi apprendi-line capital-punishment capital-sentencing clemons-v-mississippi death-penalty jury-instructions mitigating-circumstances mitigating-evidence mitigation-evidence reweighing Should this Court overrule Clemons v. Mississippi
19-7649 Socorro Susan Caro v. California California 2020-02-12 Denied IFP aggravating-circumstances constitutional-rights criminal-sentencing death-penalty due-process fifth-amendment fourteenth-amendment jury-beyond-reasonable-doubt jury-finding jury-trial mitigating-circumstances reasonable-doubt sentencing sixth-amendment Does California's death penalty scheme violate the requirement under the Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendments that every fact, other than a prior c…
19-7541 Richard Hurles v. David Shinn, Director, Arizona Department of Corrections, et al. Ninth Circuit 2020-02-04 Denied IFP 14th-amendment 8th-amendment capital-punishment death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment judicial-bias judicial-ethics recusal right-to-fair-trial Are the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments violated where a judge who has personally litigated against a defendant in the same case presides over his tr…
19-967 Craig M. Wood v. Missouri Missouri 2020-02-03 Denied Relisted (2) capital-punishment capital-sentencing constitutional-rights death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment jury-determination jury-trial sentencing sixth-amendment Whether the Constitution requires that a jury, rather than a judge, weigh the aggravating and mitigating circumstances to determine whether a defendan…
19-7476 Timothy Wayne Kemp v. Dexter Payne, Director, Arkansas Division of Correction Eighth Circuit 2020-01-29 Denied Amici (1)IFP brady-rule brady-violation criminal-procedure death-penalty discovery due-process eighth-circuit habeas-corpus ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel mitigation mitigation-investigation procedural-default professional-standards Must a court consider prevailing professional norms when determining whether a life history investigation was 'thorough?
19-7481 Patrick Henry Murphy v. Texas Texas 2020-01-29 Denied IFP 28-usc-2254 capital-murder capital-punishment constitutional-law death-penalty due-process enmund-v-florida federal-habeas jury-determination jury-trial sentencing tison-v-arizona Does Ring dictate that a jury determine whether a capital murder defendant is eligible for a sentence of death under Enmund and Tison, and, if so, is …
19-7488 Donnie Cleveland Lance v. Benjamin Ford, Warden Georgia 2020-01-29 Denied IFP capital-punishment constitutional-rights criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process equal-protection fourteenth-amendment grand-jury grand-jury-selection habeas-corpus ineffective-assistance-of-counsel prosecutorial-misconduct sixth-amendment Was petitioner denied his rights under the Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments when he was sentenced to death following his indictment by a non-r…
19-7429 Louis Mitchell, Jr. v. California California 2020-01-28 Denied IFP 14th-amendment 5th-amendment 6th-amendment aggravating-circumstances aggravating-mitigating-circumstances constitutional-rights death-penalty fifth-amendment fourteenth-amendment jury-beyond-reasonable-doubt jury-determination jury-trial mitigating-circumstances reasonable-doubt sixth-amendment Does the mandatory weighing of aggravating and mitigating circumstances under the California death penalty statute—a factfinding determination that se…
19-7455 Ronson Kyle Bush v. Tommy Sharp, Interim Warden Tenth Circuit 2020-01-28 Denied IFP antiterrorism-act antiterrorism-and-effective-death-penalty-act certificate-of-appealability clearly-established-federal-law constitutional-standards death-penalty eighth-amendment federal-law fourteenth-amendment habeas-corpus habeas-review state-court-decisions state-court-review unreasonableness Whether the 'clearly established Federal law' provision of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act renders state court decisions categorical…
19-7393 In Re David Gulbrandson 2020-01-23 Denied IFP arbitrary-and-capricious death-penalty standing state-law successive-petition arbitrary-and-capricious death-penalty due-process habeas-corpus ninth-circuit second-successive-petition state-law state-law-application successive-petition Whether transfer to the district court for a hearing pursuant to this Court's original habeas jurisdiction is warranted in this exceptional case
19-7369 David Keen v. Tennessee Tennessee 2020-01-22 Denied Relisted (4)IFP atkins-ruling atkins-v-virginia constitutional-mandate cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment intellectual-disability judicial-abdication legislative-inaction standing Does the Constitution permit Tennessee to evade the mandate of Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U.S. 304 (2002) by legislative inaction and judicial abdication…
19-7379 Lee Samuel Capers v. California California 2020-01-22 Denied IFP constitutional-requirement criminal-procedure criminal-sentencing death-penalty due-process fifth-amendment fourteenth-amendment jury-beyond-reasonable-doubt jury-finding jury-trial reasonable-doubt sentencing sixth-amendment statutory-maximum Whether California's death penalty scheme violates the requirement under the Fifth, Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments that every fact other than a prior…
19-7282 John Anthony Arnold v. Virginia Virginia 2020-01-14 Denied IFP 4th-amendment appellate-review civil-rights criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process evidence-suppression fourth-amendment law-enforcement motion-to-suppress ninth-circuit search-warrant standing warrantless-arrest Did the Virginia Supreme Court err in upholding petitioner's warrantless arrest?
19-7222 Timothy Richardson v. Edward Thomas, Warden Fourth Circuit 2020-01-09 Denied IFP atkins-v-virginia death-penalty eighth-amendment federal-habeas federal-review habeas-corpus intellectual-disability rule-60(b) rule-60b state-law Whether the execution of an intellectually disabled defendant whose death sentence stands due to a federal court's misinterpretation of state law gove…
19-7153 Ronald Johnson v. Missouri Missouri 2020-01-03 Denied Response RequestedResponse WaivedRelisted (2)IFP atkins-v-virginia capital-punishment-representation capital-representation death-penalty due-process ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel intellectual-disability plea-bargaining Whether counseling an intellectually disabled client to plead to life without parole to avoid the death penalty is ineffective assistance
19-7146 David Rapoport v. Robert Gilmore, Superintendent, State Correctional Institution at Greene, et al. Third Circuit 2020-01-02 Denied Response WaivedIFP appeal-waiver criminal-procedure criminal-procedure-ineffective-assistance-of-couns death-penalty due-process guilty-plea ineffective-assistance life-without-parole plea-bargaining sentencing waiver-of-appeal-rights Was the petitioner's counsel ineffective in pre-trial stages?
19-7099 Paul David Storey v. Texas Texas 2019-12-31 Denied IFP constitutional-violation death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment habeas-corpus intentional-concealment prosecutorial-misconduct state-court-review state-habeas Whether it violates due process for a state court to deny substantive review of a constitutional violation in a death penalty case
19-7063 Leeton Jahwanza Thomas v. Pennsylvania Pennsylvania 2019-12-26 Denied IFP capital-punishment capital-sentencing death-penalty eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment jury-trial reasonable-doubt sixth-amendment Were Petitioner's rights under the Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution violated by a Pennsylvania statutory sch…
19-6976 James Clayton Johnson v. Arizona Arizona 2019-12-17 Denied IFP arizona capital-punishment constitutional-challenge cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty due-process evidentiary-hearing factual-findings meaningful-opportunity standing Does a court deprive a capital defendant of his due process right to a meaningful opportunity to be heard when the defendant challenges the constituti…
19-6927 Tony Egbuna Ford v. Texas Texas 2019-12-12 Denied IFP arbitrary-state-action criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process fourteenth-amendment habeas-corpus merits-consideration state-action state-created-right state-created-rights statutory-criteria subsequent-application subsequent-habeas-application Whether the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals' unexplained dismissal of claims raised in a subsequent application for writ of habeas corpus violated the…
19-6875 Travis Trevino Runnels v. Texas Texas 2019-12-06 Denied IFP circuit-split constitutional-rights death-penalty due-process expert-testimony expert-witness false-expert-testimony false-testimony prosecution-misconduct prosecutorial-misconduct texas-death-penalty Whether the use of false expert testimony to obtain a death sentence violates due process, regardless of the prosecution's knowledge of the falsity
19-697 James Dwight Pavatt v. Tommy Sharp, Interim Warden Tenth Circuit 2019-12-03 Denied Amici (2) aggravating-factor aggravating-factors arbitrary-application capital-punishment capital-punishment-sentencing capital-sentence cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment habeas-corpus procedural-bar procedural-ruling Whether a State's application of an aggravating factor to justify the death penalty violates the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments when it makes punish…
19-6562 Carlos J. Avena v. Kevin Chappell, Warden Ninth Circuit 2019-11-08 Denied IFP certificate-of-appealability cronic cronic-standard death-penalty due-process habeas habeas-corpus ineffective-assistance miller-el-standard miller-el-v-cockrell ninth-circuit per-se Whether the Ninth Circuit's refusal to address the uncertified Cronic claim despite a strong showing of per se ineffective assistance constituted an i…
19-6567 Danny Lee Hill v. Ohio Ohio 2019-11-08 Denied IFP bite-mark-evidence constitutional-rights conviction death-penalty death-sentence due-process expert-testimony fair-trial habeas-corpus scientific-evidence Whether a murder conviction and death sentence based on now recognized debunked unscientific evidence violates a petitioner's constitutional rights to…
19-6482 Demetrius Dewayne Smith v. Lorie Davis, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Correctional Institutions Division Fifth Circuit 2019-11-04 Denied IFP 2254-review 28-usc-2253 28-usc-2254 certificate-of-appealability death-penalty federal-habeas habeas-corpus subject-matter-jurisdiction When a death-sentenced inmate obtains punishment-phase relief from the district court during federal habeas proceedings conducted pursuant to 28 U.S.C…
19-6477 Charles Russell Rhines v. Darin Young, Warden Eighth Circuit 2019-11-01 Denied IFP 18-usc-3599 ayestas-v-davis clemency-request death-penalty exhaustion-requirement expert-services federal-court federal-courts federal-jurisdiction indigent-defendant state-remedies Must indigent death-sentenced state prisoners exhaust state remedies before a federal court may authorize access to expert services under 18 U.S.C. § …
19-6479 In Re Charles Russell Rhines 2019-11-01 Denied IFP capital-punishment death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment habeas-corpus juror-bias sexual-orientation Should this Court exercise its original habeas jurisdiction to transfer this petition to the district court for a hearing regarding Petitioner's subst…
19-6465 Quintin Phillippe Jones v. Lorie Davis, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Correctional Institutions Division Fifth Circuit 2019-10-31 Denied Relisted (2)IFP 18-usc-3599 6th-amendment death-penalty federal-courts habeas-corpus ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel investigative-funding martinez-v-ryan meaningful-representation sixth-amendment When has a qualifying prisoner been denied meaningful representation informed by investigation to prepare a federal habeas corpus application?
19-6438 Jose Luis Tapia-Fierro v. William P. Barr, Attorney General, et al. Ninth Circuit 2019-10-29 Denied Response WaivedRelisted (2)IFP civil-procedure civil-rights constitutional-rights criminal-procedure death-penalty due-diligence due-process evidence-removal federal-jurisdiction innocence-claim procedural-limitations removal standing statute-of-limitations Whether the State of Arizona's statute of limitations found in Arizona Revised Statute (ARS) §12-542 applies to a Federally created cause of action in…
19-514 Nikko A. Jenkins v. Nebraska Nebraska 2019-10-21 Denied Amici (3)Relisted (3) capital-sentencing death-penalty eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment mental-health mental-illness mitigating-evidence sixth-amendment solitary-confinement Whether the sentencing court violated the requirement of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendment that capital sentencers give meaningful consideration and…
19-6235 Scott Thomas Erskine v. California California 2019-10-10 Denied IFP aggravating-circumstances capital-sentencing constitutional-amendments cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty due-process equal-protection jury-trial jury-unanimity narrowing-requirement sentencing Does California's death penalty statute violate the Fifth, Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments?
19-6181 Mark Robertson v. Lorie Davis, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Correctional Institutions Division Fifth Circuit 2019-10-07 Denied Relisted (2)IFP 18-usc-3599 6th-amendment death-penalty federal-courts habeas-corpus investigation judicial-review meaningful-representation representation representation-services sixth-amendment statutory-interpretation Did the district court deny Mr. Robertson the meaningful representation informed by investigation to prepare a habeas corpus application to which he i…
19-6183 Reginald Chatman v. Florida Florida 2019-10-07 Denied IFP constitutional-law constitutional-rights contract-law criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process equal-protection florida-law plea-bargain plea-bargaining sentencing state-prosecution Whether the State of Florida violated the Defendant Reginald Chatman's 14th Amendment Constitutional right to due process?
19-6101 Raymond Eugene Johnson v. Tommy Sharp, Interim Warden Tenth Circuit 2019-09-30 Denied IFP aggravating-circumstances capital-sentencing death-penalty factfinder harm lockett-v-ohio mitigating-circumstances prejudice Should the Court recalibrate the frameworks for judging the prejudice or harm of capital sentencing errors in jurisdictions where the factfinder may d…
19-6043 Larry Craig Cash v. Vance Laughlin, Warden Georgia 2019-09-25 Denied IFP 14th-amendment constitutional-rights conviction criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process effective-assistance fourteenth-amendment jury-selection murder-trial racial-discrimination standing state-action trial-duty Whether the rights of a defendant under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment were properly utilized by the State of Georgia
19-5988 Tyrone Chalmers v. Tennessee Tennessee 2019-09-18 Denied IFP atkins-claim atkins-v-virginia civil-rights constitutional-prohibition cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty due-process intellectual-disability iq-score moore-v-texas procedural-vehicle roper-v-simmons Whether a state can thwart the constitutional prohibition against executing intellectually disabled offenders by failing to provide a procedural vehic…
19-5977 Kerry Lyn Dalton v. California California 2019-09-17 Denied IFP 14th-amendment 5th-amendment 6th-amendment constitutional-requirement criminal-sentencing death-penalty fifth-amendment fourteenth-amendment jury-beyond-reasonable-doubt jury-finding reasonable-doubt sixth-amendment statutory-maximum Does California's death penalty scheme violate the requirement under the Fifth, Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments that every fact other than a prior con…
19-5927 Cuitlahuac Tahua Rivera v. California California 2019-09-13 Denied IFP constitutional-requirement criminal-sentencing death-penalty eighth-amendment fact-finding fifth-amendment fourteenth-amendment jury-beyond-reasonable-doubt jury-finding reasonable-doubt sixth-amendment Does California's death penalty scheme violate the requirement under the Fifth, Sixth, Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments that every fact that serves to…
19-5933 Julian Alejandro Mendez v. California California 2019-09-13 Denied IFP aggravating-factors constitutional-amendments criminal-sentencing death-penalty due-process fifth-amendment fourteenth-amendment reasonable-doubt sixth-amendment trier-of-fact Whether the California death penalty scheme violates the Fifth, Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments by permitting the trier of fact to impose a sentence o…
19-5916 Juan Matias Torres v. Ralph M. Diaz, Warden Ninth Circuit 2019-09-11 Denied IFP civil-rights cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty due-process free-speech habeas-corpus intellectual-disability patent standing takings Whether the 8th and 14th Amendments prohibit the execution of a prisoner who was intellectually disabled at the time of the offense
19-5839 Randall Wayne Mays v. Texas Texas 2019-09-05 Denied IFP competency cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty delusions due-process eighth-amendment ford-hearing junk-science lay-stereotypes mental-competency mental-illness panetti-v-quarterman Whether a state court may rely on junk science and lay stereotypes of the severely mentally ill to adjudicate a Ford claim
19-235 Richard Jordan, et al. v. Virginia Department of Corrections Fourth Circuit 2019-08-22 Denied burden-of-proof civil-rights corrections-department death-penalty discovery discovery-rights due-process eighth-amendment glossip-standard glossip-v-gross lethal-injection method-of-execution section-1983 standing Whether the burden of proof demanded by Glossip in method-of-execution challenges requires commensurately broad discovery rights to provide plaintiffs…
19-5672 Gary Ray Bowles v. Mark S. Inch, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections, et al. Eleventh Circuit 2019-08-22 Denied IFP 28-usc-2244 capital-punishment cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment habeas-corpus intellectual-disability procedural-obstacles Whether a capital defendant's claim that the Eighth Amendment forbids his execution as he is intellectually disabled becomes viable upon the issuance …
19-5682 In Re Gary Ray Bowles 2019-08-22 Denied IFP 28-usc-2244 atkins-claim atkins-v-virginia capital-punishment death-penalty habeas-corpus intellectual-disability successive-habeas-petition successive-petition writ-of-certiorari Should this Court use its power to grant a writ of habeas corpus to a capital defendant who has no other available forum to raise his compelling claim…
19-5640 In Re Larry Swearingen 2019-08-20 Denied IFP 28-usc-2244 death-penalty due-process false-testimony forensic-evidence habeas-corpus habeas-corpus-petition innocence innocence-standard schlup-v-delo scientific-evidence scientific-testimony successive-petition What is the scope of the evidence for a court's assessment of innocence under 28 U.S.C. § 2244(b)(2)(B)(i)?
19-5651 Gary Ray Bowles v. Ron DeSantis, Governor of Florida, et al. Eleventh Circuit 2019-08-20 Denied IFP 18-usc-3599 42-usc-1983 civil-rights civil-rights-enforcement clemency clemency-proceedings death-penalty due-process federal-counsel federal-jurisdiction habeas-corpus intellectual-disability right-to-counsel section-3599 Can state officials bar a death-sentenced individual's 18 U.S.C. § 3599 counsel from representing him in state clemency proceedings, and if not, is th…
19-5617 Gary Ray Bowles v. Florida, et al. Florida 2019-08-16 Denied Amici (2)IFP death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment eighth-amendment-prohibition execution-risk florida-supreme-court intellectual-disability procedural-bar standing state-procedural-bar state-procedure unacceptable-risk Can a state procedural bar override the Eighth Amendment prohibition against executing the intellectually disabled?
19-5535 Julius Omar Robinson v. United States Fifth Circuit 2019-08-12 Denied IFP capital-indictment circuit-split death-penalty death-penalty-cases due-process juror-interview juror-interviews post-conviction-relief post-verdict racial-bias structural-error Whether district courts may validly prohibit death-sentenced inmates from interviewing their trial jurors post-verdict concerning racial bias during d…
19-5493 David Ray Taylor v. Oregon Oregon 2019-08-07 Denied IFP 8th-amendment death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment execution-moratorium extrajudicial-information juror-misconduct jury-instructions moratorium standing state-action voir-dire Whether a trial court may impose a death sentence during a statewide moratorium on executions
19-5433 In Re Steven Bleau 2019-08-02 Denied Response WaivedIFP actual-innocence collateral-review death-penalty due-process ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel martinez-exception newly-discovered-evidence sixth-amendment Whether Bleau was deprived of his constitutional rights under the Due Process Clause and Sixth Amendment when his newly presented exculpatory evidence…
19-5394 Michael Leon Bell v. California California 2019-07-30 Denied IFP aggravating-circumstances capital-punishment constitutional-procedure death-penalty due-process fourteenth-amendment jury-fact-finding jury-trial mitigating-circumstances reasonable-doubt sentencing sentencing-standards sixth-amendment Does California's death penalty scheme violate the requirement that every fact, other than a prior conviction, that serves to increase the statutory m…
19-5247 Charles Michael Hedlund v. Arizona Arizona 2019-07-22 Denied Relisted (2)IFP criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process eddings-v-oklahoma habeas-corpus jury-trial sentencing Whether the correction of error under Eddings v. Oklahoma requires resentencing
19-5171 Victor Hugo Saldano v. Lorie Davis, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Correctional Institutions Division Fifth Circuit 2019-07-16 Denied Amici (3)IFP biased-jury buck-v-davis certificate-of-appealability constitutional-claim death-penalty due-process future-dangerousness mental-competency racial-bias vagueness vagueness-doctrine Whether the Texas future-dangerousness special issue fails on vagueness grounds as applied to Mr. Saldajfio, as a statute incapable of reasoned applic…
19-5060 Derrick Washington v. Carol A. Mici, Commissioner, Massachusetts Department of Correction First Circuit 2019-07-03 Denied Response WaivedIFP 14th-amendment 8th-amendment anti-terrorism anti-terrorism-act anti-terrorism-effective-death-penalty-act constitutional-review cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty due-process habeas-corpus incarceration life-without-parole sentencing Is Congress' 1996 Anti-Terrorism Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA) unconstitutional, as it unnecessarily snuffs out convicted persons' abilities to …
18-9832 Patrick H. Murphy v. Bryan Collier, Executive Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, et al. Fifth Circuit 2019-06-27 Denied Amici (1)IFP civil-rights death-penalty death-row due-process establishment-clause free-exercise free-exercise-clause pastoral-accompaniment religious-liberty rluipa When a death-sentenced inmate informs prison authorities a month in advance of his scheduled execution date of his desire to be accompanied during the…
18-9838 Cedric Floyd v. Alabama Alabama 2019-06-27 Denied IFP capital-case capital-punishment death-penalty eighth-amendment fifth-amendment remorse right-to-remain-silent Whether the Fifth and Eighth Amendments are violated when the State argues for a death sentence based on the defendant's failure to express remorse in…
18A1349 Pennsylvania v. Milton Montalvo Pennsylvania 2019-06-21 Presumed Complete capital-sentencing death-penalty eighth-amendment ineffective-assistance jury-recommendation mental-health-mitigation Whether a prosecutor's and trial court's statements characterizing a jury's capital sentencing verdict as a mere 'recommendation' constitute a violati…
18-9746 Marion Wilson, Jr. v. Benjamin Ford, Warden Georgia 2019-06-20 Denied IFP capital-case criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment fair-trial intent jury-instructions prosecutor-misconduct prosecutorial-misconduct standing Are due process and the Eighth Amendment violated when a prosecutor knowingly argues falsehoods about the defendant's culpable acts in order to incite…
18-9698 Ruben Perez Gomez v. California California 2019-06-18 Denied IFP constitutional-requirement death-penalty fifth-amendment fourteenth-amendment jury jury-beyond-reasonable-doubt jury-finding reasonable-doubt sentencing-standard sixth-amendment statutory-maximum statutory-maximum-punishment Does California's death penalty scheme violate the requirement under the Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendments that every fact other than a prior co…
18A1326 Lisa Montgomery v. United States Eighth Circuit 2019-06-18 Presumed Complete capital-punishment certificate-of-appealability constitutional-challenge death-penalty federal-habeas section-2255 Whether a federal death row inmate's constitutional rights were violated by the denial of a certificate of appealability and the underlying judicial p…
18-9674 Terence Tramaine Andrus v. Texas Texas 2019-06-14 GVR Amici (1)Relisted (24)IFP death-penalty due-process fourteenth-amendment habeas-corpus ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel sixth-amendment strickland-v-washington Does the Strickland standard fail to protect Sixth Amendment right to fair trial and Fourteenth Amendment right to due process in death-penalty cases …
18-9659 In Re Quisi Bryan 2019-06-13 Denied IFP constitutional-law death-penalty federal-review habeas-corpus hurst-claim hurst-v-florida jury-determination jury-trial retroactive-application retroactivity sixth-amendment sixth-circuit Whether the Ohio Supreme Court's merits denial of Bryan's Hurst claim was erroneous insofar as appellate reweighing cannot cure the errors that affect…
18A1289 Walter Barton v. Cynthia Griffith, Superintendent, Potosi Correctional Center, et al. Eighth Circuit 2019-06-11 Presumed Complete certificate-of-appealability constitutional-rights death-penalty eighth-circuit federal-review habeas-corpus Whether the Eighth Circuit's denial of a certificate of appealability in a death penalty habeas corpus case violated the petitioner's constitutional r…
18-9564 Brian Suniga v. Texas Texas 2019-06-06 Denied IFP death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment jury-instructions mitigation-evidence moral-blameworthiness tennard-v-dretke tex-code-crim-proc-art-37-071-section-2-f-4 Whether the Texas death penalty statute, which limits the scope of mitigating evidence to that which reduces the defendant's 'moral blameworthiness,' …
18A1263 Keith D. Nelson v. United States Eighth Circuit 2019-06-04 Presumed Complete capital-sentencing certificate-of-appealability constitutional-standards death-penalty eighth-amendment ineffective-assistance Whether the Eighth Amendment and standards for ineffective assistance of counsel require a new sentencing hearing when trial counsel's performance fal…
18-9464 Charles William Finney v. Florida Florida 2019-05-29 Denied IFP aggravating-factors capital-murder capital-sentencing death-penalty florida-constitution jury-trial jury-unanimity mitigating-circumstances sixth-amendment Whether Florida's capital sentencing scheme violates the Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial by requiring the jury to find only aggravating factors …
18-9396 Bobby Joe Long v. Mark S. Inch, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections, et al. Eleventh Circuit 2019-05-23 Denied IFP 8th-amendment civil-rights cruel-and-unusual-punishment cruel-unusual-punishment death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment lethal-injection res-judicata section-1983 stay Whether the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals erred in holding that Mr. Long was not entitled to a stay because of inexcusable delay in bringing his l…
18-1449 Harold Lee Harvey, Jr. v. Florida Florida 2019-05-21 Denied arbitrary-factors constitutional-rights death-penalty eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment hurst-v-florida judicial-decisions retroactive-application retroactivity ring-v-arizona sixth-amendment Does the Florida Supreme Court's decision denying retroactive application of the Hurst decisions to Mr. Harvey violate the Eighth or Fourteenth Amendm…
18-9356 Robert Joe Long v. Mark S. Inch, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections Florida 2019-05-20 Denied IFP constitutional-rights cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty double-jeopardy due-process eighth-amendment eighth-amendment-jurisprudence evolving-standards-of-decency mental-illness Whether an individual who suffers from severe mental illness is exempt from execution under the Eighth Amendment and the evolving standards of decency…
18-9332 In Re Nawaz Ahmed 2019-05-17 Dismissed Response WaivedIFP appellate-jurisdiction civil-procedure death-penalty due-process habeas-corpus mandamus prohibition standing Whether the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit erred in denying Petitioner's request for an extraordinary writ of mandamus and/or prohibition
18-9252 Kevin Foster v. Florida Florida 2019-05-15 Denied IFP capital-murder capital-punishment death-penalty death-sentence due-process eighth-amendment first-degree-murder jury-findings jury-unanimity reasonable-doubt unanimous-verdict Whether Mr. Foster's death sentence is unconstitutional because it violates the Eighth Amendment and the Due Process Clause
18-9288 In Re Sherman Lamont Fields 2019-05-15 Denied IFP actual-innocence appeals constitutional-rights death-penalty death-row due-process immediate-relief ineffective-counsel judicial-bias miscarriage-of-justice wrongful-conviction Do petitioner have a Constitutional Right to be set free Immediately in light of the overwhelming evidence showing that he was framed for the crime(s)…
18-9262 David Wood v. Texas Texas 2019-05-14 Denied IFP atkins-claim atkins-v-virginia death-penalty eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment Fourteenth-Amendment-violation habeas-corpus intellectual-disability moore-v-texas Do the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments tolerate the execution of a person whose claim of intellectual disability has been expressly decided under an …
18-9194 Noah Espada v. Texas Texas 2019-05-08 Denied IFP brady-violation constitutional-law criminal-procedure death-penalty double-jeopardy due-process federal-law perjury reversal Whether a Brady violation, that results in the reversal of a death sentence because of perjury stemming from the Brady violation, implicates the Doubl…
18-9117 Scotty Garnell Morrow v. Benjamin Ford, Warden Georgia 2019-05-02 Denied IFP death-penalty death-sentence due-process eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment hurst-v-florida judicial-fact-finding jury-trial jury-unanimity ring-v-arizona sentencing sixth-amendment Does a death sentence imposed by a judge who made fact-findings not made unanimously by the jury who recommended a death sentence comport with Hurst a…
18-9031 In Re Michael Brandon Samra 2019-04-30 Denied IFP brain-development capital-sentencing cruel-and-unusual death-penalty eighth-amendment evolving-standards habeas-corpus juvenile-offender juvenile-offenders neurological-development neuroscience Whether the Eighth Amendment's evolving standards prohibit the execution of offenders who were 19 years old at the time of their crime
18-9033 Michael Brandon Samra v. Alabama Alabama 2019-04-30 Denied IFP brain-development capital-punishment capital-sentencing death-penalty eighth-amendment evolving-standards evolving-standards-of-decency juvenile-offender juvenile-offenders neuroscientific-research Whether the Eighth Amendment prohibits the death penalty against offenders who were under 21 at the time of their crime
18-8992 Charles Lorraine v. Ohio Ohio 2019-04-25 Denied IFP capital-punishment death-penalty death-sentence eighth-amendment judge-sentencing judicial-fact-finding jury-trial jury-verdict sixth-amendment spaziano-v-florida Is Ohio's death penalty scheme unconstitutional under Hurst v. Florida?
18-8970 John William King v. Texas Texas 2019-04-23 Denied IFP capital-punishment criminal-procedure death-penalty habeas-corpus ineffective-assistance-of-counsel lesser-included-offense mccoy-v-louisiana retroactivity sixth-amendment sixth-amendment-right-to-counsel teague-analysis teague-v-lane watershed-rule Whether McCoy applies when a defendant's attorneys concede, against his wishes, his guilt to a lesser-included offense during final argument, and is a…
18-1306 Fred Anderson, Jr. v. Florida Florida 2019-04-16 Denied Amici (3) advisory-jury capital-punishment capital-sentencing death-penalty florida-supreme-court harmless-error hurst-v-florida judge-sentencing jury-trial jury-verdict sixth-amendment structural-error Whether a judge-imposed death sentence that violates Hurst is a structural error requiring reversal of the sentence
18-8845 Abel Revill Ochoa v. Lorie Davis, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Correctional Institutions Division Fifth Circuit 2019-04-16 Denied IFP ayestas-v-davis capital-case capital-punishment death-penalty due-process federal-funding funding habeas-corpus ineffective-assistance-of-counsel legal-representation procedural-standard statutory-interpretation Whether, in light of Ayestas v. Davis, 138 S. Ct. 1080 (2018), a court applies an overly burdensome standard for funding under 18 U.S.C. § 3599(f) whe…
18-8857 Jeffrey A. Weisheit v. Indiana Indiana 2019-04-16 Denied IFP aggravating-circumstances constitutional-rights criminal-procedure death-penalty ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel mitigating-circumstances penalty-phase strickland-standard strickland-v-washington williams-v-taylor Whether the Indiana Supreme Court contravened Strickland by acknowledging counsel made mistakes, but not finding them to be deficient performance even…
18-1298 Mario Dion Woodward v. Alabama Alabama 2019-04-15 Denied arbitrary-and-discriminatory cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment judicial-override jury-sentencing repealed-statute sentencing sixth-amendment Does the imposition of a death sentence through judicial override under a now-repealed statute violate the constitutional guarantees implemented by th…
18-8820 Carman L. Deck v. Richard Jennings, Warden Eighth Circuit 2019-04-15 Denied Relisted (2)IFP appellate-procedure appellate-review certificate-of-appealability death-penalty district-court due-process habeas-corpus judicial-discretion procedural-standard reasonable-jurists standard-of-review Did Mr. Deck present grounds for relief as to which reasonable jurists could differ concerning the correctness of the district court's conclusion, thu…
18-8753 Carl Devon Powell v. California California 2019-04-10 Denied IFP aggravating-circumstances constitutional-sentencing death-penalty due-process fifth-amendment fourteenth-amendment jury jury-beyond-reasonable-doubt jury-fact-finding mitigating-circumstances reasonable-doubt sixth-amendment Does California's death penalty scheme violate the requirement under the Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendments that every fact, other than a prior c…
18-8723 Miles Sterling Bench v. Oklahoma Oklahoma 2019-04-08 Denied IFP 8th-amendment affidavit civil-rights competency costs criminal-appeals death-penalty declaration due-process filing-fees in-forma-pauperis indigent indigent-status mental-illness oklahoma-law supreme-court-procedure writ-of-certiorari Whether the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment prohibits the execution of a person with severe mental illness
18-8726 In Re Stetory Calhoun 2019-04-08 Denied IFP alabama capital-offenses constitutional-challenge constitutional-law criminal-law death-penalty due-process gang-related-murder legislative-intent legislative-process statutory-interpretation Whether Act No. 92-601 is unconstitutional on its face because it omits the subject of legislation as passed by the Alabama Legislature
18-8712 John Hummel v. Lorie Davis, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Correctional Institutions Division Fifth Circuit 2019-04-05 Denied IFP character-and-record death-penalty future-dangerousness ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel mitigating-evidence pretrial-incarceration sixth-amendment sixth-amendment-right-to-counsel strickland-standard strickland-v-washington trial-counsel Whether a death penalty defendant received ineffective assistance of trial counsel for failing to investigate and present evidence of the defendant's …
18-8664 Rodney Tyrone Lowe v. Florida Florida 2019-04-02 Denied IFP caldwell-v-mississippi death-penalty eighth-amendment eighth-amendment-violation harmless-error hurst-v-florida jury-instructions Does the Florida Supreme Court's exclusive reliance on a unanimous recommendation of death to find harmless error for violations of Hurst v. Florida, …
18-8666 Tremane Wood v. Mike Carpenter, Interim Warden Tenth Circuit 2019-04-02 Denied IFP circuit-court-review death-penalty federal-review habeas-corpus ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel mitigating-evidence state-court-deference strickland-standard strickland-test Does a circuit court contravene this Court's decisions in Strickland-v-Washington, Wiggins-v-Smith, Rompilla-v-Beard, and Porter-v-McCollum where it d…
18-8670 Demetrius Terrence Frazier v. Alabama Alabama 2019-04-02 Denied IFP capital-punishment capital-sentencing constitutional-interpretation cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty death-penalty-sentencing due-process equal-protection judicial-fact-finding jury-fact-finding jury-sentencing jury-trial retroactive-rule retroactivity sixth-amendment Does Alabama's capital sentencing statute violate Hurst v. Florida?
18-8653 Tavares J. Wright v. Florida Florida 2019-04-01 Denied IFP 14th-amendment 8th-amendment adaptive-functioning atkins-v-virginia civil-rights constitutional-rights death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment hall-v-florida intellectual-disability moore-v-texas Does the Florida Supreme Court's adaptive functioning analysis of intellectually disabled individuals violate the Fifth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendm…
18-8593 Dontae Callen v. Alabama Alabama 2019-03-27 Denied IFP affidavit appellate-review criminal-procedure death-penalty fourth-amendment jury-unanimity probable-cause search-warrant separate-affidavit Where an affidavit does not support a finding of probable cause for the issuance of a search warrant, can a reviewing court consider information from …
18-8561 Jeffery Lee Wood v. Texas Texas 2019-03-26 Denied IFP culpability death-penalty death-penalty-eligibility due-process eighth-amendment enmund-v-florida fourteenth-amendment future-dangerousness law-of-parties tison-v-arizona Whether the petitioner is categorically ineligible for the death penalty because he lacked the requisite minimal culpability under the Eight and Fourt…
18-8495 Leroy Scott v. United States Fourth Circuit 2019-03-22 Denied Response WaivedIFP brady-violation conflict-of-interest death-penalty ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel missouri-v-frye plea-agreement plea-bargaining right-to-counsel Whether counsel's ineffectiveness conflicts with the holding in Missouri v. Frye
18-8476 Anthony Grandison v. Maryland Maryland 2019-03-20 Denied Response WaivedIFP capital-sentencing collateral-consequences constitutional-due-process criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process harmless-error jury-instructions mitigating-factors sentencing sentencing-guidelines standard-of-proof Whether the Maryland Court of Appeals erred in finding that Grandison failed to prove he suffered significant collateral consequences from his unconst…
18-8453 Dusty Ray Spencer v. Florida Florida 2019-03-19 Denied IFP binding-precedent capital-sentencing constitutional-rights death-penalty death-penalty-sentencing due-process federal-constitutional-rights jury-instructions jury-responsibility jury-verdict sentencing-process structural-error unanimous-verdict Whether structural error occurs when the jury fails to return a verdict as to multiple critical elements necessary to impose the death penalty
18-8432 Kelly Foust v. Ohio Ohio 2019-03-15 Denied Response RequestedResponse WaivedRelisted (2)IFP capital-defendant capital-punishment capital-sentencing constitutional-interpretation criminal-procedure death-penalty hurst-precedent hurst-v-florida jury jury-waiver sixth-amendment Does Ohio's death penalty scheme violate the Sixth Amendment right to a jury as explained in Hurst v. Florida?
18-8409 Anthony Mungin v. Florida Florida 2019-03-14 Denied IFP capital-punishment death-penalty disparate-treatment due-process eighth-amendment equal-protection fourteenth-amendment retroactivity Whether the Florida Supreme Court's application of only partial retroactivity of Hurst v. State and Hurst v. Florida violates the Eighth and Fourteent…
18-8415 John L. Lotter v. Nebraska Nebraska 2019-03-13 Denied IFP capital-punishment capital-sentencing death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment judicial-discretion jury-trial sentencing sixth-amendment Does Nebraska's capital sentencing scheme requiring a three-judge panel, rather than a jury, to impose a sentence of death violate the Eighth Amendmen…
18-8399 Randall Scott Jones v. Florida Florida 2019-03-12 Denied IFP capital-punishment constitutional-law death-penalty eighth-amendment eighth-amendment-cruel-and-unusual-punishment equal-protection fourteenth-amendment fourteenth-amendment-due-process hurst-v-florida retroactivity ring-v-arizona supremacy-clause supreme-court-precedent Does the Florida Supreme Court's partial retroactivity formula for Hurst v. Florida violations violate the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments?
18-8323 Bryan Frederick Jennings v. Florida Florida 2019-03-07 Denied IFP capital-punishment capital-sentencing death-penalty death-penalty-review eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment hurst-v-state jury-recommendation newly-discovered-evidence Whether the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments require the law of Hurst v. State to be factored into the analysis of the likelihood of a less severe sen…
18-8253 Jamie Kenmont Kerien Brown v. Georgia Georgia 2019-03-04 Denied Response WaivedIFP civil-rights criminal-procedure cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment equal-protection habeas-corpus intellectual-disability mental-health post-conviction-relief Whether the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment prohibits the execution of a prisoner who was intellectually disabled at th…
18-1109 James Erin McKinney v. Arizona Arizona 2019-02-26 Judgment Issued Amici (14)Relisted (2) aggravating-evidence arizona-supreme-court criminal-procedure death-penalty eddings-precedent eddings-v-oklahoma mitigating-evidence resentencing sentencing sentencing-review Whether the Arizona Supreme Court was required to apply current law when weighing mitigating and aggravating evidence to determine whether a death sen…
18-8124 Tony Gross v. John Havlin, Warden Ohio 2019-02-25 Denied IFP 14th-amendment 6th-amendment criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process federal-jurisdiction fourteenth-amendment gideon-v-wainwright judicial-jurisdiction right-to-counsel rothgery-v-gillespie-county sixth-amendment state-jurisdiction zerbst-v-johnson Whether states are required to appoint counsel in death penalty cases for all hearings before a judicial officer to sustain a valid conviction
18-8090 Edward J. Zakrzewski, II v. Florida Florida 2019-02-22 Denied IFP capital-punishment criminal-procedure death-penalty eighth-amendment florida-supreme-court fourteenth-amendment hurst-v-state jury-unanimity retroactive-application retroactivity savings-clause substantive-law Whether the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments require retroactive application of the Florida Supreme Court's decision in Hurst v. State to capital defe…
18-8052 Michael Duane Zack, III v. Florida Florida 2019-02-21 Denied IFP apprendi-v-new-jersey capital-punishment death-penalty death-sentence eighth-amendment equal-protection fourteenth-amendment hurst-retroactivity retroactivity Does the partial retroactivity formula for Hurst v. Florida, 136 S. Ct. 616 (2016) claims designed by the Florida Supreme Court, as applied to a priso…
18-8057 Duane Allen Short v. Ohio Ohio 2019-02-21 Denied IFP capital-defense capital-punishment death-penalty death-row effective-assistance-of-counsel ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel mitigation mitigation-evidence plea-bargaining sixth-amendment Whether a capital defendant's Sixth Amendment right to the effective assistance of counsel is violated where, but for counsel's intervention and unfou…
18-1077 Akil Jahi, aka Preston Carter v. Tennessee Tennessee 2019-02-19 Denied atkins-v-virginia collateral-review constitutional-protection death-penalty death-penalty-eligibility hall-v-florida intellectual-disability moore-v-texas retroactive-application retroactivity supreme-court-precedent Does Hall v. Florida apply retroactively to cases on collateral review?
18-8016 James Goff v. Ohio Ohio 2019-02-19 Denied IFP capital-punishment death-penalty hurst-v-florida judicial-fact-finding jury-trial mitigation-evidence resentencing sentencing sixth-amendment Is a trial judge's independent weighing of new mitigation evidence and imposition of the death penalty at a resentencing hearing unconstitutional unde…
18-8027 Michael Eugene Sample v. Tennessee Tennessee 2019-02-19 Denied IFP case-remand collateral-review criminal-justice death-penalty death-penalty-sentencing due-process habeas-corpus intellectual-disability judicial-review montgomery-v-louisiana moore-v-texas retroactive-application retroactivity supreme-court-precedent welch-v-united-states writ-of-certiorari Does Moore v. Texas apply retroactively to cases on collateral review?
18-8002 Brad Hunter Smith v. Arkansas Arkansas 2019-02-15 Denied IFP aggravating-circumstance aggravating-circumstances arbitrary-imposition capital-sentencing death-penalty eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment mitigating-circumstance mitigating-circumstances Whether the Arkansas Supreme Court's holding that a capital-sentencing jury permissibly declined to weigh an existent statutory mitigating circumstanc…
18-7912 Eriese Alphonso Tisdale v. Florida Florida 2019-02-12 Denied IFP 14th-amendment 5th-amendment 6th-amendment 8th-amendment constitutional-law constitutional-rights death-penalty double-jeopardy due-process jury jury-vote statutory-amendment statutory-interpretation Whether the Florida Supreme Court's failure to apply a statutory amendment violates due process and double jeopardy
18-7809 James Were v. Ohio Ohio 2019-02-07 Denied IFP buck-v-davis competency-hearing death-penalty death-penalty-eligibility eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment intellectual-disability iq-scores racial-bias Whether the Supreme Court of Ohio violated the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments by refusing to reopen the petitioner's direct appeal to consider evide…
18-7835 Iouri Mikhel v. United States Ninth Circuit 2019-02-07 Denied IFP burden-of-proof competency competency-hearing criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process federal-criminal-procedure federal-judiciary hostage-taking judicial-discretion mental-health recusal standard-of-proof treaty-power trial-procedure Where significant evidence of competency is susceptible to conflicting inferences, what standard of proof is required for a competency hearing and wha…
18-1022 Julius Jerome Murphy v. Texas Texas 2019-02-05 Denied brady-v-maryland brady-violation criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment habeas-corpus witness-testimony Whether the State's failure to disclose threats and promises made to witnesses violated due process
18-7620 Emmanuel Adeyinka v. Harris County Jail, et al. Fifth Circuit 2019-01-31 Denied IFP civil-procedure civil-rights competency criminal-conviction cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment eleventh-amendment immunity mental-illness monetary-damages personal-involvement rational-understanding section-1983 standing Whether the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment prohibits the execution of a prisoner who has a severe mental illness that …
18-7643 Billy Leon Kearse v. Florida Florida 2019-01-29 Denied IFP apprendi-v-new-jersey capital-punishment death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment equal-protection fourteenth-amendment retroactivity ring-v-arizona supremacy-clause Does the Florida Supreme Court's partial retroactivity approach providing for relief pursuant to Hurst v. Florida and Hurst v. State to death-sentence…
18-7594 James Randall Rogers v. Benjamin Ford, Warden Georgia 2019-01-28 Denied Relisted (3)IFP capital-cases civil-rights death-penalty equal-protection habeas-corpus jury-discrimination jury-selection peremptory-challenges prosecutorial-misconduct racial-discrimination racial-exclusion standing Does Lanier's systematic discrimination against African Americans violate Strauder v. West Virginia, 380 U.S. 202 (1965), and Foster v. Chatman?
18-7568 Richard Earl Shere, Jr. v. Florida Florida 2019-01-25 Denied IFP co-defendant constitutional-review death-penalty equal-protection equal-protection,death-penalty,sentencing,retroact hurst-v-florida mccloud-v-state retroactivity ring-v-arizona sentencing-disparity Whether Mr. Shere's case is no longer one of the most aggravated and least mitigated following Hurst v. Florida and McCloud v. State
18-7569 Paul William Scott v. Julie L. Jones, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections Florida 2019-01-25 Denied IFP codefendant-comparison constitutional-proportionality cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment equal-protection sentencing-disparity Whether Florida's refusal to consider the disparity between the 15-year prison term of his equal or more culpable codefendant and Scott's death senten…
18-7576 Jordaan Stanly Creque v. Alabama Alabama 2019-01-25 Denied IFP capital-murder constitutional-rights credibility death-penalty due-process law-enforcement-testimony law-enforcement-witness reliable-process summation summation-and-bolstering trial-by-jury witness-credibility Does a capital murder conviction and death sentence violate due-process, trial-by-jury, and reliable-process rights when a law-enforcement witness who…
18-7540 David Dewayne Riley v. Alabama Alabama 2019-01-24 Denied IFP capital-post-conviction-proceedings capital-proceedings collateral-review death-penalty death-sentence effective-assistance-of-counsel ineffective-assistance martinez-v-ryan murray-v-giarratano post-conviction-counsel precedent state-court Should this Court revisit its precedent to consider whether death-sentenced inmates are entitled to the effective assistance of counsel on initial col…
18-7547 Michael Joseph Mulder v. Nevada Nevada 2019-01-24 Denied IFP competency cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty dementia eighth-amendment intellectual-disability memory-loss Whether the Eighth Amendment categorically excludes from the death penalty an individual who, because of a stroke that caused dementia, is functionall…
18-7516 Joseph Adam Mora v. California California 2019-01-22 Denied IFP 14th-amendment 5th-amendment 6th-amendment constitutional-amendments criminal-sentencing death-penalty jury-finding jury-trial reasonable-doubt statutory-maximum Does the California death penalty scheme violate the requirement under the Fifth, Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments that any fact, other than a prior co…
18-7503 Abdur Rahim Ambrose v. Mississippi Mississippi 2019-01-18 Denied Amici (1)IFP contemporary-standards-of-decency cruel-and-unusual death-penalty eighth-amendment geographic-arbitrariness racial-arbitrariness Does the death penalty violate the Eighth Amendment?
18-7442 Kevin Underwood v. Mike Carpenter, Warden Tenth Circuit 2019-01-16 Denied IFP aggravating-circumstances apprendi-v-new-jersey beyond-reasonable-doubt capital-punishment capital-punishment-scheme capital-sentencing death-penalty due-process jury-findings jury-instructions mitigating-circumstances reasonable-doubt supreme-court-precedent tenth-circuit Whether the Tenth Circuit's decision conflicts with Apprendi v. New Jersey and Ring v. Arizona
18-7457 Charles Edward Case v. California California 2019-01-16 Denied IFP capital-punishment constitutional-amendment criminal-sentencing death-penalty fifth-amendment fourteenth-amendment jury jury-finding reasonable-doubt sixth-amendment Does California's death penalty scheme violate the requirement under the Fifth, Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments that every fact other than a prior con…
18-7428 Harry Jones v. Florida Florida 2019-01-15 Denied IFP arbitrary-cutoff capital-murder capital-punishment death-penalty death-penalty-retroactivity eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment hurst-v-florida jury-unanimity retroactivity Whether the Florida Supreme Court's partial retroactivity rule as to violations pursuant to Hurst v. Florida violates the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendm…
18-7431 Teddrick Batiste v. Lorie Davis, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Correctional Institutions Division Fifth Circuit 2019-01-15 Denied IFP 28-usc-2254 death-penalty due-process evidentiary-hearing habeas-corpus ineffective-assistance organic-brain-damage procedural-bar state-court-deference wilson-v-sellers Whether the state court's post-conviction process was adequate to ascertain the truth and lacked critical components of an adjudication on the merits
18-7353 Nathaniel Jackson v. Ohio Ohio 2019-01-10 Denied IFP capital-punishment death-penalty eighth-amendment judge-sentencing judicial-sentencing jury-recommendation jury-sentencing jury-trial sixth-amendment spaziano-v-florida Is Ohio's death penalty scheme unconstitutional under Hurst v. Florida?
18-7332 James Dellinger v. Tennessee Tennessee 2019-01-09 Denied IFP atkins-claim atkins-v-virginia civil-rights constitutional-prohibition cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment intellectual-disability moore-v-texas procedural-vehicle roper-v-simmons Whether a state may thwart the constitutional prohibition against execution of the intellectually disabled by failing to provide a procedural vehicle …
18-7293 Neil Walker v. Alabama Alabama 2019-01-08 Denied Response WaivedIFP civil-rights conflict-of-laws criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process jurisdiction sentencing standing venue Where there is a conflict between the two state laws?
18-7242 Dauntorian Lyndel Sanders v. Arizona Arizona 2019-01-07 Denied IFP constitutional-interpretation criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment precedent sixth-amendment supreme-court-precedent Whether Arizona follows the precedent of Simmons v. South Carolina, 512 U.S. 154 (1994), as set forth in Lynch v. Arizona, 136 S. Ct. 1818 (2016)
18-852 Anne L. Precythe v. Ernest Johnson Eighth Circuit 2019-01-04 GVR administrative-procedure cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty eighth-amendment execution-method feasible-alternative glossip-v-gross method-of-execution nitrogen-gas pentobarbital pleading-requirements Whether an inmate who demands an alternative method of execution must plead facts detailing the procedure by which his proposed alternative method of …
18-7226 Omar Blanco v. Florida Florida 2019-01-03 Denied IFP 14th-amendment 8th-amendment capital-punishment civil-rights death-penalty due-process retroactivity supremacy-clause Did Hall v. Florida announce a substantive rule of constitutional law?
18-7216 Jason Duhamel v. Michelle Miller, Warden Sixth Circuit 2019-01-02 Denied Response WaivedIFP 8th-amendment affidavit appellate-review buck-v-davis certificate-of-appealability civil-procedure civil-rights death-penalty declaration due-process habeas-corpus in-forma-pauperis intellectual-disability miller-el-standard poverty redress sixth-circuit threshold-merits Whether the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment prohibits the execution of a prisoner who was intellectually disabled at th…
18-7101 John Samuel Ghobrial v. California California 2018-12-19 Denied IFP capital-punishment constitutional-rights criminal-procedure criminal-sentencing death-penalty due-process fifth-amendment fourteenth-amendment jury-finding jury-trial reasonable-doubt sentencing sixth-amendment statutory-maximum Does California's death penalty scheme violate the requirement under the Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendments that every fact that serves to increa…
18-7118 Richard E. Lynch v. Florida Florida 2018-12-19 Denied IFP death-penalty eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment hurst-v-florida ineffective-assistance-of-counsel jury-fact-finding sixth-amendment Whether the State of Florida violated Petitioner's rights under the Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments
18-7034 Shawn Sadik v. Pennsylvania Pennsylvania 2018-12-14 Denied Response WaivedIFP 8th-amendment criminal-sentencing cruel-and-unusual-punishment culpability death-penalty developmental-disability eighth-amendment intellectual-disability life-without-parole mandatory-life-imprisonment mandatory-sentencing parole Does the Eighth Amendment bar individuals with intellectual-and-developmental-disabilities from receiving mandatory-life-imprisonment-without-parole s…
18-6992 Brandon Bernard v. United States Fifth Circuit 2018-12-11 Denied Amici (1)IFP certificate-of-appealability civil-rights death-penalty due-process federal-courts habeas-corpus ineffective-assistance-of-counsel judicial-bias judicial-misconduct judicial-misconduct-allegations standing Whether the Fifth Circuit erred in its reading of Gonzalez v. Crosby, allowing Rule 60(b) motions to remedy procedural defects in habeas proceedings
18-6898 Joseph C. Garcia v. Lorie Davis, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Correctional Institutions Division Fifth Circuit 2018-12-04 Denied IFP 18-u.s.c.-§-3599 18-usc-3599 certificate-of-appealability death-penalty federal-habeas-corpus habeas-corpus indigent-defendant ineffective-assistance-counsel ineffective-assistance-of-counsel rule-60(b)(6) rule-60b Whether the denial of meaningful representation required by 18 U.S.C. § 3599 may cause a defect in the integrity of federal habeas proceedings that ca…
18-6916 Troy Lincoln Powell v. California California 2018-12-04 Denied IFP constitutional-rights criminal-sentencing death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment fifth-amendment fourteenth-amendment mental-illness sixth-amendment Does the imposition of the death penalty on a severely mentally ill defendant violate the Fifth, Sixth, Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments?
18-6901 Enoch D. Hall v. Florida Florida 2018-12-03 Denied IFP advisory-panel aggravating-circumstances Caldwell-v-Mississippi civil-rights constitutional-due-process death-penalty due-process harmless-error hurst-decision jury-instructions jury-role jury-sentencing sentencing sentencing-process unanimous-recommendation Whether the Hurst error is harmless given the jury's diminished sense of responsibility as an advisory panel, resulting in a Caldwell v. Mississippi e…
18-6902 Scott Mansfield v. Florida Florida 2018-12-03 Denied IFP criminal-conviction criminal-procedure death-penalty death-sentence due-process fact-finding findings-of-fact jury-findings jury-instructions notice procedural-due-process sentencing unnoticed-defendant Whether a conviction and death sentence may stand where a jury made no specific findings of fact that subjected an unnoticed individual to conviction …
18-6906 David E. Miller v. Tony Parker, Commissioner, Tennessee Department of Correction, et al. Sixth Circuit 2018-12-03 Denied IFP coercion cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty eighth-amendment ex-post-facto execution-method lethal-injection waiver waiver-of-rights When an inmate alleges that both his original and later-imposed punishments for the same crime violate the Eighth Amendment but the later-imposed puni…
18-6882 Willie Seth Crain, Jr. v. Florida Florida 2018-11-30 Denied IFP remedies prior constitutional defects in capital which requires unanimous jury findings of aggrava advisory-sentencing-panel aggravating-circumstances caldwell-v-mississippi capital-sentencing civil-rights constitutional-error death-penalty death-penalty-sentencing due-process harmless-error Hurst-decision hurst-v-florida jury-instructions jury-role jury-unanimity mitigating-circumstances sentencing sentencing-procedure Whether the Hurst error is harmless in light of the jury's diminished sense of responsibility as an advisory panel under Caldwell v. Mississippi
18-6884 Isaiah Glenndell Tryon v. Oklahoma Oklahoma 2018-11-30 Denied IFP aggravating-factors appellate-review criminal-procedure death-penalty hurst-v-florida jury-trial mitigating-circumstances ring-v-arizona sixth-amendment Whether the Sixth Amendment prohibits a state appellate court from reweighing aggravating and mitigating circumstances and determining that death is t…
18-6889 Stephen Todd Booker v. Florida Florida 2018-11-30 Denied IFP apprendi-v-new-jersey criminal-procedure death-penalty death-penalty-sentencing eighth-amendment equal-protection fourteenth-amendment hurst-retroactivity montgomery-v-louisiana retroactivity Does the partial retroactivity formula for Hurst v. Florida violate the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments?
18-6890 In Re Joseph C. Garcia 2018-11-30 Denied IFP actual-innocence capital-punishment cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty death-row eighth-amendment eighth-amendment-cruel-and-unusual-punishment fourteenth-amendment fourteenth-amendment-due-process psychological-stress Whether Joseph Garcia's extended stay on Texas' death row for nearly 16 years has resulted in his suffering additional severe psychological stress tha…
18-6891 Joseph C. Garcia v. Texas Texas 2018-11-30 Denied IFP 8th-amendment capital-punishment civil-rights criminal-intent cruel-and-unusual-punishment culpability death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment intent-to-kill mens-rea non-triggerman state-execution Whether the Eighth Amendment now forbids a State from executing a person when there is no evidence that he killed or intended to kill another person
18-6834 Dexter Johnson v. Lorie Davis, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Correctional Institutions Division Fifth Circuit 2018-11-27 Denied IFP death-penalty eighth-amendment federal-death-penalty federal-habeas federal-procedure final-judgment fourteenth-amendment habeas-corpus rule-58 What are the requirements under Rule 58 for a final judgment in district court for a federal death penalty habeas petition under the Eighth and Fourte…
18-6843 James Milton Dailey v. Florida Florida 2018-11-27 Denied IFP capital-punishment death-penalty eighth-amendment equal-protection fourteenth-amendment hurst-error hurst-v-florida retroactivity ring-v-arizona supremacy-clause Does the Florida Supreme Court's partial retroactivity decision violate the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments?
18-6848 Robert Mitchell Jennings v. Texas Texas 2018-11-27 Denied IFP death-penalty equal-protection habeas-corpus penry procedural-default subsequent-habeas Did the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals deny Jennings equal protection of the law by dismissing on procedural grounds subsequent habeas corpus applica…
18-6818 Ruben Rangel v. California California 2018-11-26 Denied IFP capital-punishment capital-sentencing constitutional-amendments death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment jury-determination jury-trial sentencing Does California's death penalty statute violate the Fifth, Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments by failing to meaningfully narrow the class of dea…
18-6819 Keith Tharpe v. Benjamin Ford, Warden Eleventh Circuit 2018-11-26 Denied Amici (1)Relisted (2)IFP certificate-of-appealability collateral-review death-penalty due-process equal-protection habeas-corpus juror-misconduct jury-selection pena-rodriguez racial-bias racial-bias-in-jury retroactivity Whether a juror's racial bias affected a death sentence
18-6826 Carlos David Caro v. United States Fourth Circuit 2018-11-26 Denied IFP §-2255-claim bop-data brady-violation criminal-procedure-brady death-penalty due-process exculpatory-evidence federal-prison government-misconduct procedural-bar sentencing sentencing-procedure suppression-of-evidence Whether the Fourth Circuit erred in ruling Caro was procedurally barred from raising a § 2255 claim that the Government's suppression of available exc…
18-679 Erick Virgil Hall v. Idaho Idaho 2018-11-23 Denied Amici (1) aggravating-circumstances capital-punishment capital-sentencing constitutional-standards death-penalty felony-murder heinous-atrocious-cruel jury-sentencing narrowing-requirement propensity-to-commit-murder sentencing-guidance utter-disregard Whether certain of the 'aggravating circumstances' used by Idaho to determine whether a defendant may be sentenced to death—those that ask whether the…
18-6766 David Gulbrandson v. Charles L. Ryan, Director, Arizona Department of Corrections Ninth Circuit 2018-11-21 Denied IFP capital-punishment capital-punishment-sentencing death-penalty eighth-amendment habeas-corpus procedural-default procedural-ruling second-in-time-petition statutory-aggravating-factors statutory-aggravator successive-petitions Whether reasonable jurists would debate the correctness of the district court's procedural ruling that Gulbrandson's second-in-time § 2254 petition wa…
18-6735 Perry Alexander Taylor v. Florida Florida 2018-11-20 Denied IFP caldwell-v-mississippi death-penalty eighth-amendment equal-protection flawed-scientific-testimony hurst-retroactivity medical-examiner-testimony non-unanimous-jury retroactivity Whether the State of Florida can deny Hurst relief and execute a prisoner because his case became final before June 24, 2002
18-640 Nicholas Bernard Acklin v. Alabama Alabama 2018-11-16 Denied Amici (2) attorney-client-relationship conflict-of-interest criminal-defense death-penalty fourteenth-amendment ineffective-assistance-counsel ineffective-assistance-of-counsel sixth-amendment third-party-payment Whether a criminal defendant is deprived of his Sixth and Fourteenth Amendment rights to conflict-free counsel
18-6708 Clifford D. Williams v. Ohio Ohio 2018-11-15 Denied IFP capital-punishment death-penalty eighth-amendment judge-sentencing jury-trial jury-verdict sentencing-phase sixth-amendment spaziano-v-florida Is Ohio's death penalty scheme unconstitutional under Hurst v. Florida?
18-6709 Lawrence Alfred Landrum v. Ohio Ohio 2018-11-15 Denied IFP capital-sentencing death-penalty eighth-amendment judge-sentencing judicial-discretion jury-recommendation jury-sentencing jury-trial sixth-amendment spaziano-v-florida Is Ohio's death penalty scheme unconstitutional under Hurst v. Florida?
18-6713 Donald Anthony Grant v. Mike Carpenter, Interim Warden Tenth Circuit 2018-11-15 Denied IFP 8th-amendment constitutional-rights criminal-procedure death-penalty eddings-precedent eddings-v-oklahoma eighth-amendment lockett-rule lockett-v-ohio mental-health mental-health-evidence mitigating-evidence moral-culpability Whether the Eighth Amendment requires a sentencer to consider mitigating evidence of a capital defendant's mental health and background when determini…
18-6680 Roberto Moreno Ramos v. Lorie Davis, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Correctional Institutions Division Fifth Circuit 2018-11-14 Denied IFP calderon-v-thompson circuit-court conflict-of-interest counsel-conflict death-penalty due-process habeas-corpus ineffective-assistance-of-counsel mandate-recall miscarriage-of-justice standard-of-review Did the Fifth Circuit err in applying the 'miscarriage of justice' standard and demanding clear and convincing evidence that no reasonable juror would…
18-6582 Kareem Glass v. Melissa Hainsworth, Superintendent, State Correctional Institution at Somerset Third Circuit 2018-11-06 Denied Response WaivedIFP appellate-procedure appellate-rights capital-punishment constitutional-rights death-penalty due-process ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel mitigating-circumstances penalty-phase sixth-amendment waiver waiver-of-rights where-capital-counsel-induced-petitioner-into-a-waiver
18-6588 Lesley Eugene Warren v. Edward Thomas, Warden Fourth Circuit 2018-11-06 Denied IFP capital-punishment character-evidence circuit-split civil-rights death-penalty due-process future-dangerousness parole parole-ineligibility prosecutorial-misconduct sentencing sentencing-procedure simmons-v-south-carolina Is it an unreasonable application of Simmons v. South Carolina for a State court to deny a parole ineligibility instruction where the prosecution repe…
18-6530 Edmund Zagorski v. Bill Haslam, Governor of Tennessee, et al. Sixth Circuit 2018-11-01 Denied IFP constitutional-protections constitutional-rights cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty death-penalty-challenges due-process involuntary-waiver method-of-execution procedural-technicalities state-secrecy stewart-v-lagrand Did Glossip v. Gross modify centuries-old jurisprudence prohibiting involuntary waiver of constitutional protections in the context of method of execu…
18-6532 Austin Myers v. Ohio Ohio 2018-11-01 Denied IFP capital-punishment death-penalty death-penalty-statute eighth-amendment judge-sentencing judicial-sentencing jury-trial jury-verdict sixth-amendment spaziano-v-florida Did Hurst v. Florida render Ohio's death penalty scheme unconstitutional?
18-553 Juliet Yackel v. South Dakota, et al. South Dakota 2018-10-29 Denied atkins-claim atkins-v-virginia conflict-of-interest counsel-representation death-penalty death-penalty-appeal eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment ineffective-assistance-of-counsel intellectual-disability moore-v-texas Whether Rodney Berget was arbitrarily deprived of conflict-free counsel in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment when his counsel determined not to fi…
18-6378 Robert Ira Peede v. Florida Florida 2018-10-18 Denied IFP arbitrary-cutoff capital-murder capital-punishment death-penalty death-penalty-retroactivity due-process eighth-amendment evolving-standards-of-decency fourteenth-amendment hurst-v-florida jury-unanimity retroactivity Whether the Florida Supreme Court's partial retroactivity rule as to violations pursuant to Hurst v. Florida violates the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendm…
18-6362 Edwin Darrell Lett v. Mississippi Mississippi 2018-10-17 Denied Response WaivedIFP 14th-amendment 6th-amendment civil-rights continuance counsel criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process fair-trial fourteenth-amendment ineffective-assistance-counsel sixth-amendment state-procedure trial Whether the petitioner's Sixth Amendment right to a fair trial was violated when the Mississippi Supreme Court failed to properly review the trial cou…
18-6315 David Ivy v. Tennessee Tennessee 2018-10-16 Denied IFP atkins-claim atkins-v-virginia constitutional-prohibition cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment intellectual-disability moore-v-texas procedural-mechanism roper-v-simmons state-procedure Where this Court has declared, States may not execute anyone in the entire category of [intellectually disabled] offenders. Moore v. Texas, 137 S. Ct.…
18-6252 Hersie Wesson v. Ohio Ohio 2018-10-09 Denied IFP capital-defendant capital-punishment constitutional-right death-penalty due-process intellectual-disability opportunity-to-be-heard procedural-due-process state-courts threshold-showing When a capital defendant can make a substantial threshold showing of intellectual disability, are the state courts constitutionally required to provid…
18-6262 Richard Penunuri v. California California 2018-10-09 Denied IFP constitutional-requirement criminal-sentencing death-penalty eighth-amendment fact-finding fifth-amendment fourteenth-amendment jury-beyond-reasonable-doubt jury-finding reasonable-doubt sixth-amendment Does California's death penalty scheme violate the requirement under the Fifth, Sixth, Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments that every fact that serves to…
18-6207 Manuel Ernesto Paiz Guevara v. United States Fourth Circuit 2018-10-03 Denied Response RequestedResponse WaivedRelisted (2)IFP abuse-of-discretion capital-crime capital-punishment criminal-procedure death-penalty eighth-amendment fourth-circuit-split mandatory-sentencing miller-v-alabama right-to-counsel sentencing sentencing-discretion statutory-interpretation Whether the Fourth Circuit erred in denying the defendant's request for two attorneys in a capital case
18-6167 Ronald Wayne Clark, Jr. v. Florida Florida 2018-10-02 Denied IFP capital-case capital-case,eighth-amendment,cruel-and-unusual-pu capital-punishment codefendant-culpability codefendants cruel-and-unusual-punishment cruel-unusual-punishment death-penalty death-sentence eighth-amendment proportionality-review reliability-of-death-sentence Whether an assessment of the relative culpability of codefendants in a capital case in Florida is required pursuant to the Eighth Amendment in order t…
18-6175 Victor Tony Jones v. Florida Florida 2018-10-02 Denied IFP 1981-homicide 1990-homicide capital-murder criminal-law death-penalty death-penalty-sentencing,hurst-v-state,jury-unanim hurst-v-state jury-unanimity reasonable-doubt retroactive-application retroactivity substantive-criminal-law Given that the elements of capital murder identified by the Florida Supreme Court in Hurst v. State are being applied in a prosecution for a 1981 homi…
18-6110 Mikal Mahdi v. South Carolina South Carolina 2018-09-28 Denied IFP appointment-of-counsel capital-punishment constitutional-rights criminal-procedure death-penalty death-sentence habeas-corpus indigent-counsel ineffective-assistance-of-counsel post-conviction-relief procedural-history right-to-counsel sixth-amendment south-carolina-supreme-court state-court Whether the Sixth Amendment right to effective assistance of counsel was violated when the state post-conviction court failed to appoint counsel for M…
18-6115 Jose Antonio Jimenez v. Florida Florida 2018-09-27 Denied IFP capital-murder criminal-sentencing death-penalty due-process elements-of-offense hurst-v-state jury-unanimity retrospective-application Whether Petitioner's death sentence can remain intact even though his jury was not instructed that the State had to prove all of the elements of capit…
18-6086 In Re Daniel Clate Acker 2018-09-24 Denied IFP 8th-amendment actual-innocence constitutional-claims death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment false-evidence habeas-corpus new-evidence state-liability state-repudiation wrongful-conviction Whether an original writ of habeas corpus is appropriate in the case of a death-sentenced individual who was convicted and sentenced to death on a the…
18-6075 Daniel Clate Acker v. Texas Texas 2018-09-21 Denied IFP adversarial-testing capital-punishment criminal-justice-system-legitimacy criminal-liability death-penalty due-process fairness false-theory-of-liability miscarriage-of-justice post-conviction-review Whether due process requires a state post-conviction review process when a state has repudiated a false theory of criminal liability on which it based…
18-6059 Cedric Carter v. Ohio Ohio 2018-09-20 Denied IFP capital-punishment capital-sentencing death-penalty eighth-amendment judge-sentencing jury-trial jury-verdict sentencing-phase sixth-amendment spaziano-v-florida Is Ohio's death penalty scheme unconstitutional under Hurst v. Florida?
18-5985 Jeffery Dana Sparks v. Jeff Premo, Superintendent, Oregon State Penitentiary Oregon 2018-09-14 Denied IFP constitutional-rights criminal-procedure cross-examination death-penalty evidence-presentation expert-testimony expert-witnesses ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel prosecution-experts prosecution-theory trial-strategy Whether defense counsel in a death penalty trial provided effective assistance
18-5948 Patrick Henry Murphy v. Lorie Davis, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Correctional Institutions Division Fifth Circuit 2018-09-12 Denied IFP conspiracy criminal-conspiracy death-penalty death-penalty-sentencing eighth-amendment enmund-v-florida-tison-v-arizona felony felony-murder jury-findings sentencing-requirements sixth-amendment Does the Sixth or Eighth Amendment require that before a party may be sentenced to death as a conspirator (rather than a trigger-person), the jury mus…
18-5937 Charles Lee Burton v. Alabama Alabama 2018-09-11 Denied IFP aggravating-factors caldwell-v-mississippi capital-sentencing capital-sentencing-scheme constitutional-review death-penalty eighth-amendment evolving-standards-of-decency hurst-v-florida jury-instructions jury-recommendation mitigating-factors Whether Alabama's capital sentencing scheme is unconstitutional under Hurst v. Florida and Caldwell v. Mississippi
18-5892 Andre Jackson v. Ohio Ohio 2018-09-06 Denied IFP 6th-amendment 8th-amendment capital-punishment death-penalty eighth-amendment judge-sentencing judicial-sentencing jury-recommendation jury-sentencing jury-trial sixth-amendment Is Ohio's death penalty scheme unconstitutional under Hurst v. Florida?
18-5841 Juan David Rodriguez v. Julie L. Jones, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections Florida 2018-08-31 Denied IFP 1981-homicide capital-murder death-penalty death-penalty-sentencing due-process hurst-v-state jury-unanimity reasonable-doubt retroactivity substantive-criminal-law Whether the elements of capital murder identified by the Florida Supreme Court in Hurst v. State apply to a 1981 homicide prosecution
18-5837 David Lee Roberts v. Alabama Alabama 2018-08-30 Denied IFP capital-sentencing criminal-procedure death-penalty federal-law hurst-v-florida judicial-findings jury-sentencing jury-verdict retroactivity ring-v-arizona Did Hurst invalidate Alabama's capital sentencing scheme?
18-5793 Ray Lamar Johnston v. Florida Florida 2018-08-28 Denied Relisted (4)IFP caldwell-v-mississippi capital-punishment capital-punishment-system death-penalty due-process equal-protection florida harmless-error hurst-relief hurst-v-florida jury-trial sixth-amendment Whether Florida's application of harmless error review to a unanimous jury recommendation of death violates the Sixth Amendment right to jury trial as…
18-5648 Anthony Lamarca v. Florida Florida 2018-08-20 Denied IFP apprendi-v-new-jersey capital-case death-penalty eighth-amendment eighth-amendment-cruel-and-unusual-punishment fourteenth-amendment fourteenth-amendment-due-process hurst-v-florida jury-unanimity retroactivity ring-v-arizona Whether the Florida Supreme Court's partial retroactivity rule as to violations pursuant to Hurst v. Florida violates the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendm…
18-192 J. B. R. v. United States Fifth Circuit 2018-08-14 Denied age-of-criminal-responsibility constitutional-limits constitutional-punishment criminal-prosecution death-penalty due-process first-degree-murder juvenile-justice juvenile-offender juvenile-offenders life-imprisonment prosecutorial-discretion statutory-interpretation statutory-punishment Whether the Due Process Clause forbids the Government from prosecuting an individual who was a juvenile at the time of the crime under a statute that …
18-5518 Norman Mearle Grim v. Florida Florida 2018-08-08 Denied Relisted (5)IFP advisory-jury burden-of-proof caldwell-v-mississippi capital-case death-penalty death-penalty-sentencing eighth-amendment harmless-error hurst-v-florida hurst-violation sixth-amendment sullivan-v-louisiana Whether a Hurst violation can be ruled harmless based solely on a pre-Hurst advisory jury's unanimous vote to recommend death, where the jurors heard …
18-5494 Blaine Keith Milam v. Lorie Davis, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Correctional Institutions Division Fifth Circuit 2018-08-07 Denied IFP buck-v-davis certificate-of-appealability civil-rights death-penalty due-process fifth-circuit habeas-corpus ineffective-assistance-of-counsel intellectual-disability judicial-review mitigating-evidence procedural-default right-to-counsel Whether the Fifth Circuit erred in not granting a certificate of appealability on the claims presented in violation of the holding in Buck v. Davis
18-5495 In Re Billy Ray Irick 2018-08-07 Denied Amici (1)IFP cruel-and-unusual-punishment cruel-unusual-punishment death-penalty eighth-amendment evolving-standards-of-decency fourteenth-amendment mental-illness personal-culpability sentencing Whether the imposition of the death penalty on a person who was severely mentally ill at the time of the offense constitutes cruel and unusual punishm…
18-5434 Troy Victorino v. Florida Florida 2018-08-02 Denied IFP 14th-amendment 5th-amendment capital-punishment criminal-punishment death-penalty double-jeopardy due-process ex-post-facto fifth-amendment florida-supreme-court fourteenth-amendment jury-sentencing resentencing statutory-interpretation Does the automatic-resentencing-to-life provision of Florida Statutes Section 775.082(2) violate due-process, double-jeopardy, ex-post-facto
18-5441 Milford Wade Byrd v. Florida Florida 2018-08-02 Denied IFP capital-murder criminal-procedure death-penalty ex-post-facto hurst-v-state jury-unanimity retroactive-application retroactivity Whether a death sentence can remain intact when the jury did not unanimously find the elements of capital murder proven beyond a reasonable doubt
18-5375 Christopher Henriquez v. California California 2018-07-27 Denied IFP aggravating-factors burden-of-proof capital-punishment constitutional-rights criminal-sentencing death-penalty due-process equal-protection jury-trial mitigating-circumstances reasonable-doubt Whether the California death penalty scheme violates the Fifth, Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments
18-5376 Mark Allen Geralds v. Florida Florida 2018-07-27 Denied IFP arbitrary-cutoff capital-murder capital-punishment death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment equal-protection fourteenth-amendment hurst-v-florida jury-unanimity retroactivity Whether the Florida Supreme Court's partial retroactivity rule as to violations pursuant to Hurst v. Florida violates the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendm…
18-5359 Ernest D. Suggs v. Florida Florida 2018-07-26 Denied IFP appellate-review caldwell-v-mississippi capital-sentencing death-penalty death-penalty-sentencing eighth-amendment hurst-v-florida judicial-responsibility jury-instructions jury-recommendation Does a Florida death sentence imposed pursuant to the capital sentencing scheme overruled in Hurst v. Florida, 136 S. Ct. 616 (2016), in a case where …
18-113 Jeremiah Rodgers v. Florida Florida 2018-07-25 Denied Amici (1) constitutional-rights death-penalty due-process hurst-v-florida jury-trial jury-waiver retroactivity sentencing-procedure sixth-amendment waiver Does waiving a state-law right to have a jury make an advisory sentencing recommendation constitute a knowing and intelligent waiver of the federal co…
18-5352 Paul Anthony Brown v. Florida Florida 2018-07-25 Denied IFP arbitrary-cutoff capital-punishment constitutional-rights death-penalty death-penalty-retroactivity due-process eighth-amendment equal-protection fourteenth-amendment hurst-v-florida jury-unanimity retroactivity Whether the Florida Supreme Court's partial retroactivity rule as to violations pursuant to Hurst v. Florida violates the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendm…
18-5354 Darryl Brian Barwick v. Florida Florida 2018-07-25 Denied IFP arbitrary-cutoff capital-murder capital-punishment death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment hurst-v-florida jury-unanimity retroactivity Whether the Florida Supreme Court's partial retroactivity rule as to violations pursuant to Hurst v. Florida violates the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendm…
18-5331 Ralph Simon Jeremias v. Nevada Nevada 2018-07-24 Denied IFP aggravating-circumstances confrontation-clause constitutional-standard death-penalty due-process hurst-v-florida jury-finding jury-trial mitigating-circumstances ring-v-arizona Whether the Constitution requires that the finding that mitigating circumstances do not outweigh aggravating circumstances to impose death be made bey…
18-100 Leonard Maurice Drane v. Eric Sellers, Warden Georgia 2018-07-23 Denied actual-innocence constitutional-review death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment enmund-v-florida fourteenth-amendment habeas-corpus proportionality wrongful-conviction When a prisoner under a sentence of death has acquired compelling and undisputed evidence of his actual innocence after his trial that the state court…
18-5303 Maurice Mason v. Ohio Ohio 2018-07-20 Denied IFP capital-sentencing death-penalty hurst-v-florida jury-decision jury-recommendation ohio-death-penalty ring-v-arizona sixth-amendment Does Ohio's death penalty scheme, classifying a jury's decision as a recommendation, accord with the Sixth Amendment right to trial by jury as articul…
18-5228 Quawn M. Franklin v. Florida Florida 2018-07-13 Denied Relisted (5)IFP caldwell-error constitutional-claim death-penalty eighth-amendment harmless-error hurst-v-florida hurst-violation individualized-review jury-recommendation sullivan sullivan-v-louisiana Whether the per se harmless-error rule adopted by the Florida Supreme Court violates precedents and the Eighth Amendment
18-5218 Allen Robertson, Jr. v. Louisiana Louisiana 2018-07-12 Denied IFP atkins-v-virginia criminal-behavior death-penalty eighth-amendment eighth-amendment-cruel-and-unusual-punishment hall-v-florida intellectual-disability jury-misconduct moore-v-texas racial-bias sixth-amendment Whether the Louisiana state courts improperly considered Petitioner's criminal behavior in determining that he is not intellectually disabled, in viol…
18-56 Tim Shoop, Warden v. Danny Hill Sixth Circuit 2018-07-10 GVR Relisted (9) aedpa antiterrorism-and-effective-death-penalty-act atkins-standard atkins-v-virginia clinical-judgment clinical-judgments death-penalty eighth-amendment habeas-corpus intellectual-disability moore-v-texas Did the Sixth Circuit properly use the Moore decision from 2017 to find that an Ohio court unreasonably applied Atkins in 2008, even though the Ohio c…
18-5160 Michael Anthony Tanzi v. Florida Florida 2018-07-09 Denied Relisted (5)IFP caldwell-v-mississippi capital-punishment death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment harmless-error hurst-v-florida hurst-violation judicial-procedure per-se-rule supreme-court-precedent Whether the Florida Supreme Court's application of a per se harmless-error rule to violations of Hurst v. Florida in pre-Hurst cases violates the Eigh…
18-5179 Ronnie Johnson v. Florida Florida 2018-07-09 Denied IFP 6th-amendment 8th-amendment cruel-and-unusual-punishment death-penalty due-process equal-protection hurst-v-florida jury-trial retroactivity ring-v-arizona Whether the retroactive application of Hurst v. Florida was unconstitutionally limited
18-5181 Michael Gordon Reynolds v. Florida Florida 2018-07-09 Denied Relisted (4)IFP caldwell-v-mississippi capital-sentencing death-penalty death-penalty-sentencing eighth-amendment hurst-error jury-instructions ring-v-arizona structural-error Whether the Florida Supreme Court's plurality decision rejecting Mr. Reynolds' Caldwell v. Mississippi, 472 U.S. 320 (1985) claim is error. The jury w…
18-5065 Manuel Antonio Rodriguez v. Florida Florida 2018-07-05 Denied IFP caldwell-v-mississippi capital-punishment death-penalty death-penalty-sentencing eighth-amendment furman-v-georgia hurst-v-florida retroactivity ring-v-arizona supremacy-clause Whether the Florida Supreme Court's per se harmless-error rule for Hurst errors contravenes the Eighth Amendment
18-5122 Thomas Overton v. Florida Florida 2018-07-05 Denied IFP apprendi-v-new-jersey capital-punishment constitutional-rights death-penalty death-penalty-retroactivity due-process eighth-amendment equal-protection fourteenth-amendment hurst-v-florida retroactivity ring-v-arizona supremacy-clause supreme-court Whether the Florida Supreme Court's partial retroactivity approach for Hurst v. Florida and Hurst v. State violates the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendmen…
18-5081 Alvin Leroy Morton v. Florida Florida 2018-07-03 Denied IFP binding-precedent capital-sentencing criminal-procedure death-penalty death-penalty-sentencing federal-constitutional-rights judicial-discretion jury-instructions jury-responsibility jury-role sentencing-procedure structural-error unanimous-verdict Whether structural error occurs when the jury fails to return a verdict as to multiple critical elements necessary to impose the death penalty
18-5088 Emanuel Johnson v. Florida Florida 2018-07-03 Denied IFP death-penalty eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment hurst-v-florida judicial-review retroactivity sixth-amendment supremacy-clause Did the Florida Supreme Court violate the Supremacy Clause and the Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments in affirming Emanuel Johnson's judicially-…
18-5084 Daniel Burns v. Florida Florida 2018-07-02 Denied IFP collateral-review constitutional-amendments constitutional-rights death-penalty death-penalty-sentencing due-process eighth-amendment equal-protection fourteenth-amendment hurst-decision hurst-v-florida retroactivity sixth-amendment supremacy-clause Did the Florida Supreme Court violate the Supremacy Clause and the Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments in affirming Daniel Burns' judicially-dete…
18-5091 Kevin Don Foster v. Florida Florida 2018-07-02 Denied IFP apprendi-v-new-jersey capital-punishment death-penalty death-penalty-retroactivity eighth-amendment equal-protection fourteenth-amendment hurst-v-florida retroactivity ring-v-arizona Whether the Florida Supreme Court's partial retroactivity approach for Hurst relief violates the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments
18-5040 Henry Perry Sireci v. Florida Florida 2018-06-29 Denied IFP constitutional-rights death-penalty eighth-amendment eighth-amendment-cruel-and-unusual-punishment,four eighth-amendment,fourteenth-amendment,death-penalt fourteenth-amendment hurst-v-florida jury-determination jury-sentencing retroactivity Whether the Florida Supreme Court's partial retroactivity decision that limits the class of death-sentenced individuals entitled to a jury determinati…
18-5042 Jack Sliney v. Florida Florida 2018-06-29 Denied IFP constitutional-rights death-penalty death-penalty-sentencing eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment hurst-v-florida jury-determination jury-sentencing retroactivity ring-v-arizona Whether the Florida Supreme Court's partial retroactivity decision violates the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments
18-5051 Samuel Jason Derrick v. Florida Florida 2018-06-29 Denied IFP arbitrary-cutoff capital-murder capital-punishment death-penalty death-penalty-retroactivity due-process eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment hurst-v-florida jury-unanimity retroactivity sentencing Whether the Florida Supreme Court's partial retroactivity rule as to violations pursuant to Hurst v. Florida violates the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendm…
18-5001 John Theodore Hancock v. United States Sixth Circuit 2018-06-28 Denied Response WaivedIFP burrage-standard but-for-causation causation criminal-law criminal-procedure death-penalty death-resulting due-process jury-instruction jury-instructions sentencing statutory-interpretation Whether a jury instruction that submits the question of whether a death was the result of the accused's offense by simply tracking the statutory langu…
18-5018 Kenneth Darcell Quince v. Florida Florida 2018-06-28 Denied IFP atkins-v-virginia death-penalty diagnostic-criteria eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment hall-v-florida intellectual-disability medical-standards moore-v-texas Whether Florida violated Atkins v. Virginia, Hall v. Florida, Moore v. Texas, and the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments by disregarding medical evidenc…
18-5021 Paul Alfred Brown v. Florida Florida 2018-06-28 Denied IFP constitutional-rights criminal-procedure death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment equal-protection fourteenth-amendment hurst-retroactivity hurst-v-florida retroactivity ring-v-arizona supremacy-clause supreme-court-review Does the Florida Supreme Court's partial retroactivity formula for Hurst v. Florida violations violate the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments?
23A1160 Ruben Gutierrez v. Luis Saenz, et al. Fifth Circuit Presumed Complete article-iii-standing death-penalty dna-testing due-process habeas-corpus post-conviction-relief Whether a death-row prisoner has Article III standing to challenge state procedures that improperly limit access to post-conviction DNA testing under …
24A202 Loran Cole v. Florida Florida Denied death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment equal-protection lethal-injection parkinson's-disease Whether the Eighth Amendment prohibits the execution of a death row inmate with Parkinson's disease using lethal injection procedures that may cause n…
24A284 Freddie Owens v. Bryan Stirling, et al. Fourth Circuit Denied capital-punishment competency cruel-and-unusual death-penalty eighth-amendment mental-illness Whether the Eighth Amendment prohibits the execution of a death row inmate with a documented history of severe mental illness that substantially impai…
24A302 Garcia Glen White v. Texas Texas Denied atkins-claim death-penalty dna-evidence fourteenth-amendment habeas-corpus intellectual-disability Whether the Fourteenth Amendment requires a state court to provide an evidentiary hearing on claims of intellectual disability and newly discovered sc…
24A409 Richard Bernard Moore v. Bryan P. Stirling, Director, South Carolina Department of Corrections South Carolina Denied batson-challenge death-penalty equal-protection jury-selection peremptory-strikes racial-discrimination Whether the State's peremptory strikes of Black jurors in a capital murder trial violated the Equal Protection Clause under Batson v. Kentucky by impe…
24A592 Tahina Corcoran, as next friend on behalf of Joseph E. Corcoran v. Ron Neal, Warden Seventh Circuit Denied competency death-penalty eighth-amendment execution-stay mental-illness schizophrenia Whether the Eighth Amendment prohibits the execution of a defendant with severe, untreated paranoid schizophrenia who was deemed incompetent to assist…
24A723 Marion Bowman, Jr. v. Bryan P. Stirling, Director, South Carolina Department of Corrections, et al. South Carolina Denied death-penalty ineffective-assistance racial-bias sixth-amendment strickland-standard trial-counsel Whether a criminal defendant's Sixth Amendment right to effective assistance of counsel is violated when trial counsel introduces racially prejudicial…
24A771 James D. Ford v. Florida Florida Denied death-penalty developmental-age due-process eighth-amendment mental-impairment roper-exclusion Whether the Eighth Amendment prohibits the execution of an individual with a mental and developmental age significantly below the age of majority at t…
24A948 Michael Tanzi v. Ricky D. Dixon, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections Florida Denied constitutional-law death-penalty federal-review jury-trial procedural-bar sixth-amendment Whether a state supreme court's procedural bar on a death row inmate's federal constitutional claim violates the Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial…
24A1037 Jeffrey Glenn Hutchinson v. Florida Florida Denied death-penalty diminished-moral-culpability eighth-amendment gulf-war-illness postconviction-relief traumatic-brain-injury Whether the Eighth Amendment prohibits a state from executing a defendant whose diminished moral culpability due to service-related traumatic brain in…
25A191 Kayle Barrington Bates v. Ron DeSantis, Governor of Florida Eleventh Circuit Denied constitutional-rights death-penalty eighth-amendment execution-stay fourteenth-amendment legal-review Whether the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments prohibit the execution of a death row inmate when substantial legal issues remain unresolved
25A216 Curtis Windom v. Florida, et al. Florida Denied capital-counsel death-penalty evolving-standards ineffective-assistance right-to-counsel sixth-amendment Whether the Sixth Amendment requires retroactive application of evolving standards of counsel qualifications in capital cases to determine the effecti…
25A280 David Joseph Pittman v. Florida Florida Denied atkins-claim death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment intellectual-disability time-bar Whether the Eighth Amendment prohibits the execution of an intellectually disabled defendant when state courts have arbitrarily applied time bars that…
25A335 In Re Blaine Milam Denied actual-innocence death-penalty eighth-amendment forensic-evidence intellectual-disability junk-science Whether the Eighth Amendment prohibits the execution of a potentially innocent defendant based on now-discredited forensic evidence and testimony
25A356 Victor Tony Jones v. Florida, et al. Florida Denied atkins-v-virginia death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment intellectual-disability supreme-court-precedent Whether the Eighth Amendment prohibits the execution of an intellectually disabled defendant when a state court disregards clearly established Supreme…
25A693 Frank A. Walls v. Florida, et al. Florida Denied atkins-claim constitutional-interpretation death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment intellectual-disability Question not identified.
25A698 Frank Walls v. Ricky D. Dixon, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections, et al. Eleventh Circuit Denied cruel-and-unusual death-penalty eighth-amendment lethal-injection medical-vulnerability pulmonary-edema Question not identified.
25A577 Richard Barry Randolph v. Florida, et al. Florida Denied capital-punishment death-penalty eighth-amendment irreparable-harm mental-competency method-of-execution Whether the Eighth Amendment prohibits the execution of a death row inmate when substantial constitutional questions regarding the method of execution…
25A532 Bryan Frederick Jennings v. Florida, et al. Florida Denied capital-sentencing death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment postconviction-counsel Whether the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments prohibit a state from executing a death-sentenced prisoner after systemic failures in postconviction coun…
18A1200 Robert Joe Long v. Mark S. Inch, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections Florida Presumed Complete capital-punishment constitutional-violation death-penalty eighth-amendment execution-stay habeas-corpus Whether the Eighth Amendment prohibits the execution of a death row inmate based on claims of constitutional violations during the original capital tr…
18A1202 Robert Joe Long v. Florida Florida Presumed Complete cruel-and-unusual death-penalty eighth-amendment etomidate lethal-injection medical-condition Whether the Eighth Amendment prohibits the use of etomidate in a lethal injection protocol for an inmate with temporal lobe epilepsy and brain damage
18A1216 Bobby Joe Long v. Mark S. Inch, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections, et al. Eleventh Circuit Presumed Complete constitutional-rights death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment federal-review irreparable-harm Whether the Eighth Amendment and Due Process Clause prohibit the execution of a death row inmate when substantial constitutional claims remain unresol…
18A1345 Marion Wilson, Jr. v. Georgia Georgia Presumed Complete clemency constitutional-rights death-penalty dna-testing execution-stay forensic-evidence Whether a death row inmate has a constitutional right to forensic DNA testing of critical evidence that could potentially demonstrate his ineligibilit…
18A1346 Marion Wilson, Jr. v. Benjamin Ford, Warden Georgia Presumed Complete capital-punishment clemency death-penalty eighth-amendment execution-stay prosecutorial-misconduct Whether the Eighth Amendment prohibits the execution of a death row inmate based on claims of prosecutorial misconduct and death ineligibility