Saturday, February 21, 2004
Stumbled across this one: lee v kemna (s. ct. 2002, 6-3).
Lee was convicted of felony murder at a trial where his alibi witnesses
were sent home by a bailiff, and he was denied a continuance to try to find them. The witnesses were family, and I express no opinion on whether or not he drove the getaway car. This is about whether he received a fair trial. He lost at trial, lost on appeal, lost an appeal to the Missouri Supreme Court. His writ of habeus corpus was denied by a federal court, denied by the eighth circuit, and granted by the U.S. Supreme Court. Kennedy, Scalia, Thomas dissented. The supreme court takes few cases, less than 1%. If they had not taken this case, Lee would have stayed in prison without a fair trial. It wasn't a death penalty case. Cases like this, though, support the idea that Missouri is in the habit of executing or imprisoning people who haven't had fair trials.
When i interned at the Missouri Supreme Court, there was a case of a guy who as sentenced to 10 years with no trial. Eventually, the court decided to take the case and overturned the sentence. Part of my distaste for attorneys general stems from that case. I think the prisons are full of people wrongfully convicted. "Full of" may be an overstatement.
But, if accused, don't count on a fair trial. What i'm reading: "How to be invisible." It's about keeping a low profile so as to avoid being wrongfully accused, or, if wrongfully accused, how to avoid one's accusers.
Lee was convicted of felony murder at a trial where his alibi witnesses
were sent home by a bailiff, and he was denied a continuance to try to find them. The witnesses were family, and I express no opinion on whether or not he drove the getaway car. This is about whether he received a fair trial. He lost at trial, lost on appeal, lost an appeal to the Missouri Supreme Court. His writ of habeus corpus was denied by a federal court, denied by the eighth circuit, and granted by the U.S. Supreme Court. Kennedy, Scalia, Thomas dissented. The supreme court takes few cases, less than 1%. If they had not taken this case, Lee would have stayed in prison without a fair trial. It wasn't a death penalty case. Cases like this, though, support the idea that Missouri is in the habit of executing or imprisoning people who haven't had fair trials.
When i interned at the Missouri Supreme Court, there was a case of a guy who as sentenced to 10 years with no trial. Eventually, the court decided to take the case and overturned the sentence. Part of my distaste for attorneys general stems from that case. I think the prisons are full of people wrongfully convicted. "Full of" may be an overstatement.
But, if accused, don't count on a fair trial. What i'm reading: "How to be invisible." It's about keeping a low profile so as to avoid being wrongfully accused, or, if wrongfully accused, how to avoid one's accusers.
Comments:
Post a Comment
