Supreme Court Overturns 9th Circuit a Third Time in Bludgeon Murder Case
For the third time, the U.S. Supreme Court has overturned the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and restored the death penalty for a man convicted of the bludgeon murder of a 19-year-old woman in 1981.
The Supreme Court’s per curiam opinion (PDF) said it is “fanciful” to believe that a lawyer for convicted murderer Fernando Belmontes could have swayed jurors against the death penalty by presenting additional evidence about Belmontes’ difficult childhood, according to the Los Angeles Times and the Associated Press.
The court noted that Belmontes’ lawyer may have kept evidence of a possible second murder from the jury by shunning experts who would have put Belmontes’ mental state and propensity for violence into contention.
The Supreme Court also said it “simply cannot comprehend” the 9th Circuit’s assertion that the bludgeon murder did not involve needless suffering. The victim had “her skull crushed by 15 to 20 blows from a steel dumbbell bar” and died hours later after a “desperate struggle for life.”
The per curiam ruling was decided without formal briefing or oral argument, according to SCOTUSblog.
