Death Penalty
Ga. Defense Lawyers Accept Justice Stevens’ Implied Invitation
Posted Oct 27, 2008, 12:52 pm CDT
By Debra Cassens Weiss
Defense lawyers plan to file legal challenges to Georgia’s review of death sentences after criticism by a U.S. Supreme Court justice.
Mercer University law professor Tim Floyd told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that Justice John Paul Stevens “seems to be sending an invitation” for appeals in a statement he issued last week.
Stevens agreed with the Supreme Court’s decision to deny cert in the case of death-row inmate Artemus "Rick" Walker, but issued a critical statement in which he said the Georgia Supreme Court “carried out an utterly perfunctory review” of the death sentence.
Stevens questioned whether the Georgia Supreme Court was violating the Constitution when it considers whether death sentences are proportionate to sentences for similar offenses. The state supreme court considered death-penalty cases with similar facts in Walker’s case, but didn’t mention numerous cases in which a life sentence was imposed.
Lawyers in the Office of the Georgia Capital Defender intend to pursue the issue, according to Gerry Word, who heads the office. “We’re looking at cases we think are appropriate for a proportionality challenge and filing those throughout the state,” he told the Journal-Constitution.
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