Supreme Court Dismisses Inmate's Appeal after Oral Arguments
The U.S. Supreme Court has dismissed a death row inmate’s claim that state courts had not properly considered his claims of ineffective assistance of counsel.
The Supreme Court dismissed the appeal today as improvidently granted, but as is customary, it gave no further explanation, SCOTUSblog reports. The court heard arguments in the case just last week.
The Virginia inmate, Edward Nathaniel Bell, was convicted of murdering a police officer. He faults his lawyer for presenting no mitigating evidence against the death penalty, including evidence he was physically abused and given drugs and alcohol as a toddler.
The Virginia Supreme Court had found that Bell suffered no prejudice by his lawyer’s actions. At issue was the degree of deference that federal courts should give to the state court finding, according to SCOTUSblog.
During oral arguments, Bell’s lawyer, Richard Bress, had argued that new evidence in the case made it a new claim meriting federal review, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. had questioned that assertion, the story says.
“Your underlying theory is if you’ve got a lot of new evidence, that some how changes the claim,” Roberts said. “I’m having trouble getting my arms around that.”
