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An Atkins claim and a lawyer's mistake before SCOTUS

By Douglas A. Berman

As detailed in this new post at SCOTUSblog, a last-minute appeal to the Supreme Court in a Mississippi capital case presents an intriguing twist on some always nettlesome death penalty issues.  Here is a snippet from Lyle Denniston's great post:[T]he core issue [ Earl Wesley Berry of Mississippi] raises in both the new state case and the original habeas plea [concerns] the question of a death-row inmate?s right to a hearing ? which Berry?s lawyers say he has never had in state court ? on a claim of mental retardation.  Because the Supreme Court has imposed a categorical bar on executing any mentally retarded inmate, the appeals argue, an inmate with credible evidence of that mental deficiency must have a chance to present it before being put to death...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on May 20, 2008 (boomark / email).