Jan 26, 2021 · This lawyer was named John Benn, and his client, George McFarland, was facing the death penalty for a robbery-murder. Benn fell asleep when one witness was on the stand and woke up to find someone...
A $27,000 Robbery. The murder that put McFarland on death row occurred on Friday, Nov. 15, 1991, a cloudy but warm day in Houston. The morning began …
Apr 07, 2014 · The court rejected this appeal because neither of the brothers complained of their lawyer falling asleep during the course of trial. The court also felt that the lawyer’s sleeping did not interfere with his ability to participate in the case. ... California Death Penalty Ruled Unconstitutional. By: Wallin & Klarich Published On: Posted on ...
Absolutely not. The brothers’ requested a new trial because they felt that the attorney slept through “substantial portions” of trial. The Court of Appeals disagreed because they felt that the trial transcript did not show this.
Fortunately, this can be grounds for a new trial, depending on the circumstances of your case. It can be difficult, but you need to be able to prove a few things:
Although the Sixth Amendment guarantees you an attorney in your criminal trial, we understand that you may not have been effectively represented. Certain actions by your attorney may be grounds for getting a new trial.
Amnesty International, a frequent critic of the Supreme Court's death penalty decisions, said: ''The Supreme Court has served justice today.''. In another development today bearing on the death penalty, three justices filed an opinion dissenting from stays of execution the court granted last month to two Texas death row inmates.
The Supreme Court, acting in a case that has come to crystallize arguments over the adequacy of legal representation in death penalty cases, today let stand an appellate ruling that a Texas death row inmate is entitled to a new trial because his lawyer fell asleep repeatedly during his original trial. The justices said nothing in rejecting the ...
Burdine's petition for a writ of habeas corpus and ordered a new trial, three jurors and the court clerk from the original trial testified that his lawyer, Joe Cannon, dozed repeatedly. Mr.
Against that background, the delayed dissenting opinion filed today by Justice Antonin Scalia, joined by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justice Clarence Thomas, was not only unexpected but surprisingly sharp in tone.
Defense lawyers described both men, Curtis Moore and Brian E. Davis, as mentally retarded and successfully urged the court to postpone their scheduled executions until after a ruling expected later this month on whether the Constitution bars the execution of retarded people.
But it was hard to avoid the sense that whatever danger the justices thought the appeals court's ruling might pose for the legal system, they had decided that it would be even more dangerous for the Supreme Court to suggest that for a lawyer to sleep through a trial was acceptable.