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In Kimbrough v. Secretary, DOC, No. 08-11421 (April 13, 2009), the Court affirmed the denial of habeas relief to a Florida inmate sentenced to death in 1994.
The Court rejected the argument that trial counsel was ineffective for failing to present mental health mitigating evidence at the sentencing phase. The Court noted trial counsel’s strategic decision not to present such evidence because it would have opened the door to admission to the admission of more damaging information.
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In U.S. v. Williams, No. 08-10185 (March 31, 2009), the Court affirmed the district court’s re-imposition of a life sentence.
In a prior appeal, the Court had vacated the life sentence because the district court failed to give a reason for imposing a life sentence. Upon remand, the district court provided reasons.
The Court noted that its limited mandate precluded the district court from re-examining the life sentence based on new considerations. The Court recognized that one exception to the mandate rule involved intervening changes in the law. Here, one prior conviction that qualified Williams as a "career offender" was a Florida state conviction for battery of a law enforcement. The Florida Supreme Court recently held that this offense was not a "forcible felony." Further, the Court’s precedent which held that federal, not state, law governs for career offender purposes is now up for review in the United States Supreme Court. Yet neither of these recent developments constituted an intervening change in law.
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Sue Carlton published a column in the St. Petersburg Times today regarding Florida's policy to have individuals performing executions wear hoods and hide their identities. I found her column well worth reading.
Facts of note on Florida executioners - the executioner need only be 18, is appointed by a warden, and makes $150 per execution. Ah, the selectee must also "get training." What does that mean? There are horror stories in Florida (and other states) about botched executions, about men's heads on fire or failed IVs or improper drug application that caused an execution to take significantly too long. Just how much training is required? Do they get pyschological training to assure they know exactly what they are doing?
It makes me ill to think of an 18 year old taking the life of another human being for the mere sum of $150. OK, well, I admit, it makes me sick to think of an 18 year old taking a human life at all, but that "service" to the State is only worth $150?
Carlton indicates in her column that, every time an execution looms or the death penalty is in the news, the Florida Department of Corrections receives at least a dozen requests by email to become an executioner. I have to wonder - where does this overwhelming desire to kill someone stem from? Do the volunteers have some sort of sick fantasy to let go of that the legality of the State proceeding allows them to do without consequence? I suppose if he performed more than one, it might qualify him (or her) as a serial killer. Does that make someone feel more important? More "god" like? Shouldn't the executioner have to look his victim in the eye before he kills him?
I understand the State's concern about protecting the executioner from retaliation, but if the person is willing to perform the act and believes that it is moral and proper to do so, then that person should be willing to identify his or herself - at the very least, to the life he or she is ending.
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July 27th, 2009UncategorizedIn Kimbrough v. Secretary, DOC, No. 08-11421 (April 13, 2009), the Court affirmed the denial of habeas relief to a Florida inmate sentenced to death in 1994.