News and Developments 2007: U.S. Supreme Court

On Tuesday, Dec. 4, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in Snyder v. Louisiana, a case involving a black defendant sentenced to death by an all-white jury after the prosecution used its peremptory strikes to exclude all of the qualified black jurors.  During Allen Snyder’s 1996 trial for the murder of a man his estranged wife was dating, prosecutor James Williams of Jefferson Parish urged the all-white jury to sentence the defendant to death so that Snyder would not "get away with it" like O.J. Simpson.

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case in which it will decide how appellate courts are to evaluate claims of ineffective assistance of counsel in plea negotiations. The case, Arave v. Hoffman (07-110), is the latest effort by the Justices to decide whether mistakes made by a defense lawyer warrant overturning a criminal's conviction or sentence. The appeal stems from a Idaho 1987 murder committed by Max Hoffman and two other men. Five weeks before his trial, prosecutors offered Hoffman a plea deal stating they would not seek the death penalty in exchange for his pleading guilty to first-degree murder. His court-appointed lawyer advised him that Idaho's death penalty law was likely to be struck down as unconstitutional because it was nearly identical to an Arizona law that had recently been overturned by the state's high court. Hoffman, who doubted that he was guilty of first-degree murder given his role in the crime, followed his attorney's advice and rejected the state's plea deal. In 1989, he was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death -- a sentence that was reaffirmed when the Idaho Supreme Court upheld the state's death penalty statute.

The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) has filed a judicial complaint against the Presiding Judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, Sharon Keller (pictured), the first time the group says it has ever filed a complaint against a judge. NACDL has asked the Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct to review Judge Keller's decision to turn away the last appeal of a death row inmate because the rushed filing was submitted past the court's 5 p.m. closing time. Attorneys for Michael Richard, who was executed on the same day the U.S. Supreme Court announced it would review the constitutionality of lethal injection practices, said they were experiencing computer problems as they prepared their client's lethal injection-based appeal just hours before Richard's execution. The appeal was being filed right after attorneys had learend that the Supreme Court would take up the issue. They asked Judge Keller for 20 more minutes to deliver their appeal to Austin because the court does not accept computer filings. They were told, "We close at 5." Without a ruling from the state court, the lawyers could not properly appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court to block the execution. At least 150 attorneys have filed similar complaints against Judge Keller with the State Commission on Judicial Conduct, which can impose sanctions ranging from additional education to suspension or a trial.