(Death penalty) An Appeal Gone Astray Catches the Supreme Court’s Attention

Source: The New York Times

WASHINGTON — Cory R. Maples, a death row inmate in Alabama, had what turned out to be the bad fortune to be represented by one of the most prominent law firms in the nation. The Supreme Court heard arguments in his case on Tuesday, and Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. described where matters stood.

“Mr. Maples has lost his right to appeal through no fault of his own,” Justice Alito said, “through a series of very unusual and unfortunate circumstances.”

When an Alabama court sent two copies of a ruling in Mr. Maples’s case to the New York offices of the law firm, Sullivan & Cromwell, its mailroom sent them back unopened and marked “Return to Sender.” A court clerk in Alabama filed the returned envelopes and did nothing more.

Mr. Maples’s deadline to appeal the ruling came and went, and so far every court to hear his case has said, in effect, tough luck.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/05/us/an-appeal-gone-astray-catches-the-supreme-courts-attention.html

advocating for "tough luck." Gawd, I detest that man.....:eyes:

'That lawyer said in a sworn statement that he was Mr. Maples’s lawyer in name only, serving as local counsel because the New York lawyers were not licensed to practice in Alabama. He added that he had not passed the ruling along to his co-counsel or to his client.

That did not satisfy Justice Scalia. “He’s the counsel of record, right?” Justice Scalia asked. “I’m counsel of record, but I don’t even do so much as to forward notices to the guys that are doing the real work?”'

Death Row Debate: Justice Scalia Stands Alone As Supreme Court Hears Case Of Mailroom Mix-up
ustice Antonin Scalia became Alabama's best friend on Tuesday morning. During oral argument in the case of death row inmate Cory Maples, the Supreme Court justice made it clear to everyone in the courtroom that he's ready to let a man be executed at least in part due to a mailroom mix-up. And he fought for his view all morning.

The other justices appeared less happy with that outcome, hinting at an interest in ruling for Maples -- albeit on narrow grounds.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/04/supreme-court-death-row-cory-maples_n_994797.html

Interesting that two articles seemingly present it so differently...? :shrug:

HuffPo contains more detail, and concludes 'Justice Scalia stands alone . . .'

That's why so many cases are 5-4, with each side finding grounds, narrow or not, for directly opposite positions.

And this has been going on long enough now that nobody really trusts judicial review as a rigorous way to settle constitutional questions.

Scalia is saying "tough luck" to a person about DYING because of the mistake of a law firm's mailroom clerk, a mistake on the part of the Alabama attorney AND the negligence of a court clerk, not one of which mistakes the prisoner had any knowledge of or control over.

If losing your life under those circumstances is just, justice is hollow and meaningless.

an execution...

So, you're telling me that, because of an idiot attorney, this guy doesn't have an change at an appeal? Wow.

POLL: Should Cory R. Maples be executed?
Vote: http://www.wepolls.com/p/3433264

Sounds like Supremes won't let this go by (from what I can tell from this story.) Alito, Roberts and Scalia more interested than usual, and they heard the case.

a letter back?

Article says no one could have known that letter was on its way, so the lawyers would have no way of knowing.

I can't think why a mail room clerk would do that if the letter were properly addressed or even half way close. Maybe the name of the person on the envelope was simply totally wrong, even though the address was correct.

Maybe the real fault lies with the court clerk's secretary.

his belief that he is some sort of legal "god".

No one should have to face a penalty for the errors of others, especially where a life is concerned.

I'd love to see Scalia pee all over himself if something like this happened to him, "sorry Anthony, a clerk forgot to spell check and 3 words broke the 'i before e' rule. You're execution will be next week as ordered".

Scalia is a little pot of shit.

He must have some redeeming value because Justice Ginsburg reportedly enjoys his company and I respect her.

Dipped if I can figure out what it is, though.

and the law firm blundered the presentation, I'm certain "Sammy the Bull" Alito would have scolded them and demanded they show up in two weeks with the proper documents. Since it was a Joe Schmo he had his chance and blew it.

The Supreme Court was sold years ago.

a ruling of 8-1 or possibly 9-0 ruling in Mr. Maples favor

1/ Say what you will about Alito and Roberts, they at least seem to have taken (so far) a human and pro-life stance in this case.

Scalia, on the other hand, displayed only injustice and blood lust, more neocon than Catholic.

2/ I have to laugh at the Huffpo writer claiming that Thomas is fast approaching his sixth year of silence during oral argument without also adding that Thomas has spoken during oral argument only a few isolated times in his entire career on the SCOTUS bench and almost invariably votes with Scalia.

3/ The state is also being a bloodthirsty moran, which Roberts and Alito called counsel out on.

"Why not simply agree to extend the deadline?"

Indeed, why not?

"Neiman had no good answer." (Huffpo version)

3/ And this:



"Chief Justice Roberts three times asked the Alabama solicitor general to substantiate his claim, and three times Neiman could not. On the fourth time, the chief warned, "You made a fairly serious suggestion that did not accurately represent what he did."

"Let me withdraw any suggestion," Neiman said."

What kind of waste of carbon lies several times to the SCOTUS without backing down until the Chief Justice makes a veiled threat----in order to make sure someone dies over a filing deadline that an unrelated mail room or court clerk messed up on?

Edit to add numbering as these three things are separate thoughts, not directly related to each other.

In California somebody would have their asshole turned inside out.

At my firm all correspondence addressed to a former employee that is something other than an L.L. Bean catalog is opened, reviewed, scanned and forwarded if appropriate. We still get correspondence on a couple files addressed to somebody who died three years ago.

We are also registered agent for more than forty companies so we get junk mail and garbage of every description, but I can't think of anyone returning it to sender unreviewed.