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| N.C. death row inmate waiting on U.S. Supreme Court opinion |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 03/01/2004 |
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Federal appeals for a North Carolina death row inmates have been put on hold while the U.S. Supreme Court ponders whether the death sentence for a Pennsylvania mass murderer should be overturned. A federal judge in North Carolina agreed last month to delay his ruling involving Willie Brown, who was sentenced to death in 1983 for the murder of a Williamston convenience store worker. Brown's case is similar to that of George E. Banks, who killed 13 people in a 1982 shooting spree, including five of his young children in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. In arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court last Tuesday, Banks' attorney contended their client may have been spared the death penalty had jury instructions been clearer. More specifically, they argued the instructions led jurors to believe they had to be unanimous in agreeing to mitigating circumstances for the crime. A 1988 Supreme Court decision struck down those types of requirements in determining a death sentence, but now Banks wants to know if it can apply retroactively to cases settled before his trial. Brown tried to argue before North Carolina's Supreme Court that the jury at his trial received similar instructions about unanimity on mitigating factors. The state justices declined to review his appeal on procedural grounds. Brown turned to the federal courts, and the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last year directed federal Judge Malcolm Howard to hear Brown's arguments. Last month, Howard agreed with state attorneys to delay examination of the case until after the U.S. Supreme Court's ruled on the Banks case. As many as 30 other Pennsylvania death row inmates may be affected by the Banks decision. Brown, 59, was convicted of armed robbery and first-degree murder in the slaying of Vallerie Ann Roberson Dixon at a Zip Mart store in March 1983. Brown has a criminal history going back to the 1963, according to Department of Correction records. |
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