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| High court to consider Ariz. case |
| By The Arizona Republic |
| Published: 04/12/2004 |
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When Phoenix lawyers ask the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse the death sentences of 87 Arizona inmates this month, it is Warren Summerlin's case they hope justices will remember. Summerlin, who murdered and raped a bill collector in 1981, was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic and retarded as a child. His defense attorney did not disclose she was sleeping with the prosecutor. His second defense attorney didn't raise basic legal questions. The judge who sentenced him to die was disbarred for smoking marijuana during the time he decided the case. And when the nation's high court ruled in 2002 that juries, not judges, should decide if convicted murderers should die, Summerlin wasn't eligible for reversal because his case was too old and his sentence was considered final. Assistant Arizona Attorney General John Todd, who will argue against Summerlin before the high court on April 19, says it should stay that way. "If Summerlin were to prevail, it would mean the state would have to resentence all of those individuals," he said. "(That) is not an easy thing to do." He points out that this is not a question of guilt vs. innocence. It is a question of whether a judge should have sentenced individuals to death instead of a jury, and how far back the court should have gone in reversing sentences. "No court to date has said that (Summerlin's conviction) should be put aside," Todd said. Nationally, the Summerlin case could affect the sentences of 111 inmates in four states: 87 in Arizona, 15 in Idaho, five in Montana and four in Nebraska. Convictions will not be changed. Assistant Federal Public Defender Dale Baich said the case is about fairness and constitutional rights. "What is clearer than truth is that it's not fair to allow some individuals facing the death penalty to be afforded the constitutional right to a jury trial and to deny the same guarantee to others," he said. The Supreme Court is not expected to announce a decision in the case until June. |
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