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| Supreme Court upholds inmate's death penalty |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 12/13/2004 |
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The Supreme Court ruled Monday that a Florida death row inmate should not get a new trial even though his lawyer conceded the man's guilt without his consent. The 8-0 ruling sets aside a Florida Supreme Court decision in favor of Joe Elton Nixon. He was convicted in the 1984 murder of a woman he met at a Tallahassee mall. Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, who did not attend oral arguments for the case in November, did not take part in the decision. At issue was the court-appointed attorney's decision to admit at trial that Nixon was responsible for the victim's "horrible, horrible death" in hopes that his candor would persuade the jury not to impose the death penalty. The state court said that deprived Nixon of his Sixth Amendment right to a vigorous trial defense. In an opinion written by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the Supreme Court said it would not second-guess the attorney's trial strategy, which they called "reasonable." Nixon had several opportunities to object when his lawyer told him of the strategy but didn't, she said. Florida prosecutors say Nixon tied Jeanne Bickner, a 38-year-old state worker, to trees with jumper cables and set her on fire. Facing substantial evidence against Nixon, his lawyer offered unsuccessfully to plea-bargain for life imprisonment before deciding to concede the man's guilt at the beginning of trial. In a 5-2 decision last year, the Florida Supreme Court ordered a new trial after finding the lawyer did not effectively represent Nixon and that the defendant did not agree to the lawyer's strategy. The case is Florida v. Nixon, 03-931. |
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