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| Supreme Court: Lawyers Failed Death Row Inmate |
| By Reuters |
| Published: 06/27/2003 |
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The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday overturned the death sentence for a Maryland man because his lawyers failed to adequately investigate his background for potentially helpful evidence. By a 7-2 vote, the justices reversed a U.S. appeals court ruling that the defense lawyers' decision not to investigate such evidence was 'virtually unchallengeable' so long as they knew rudimentary facts about the defendant's background. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor said for the court majority that the performance by lawyers for Maryland death row inmate Kevin Wiggins at his sentencing violated his constitutional right to effective assistance of counsel. The high court has upheld the constitutionality of the death penalty, but has expressed concern about how it has been carried out in certain cases. Earlier in the term, it ruled 8-1 that a Texas death row inmate presented substantial evidence that prosecutors at his trial used racist practices to keep blacks off the jury. In Thursday's ruling, O'Connor said the lawyers did not conduct a reasonable investigation and their failure to investigate further suggested inattention, not strategic judgment. The ruling set aside the death sentence and sent the case back for further proceedings on what sentence Wiggins should receive. Defense lawyers failed to offer evidence at sentencing that Wiggins had been beaten and raped as a child after being put in foster care when his abusive and alcoholic mother abandoned him. O'Connor said the available helpful evidence, taken as a whole, might have influenced the jury to spare his life. Under state capital punishment laws, juries weigh aggravating factors, such as the brutality of the crime, that make a defendant more likely to get the death penalty. They also weigh mitigating factors, such as the defendant's background, that support leniency. Wiggins, who is borderline retarded, was convicted of the 1988 murder of a 77-year-old woman in her apartment in Woodlawn, Maryland. She was found drowned in her bathtub. The evidence linking him to the murder was circumstantial. After the murder, Wiggins was found driving the victim's car and had used her credit card to buy his girlfriend jewelry. He worked as a painter in the victim's building and had been seen talking to her the day police believe she was murdered. A federal judge overturned the death sentence, but the appeals court reinstated it, ruling the legal representation had not been below minimum standards because the lawyers made a strategic choice not to present evidence to the jury. The lawyers at sentencing argued Wiggins was not the killer instead of arguing for leniency based on his social history. The only mitigating evidence they offered was that Wiggins had no prior convictions for violent crimes. The American Bar Association and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and a group of current or former prosecutors including former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, supported Wiggins. The U.S. Justice Department supported Maryland. Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas dissented, with Scalia calling the decision 'extraordinary' because Wiggins' trial counsel testified under oath he was aware of the basic facts of his client's troubled childhood. |
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