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| Court Grants Death Row Inmate Trial |
| By AP |
| Published: 08/14/2001 |
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A Texas death row inmate since 1984 deserves a new trial because his lawyer slept during portions of his murder trial, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday. The full appeals court, in a 9-5 reversal of a highly criticized ruling by a three-judge federal panel in October, said Calvin Burdine's lawyer dozed off frequently enough and for long enough stretches to deprive the defendant of his right to legal representation. Several witnesses testified that the attorney, Joe Cannon, who is now dead, slept at the 1984 trial, his head drooping and sometimes resting on the table. ``The Supreme Court has long recognized that 'a trial is unfair if the accused is denied counsel at a critical stage of his trial,''' Judge Fortunato Benavides wrote for a majority of the 14 appeals judges who heard arguments in January. Burdine was convicted of stabbing to death his gay lover, W.T. Wise, at a trailer they shared in the Houston area in 1983. Burdine confessed to police, but now denies killing Wise. Burdine came within moments of execution in 1987 before receiving a court-ordered reprieve. In October, a three judge panel ruled a sleeping lawyer can be effective counsel as long as he or she does not doze during important parts of the trial. That ruling overturned a lower federal court ruling ordering a new trial or freedom for Burdine. Monday's ruling re-instated the lower court ruling in Burdine's favor. The ruling sends the case back to Texas, where prosecutors must decide whether to try him again or set him free. |
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