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| Supreme Court Overturns Two Death Penalty Cases |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 07/05/2002 |
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The Supreme Court ruled last week that the government can seek the death penalty for a black former gang leader who contended prosecutors inordinately targeted minorities for capital punishment. Justices, in an unsigned opinion, said lower courts were wrong to let John Bass try to force prosecutors to turn over information about how they handle death cases. When the government refused to reveal the information, a judge threw out the death penalty option in Bass' case. The Supreme Court ordered that it be reinstated, overruling the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Bass is charged with having his brother killed, then murdering the man who carried out the hit. His brother was a co-leader of the 'Dog Pound' gang in Detroit, prosecutors said. Justices said the lower court's ruling in Bass' favor 'threatens the performance of a core executive constitutional function.' Lawyers for Bass argued in court filings that statistics show that white defendants had a better chance of avoiding the death penalty. In the decision, the Supreme Court cited its 1996 ruling that made it harder for defendants to pursue selective-prosecution claims. In a second case, the Supreme Court threw out a ruling in favor of an Arizona death row inmate who contends his trial lawyer was incompetent for not telling the judge he was mentally retarded. The court said a federal appeals court in San Francisco wrongly interpreted Arizona's appeals rules. Robert Douglas Smith loses for now the appeal of his conviction in the rape-murder of an Arizona hitchhiker. Recent Supreme Court rulings might help get him off death row, however, among them the court's decision that states cannot execute the mentally retarded, his lawyer said. The cases are United States v. Bass, 01-1471; Stewart v. Smith, 01-339. |
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