Supreme Court won’t hear appeal of Texas death row inmate
Justice Sotomayor and the Supreme Court's liberal justices said the court should have taken up the appeal of a Texas death row inmate who claimed ineffective counsel.
The Supreme Court on Monday declined to take up the appeal of a man sentenced to death in Texas even though it earlier found that his lawyer ignored “an apparent tidal wave” of evidence that could have spared him the death penalty.
In 2008, 20-year-old Terence Andrus unsuccessfully tried to carjack a vehicle in a grocery store parking lot while under the influence of marijuana laced with PCP, also known as angel dust. He shot and killed the driver and a person in another car that was approaching.
After he was convicted and sentenced to death, new lawyers became involved in the case and filed an appeal, saying that his trial lawyers did almost nothing to investigate Andrus’ past or put on an effective defense. When the case first reached the Supreme Court, it said two years ago that the trial counsel conducted “almost no mitigation investigation, overlooking vast tranches of mitigating evidence.” It sent the case back to Texas for further review.
Texas appeals court delays execution of Melissa LucioApril 25, 202203:36A state appeals court ruled against Andrus, finding he failed to show that having a competent lawyer during the trial phase would have changed the outcome of the case. On Monday, without comment, the Supreme Court declined to take his case.
The court’s three more liberal justices dissented and said the Texas appeals court ignored the Supreme Court’s earlier concerns about the competency of the original lawyers.
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