The attorney general of Texas has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the overturned death penalty conviction of a man whose lawyer slept through his trial.
The 5th circuit appeals court ruled that the "consistent unconsciousness" ofhis attorney had compromised the defendant's rights to due process. But the state of Texas is not about to give up on thisexecution. Here's Texas solicitor Julie C. Parsley on why upholding the rulingcould set a bad precedent:
[It] will invite countless ineffective assistance [of counsel] claimsbased on any type of intermittent 'unconsciousness' by counsel during trial . . .In Burdine's wake, imaginative petitioners will parade expert witnesses intotheir . . . hearings to testify that--given trial counsel's subsequentlydiagnosed Alzheimer's, or bipolar condition, or alcoholism, orattention deficit disorder--it is likely that periods of unconsciousness occurredduring trial, and therefore prejudice [to the defendant] should bepresumed.
See "TexasFights Ruling of Legal Incompetence" in The Los Angeles Times.
-- By Natasha Berger
