Supreme Court Appeal

My lawyer told me that he is filing an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court concerning my three Federal death sentences. It is extremely unlikely --- less than a tenth of one percent chance --- that the Supreme Court will even consider the appeal (“crapshoot justice” in action).

The issue my attorney wants the Supreme Court to consider is whether or not someone (generally, but me specifically) should be executed without a review of all the available facts and evidence at the time of trial. My lawyer claims that my case creates a definitive standard, not only because I declined to appeal (on my own behalf), but also because when I represented myself at the sentencing trial (after I plead guilty against my attorney's advice to all charges with no conditions or “deals” with the persecutors) I did not present any mitigating evidence or testimony.

So, basically, what my lawyer is asking the Supreme Court to consider is whether or not “we” (the people) should kill someone after essentially only hearing one side (the persecutor's side) of the story.

As I mentioned, it's not very likely that the Supreme Court will even consider this question (they get to pick and choose what questions are “worthy” of their esteemed consideration), but submitting the question --- any question the “defense” lawyers can come up with really --- is just the next step, of many remaining, in the systematic process of killing someone in this country.

[J.D. 10-20-2015]