In Beeler v. Broomfield, a Ninth Circuit panel today affirmed the denial of habeas corpus relief to a defendant whose death sentence the California Supreme Court affirmed over 30 years ago (People v. Beeler (1995) 9 Cal.4th 953 [Justices Stanley Mosk and Joyce Kennard dissenting as to the death penalty], abrogation recognized in People v. Edwards (2013) 57 Cal.4th 658, 705). The robbery and murder of which the defendant was convicted occurred in 1985. The Ninth Circuit case was argued more than 13 year ago. [Update: it should read 13 months ago.]
The Supreme Court also denied state habeas petitions in 1995 and 2004. Justice Kathryn Werdegar voted to issue an order to show cause as to one claim in the petition denied in 1995. Justices Kennard and Ming Chin voted to issue an order to show cause as to two claims in the petition denied in 2004. Another habeas petition was transferred to the superior court in 2019 under Proposition 66 (see here and here).
The Ninth Circuit applied “the ‘highly deferential’ . . . review” under the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996. It rejected arguments regarding the defendant’s competency to stand trial, that his counsel was ineffective by failing to investigate and present evidence regarding his mental illness and organic brain damage, and that the superior court coerced the death verdict by not replacing a juror whose father had suddenly died.
The Ninth Circuit usually, but not always, refuses to overturn Supreme Court death penalty decisions. (See also: District court overturns death penalty the Supreme Court had affirmed.)
Related:
“From the bench, an ‘impotent silence’ ”
