SCOTUSblog: "A man on death row is seeking DNA testing. The justices will decide whether ..."

[mahatmakanejeeves]

The justices will take up other cases today too.

https://www.scotusblog.com/

This is the life-or-death one.

CASE PREVIEW

A man on death row is seeking DNA testing. The justices will decide whether he missed a key deadline.

By Amy Howe
on Oct 10, 2022 at 3:17 pm

On Tuesday the justices will hear oral argument in the case of Texas death-row inmate Rodney Reed, who is seeking DNA testing for evidence that he believes will clear him. The question before the court is a procedural one, focusing on the deadline for Reed to file a federal civil rights claim challenging the constitutionality of the Texas law governing DNA testing. But although the issue in Reed’s case is a technical one, it is nonetheless important not only for Reed but for other inmates who may seek DNA testing in Texas and elsewhere.

In 2009, the Supreme Court ruled in District Attorney’s Office v. Osborne that if an inmate has the right under state law to prove his innocence with new DNA evidence, those procedures for DNA testing must be fundamentally fair.

Two years later, in Skinner v. Switzer, the justices agreed that an inmate can pursue a federal civil rights claim to obtain DNA testing of crime-scene evidence. An inmate whose efforts to obtain DNA testing under state law have been unsuccessful, the court ruled, must show that state law denies him his right to due process.

The question that the justices will consider in Reed’s case is when the statute of limitations to pursue a federal civil rights claim begins to run. Is it when the state trial court rejects the inmate’s request for DNA testing, as Texas argues, which would mean that Reed’s federal lawsuit was filed too late? Or is it when, as Reed argues, all of the state-court litigation denying DNA testing, including any appeals, have run their course?

{snip}

Recommended Citation: Amy Howe, A man on death row is seeking DNA testing. The justices will decide whether he missed a key deadline., SCOTUSblog (Oct. 10, 2022, 3:17 PM), https://www.scotusblog.com/2022/10/a-man-on-death-row-is-seeking-dna-testing-the-justices-will-decide-whether-he-missed-a-key-deadline/

[Joinfortmill]

1. Jesus, there should be no SOL for dna testing.

[keithbvadu2]

2. Some crimes have no deadline for prosecution. Neither should justice.

Some crimes have no deadline for prosecution.

Neither should justice.

A DNA test is a lot cheaper than keeping an innocent person in prison or the legal costs of executing them.

[Jarqui]

3. They're going to kill a man because he missed a deadline?

What is there for SCOTUS to think about here?

As of April, 2022, there were 2,414 on death row.
If they DNA tested the evidence in all those cases, I'd bet big time they'd find a number who were innocent.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

4. "What is there for SCOTUS to think about here?"

The question that the justices will consider in Reed’s case is when the statute of limitations to pursue a federal civil rights claim begins to run. Is it when the state trial court rejects the inmate’s request for DNA testing, as Texas argues, which would mean that Reed’s federal lawsuit was filed too late? Or is it when, as Reed argues, all of the state-court litigation denying DNA testing, including any appeals, have run their course?

[Jarqui]

5. Yes, I had already read that.

My question stands as a rhetorical one.

Maybe the more appropriate question to ask SCOTUS is "Can you see the forest or just the trees?

[mahatmakanejeeves]

6. Yeah, I kind of suspected that. It's narrow, but it's broad.

Thanks for writing. And good morning.

[Jarqui]

11. My favorite course ever was contract law

I love the concept of law. But there are a lot of signs we are losing our way when it comes to what should be.

Whether it is law enforcement shooting unarmed black kids in the back or the disproportionate number of incarcerated blacks or erosion of voting rights or Citizen United or Trump allegedly committing crime after crime and has yet to face a judge with an indictment, etc, etc, etc.

My dad lived with a warden of a prison during his college years who told him he was convinced there were a number of innocent men in his prison.

I have personally seen corrupt cops and blatant injustice wrongfully convict an innocent man who worked for me.

Something is wrong. This is not what we learned about in class. There's a disconnect somewhere.

https://innocenceproject.org/how-many-innocent-people-are-in-prison/

Extrapolating from the 281 known DNA exonerations in the US since the late 1980s, a conservative estimate is that 1 percent of the US prison population, approximately 20,000 people, are falsely convicted.

When the numbers are that bad ... extrapolate to the 2,400 on death row ... this justice system has probably scheduled 24 innocent people to die. That ought to give people pause. This is not a statistic we can be proud of.

I once asked my learned doctor of history professor: "If the Constitution was mostly written by lawyers, how did the legal system get so messed up?" He said that was a rhetorical question.

A man on death row wants a DNA test to establish his innocence? I do not want to hear bullshit about deadlines with the above track record. Stop it and let's get on to legitimate or sensible legal debates.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

12. The Innocence Project

One of the Duke lacrosse players falsely accused back in 2006 was so moved by his experience that he decided upon a different career than he had previously been planning. I had thought it was David Evans, whose father was a lawyer, but it was Reade Seligmann.

Reade Seligmann, Collin Finnerty, and David Evans

On June 18, 2007, Duke University announced that it had reached a settlement with Seligmann, Finnerty and Evans. No details of the settlement were disclosed.

Duke reportedly agreed to pay $60 million to the three accused (with each player receiving $20 million) subject to confidentiality requirements. Seligmann's attorney told the New York Daily News that the settlement was "nowhere near that much money".

Seligmann enrolled as a student at Brown University in the fall of 2007, and was an important part of Brown reaching the 2009 NCAA lacrosse tournament as well as a number 10 national ranking. He became an active fundraiser and supporter for the Innocence Project. He graduated from Brown in 2010 and from Emory University School of Law in 2013. He has stated that his experience during the Duke lacrosse case motivated him to attend law school and pursue a legal career.

Finnerty enrolled at Loyola College in Maryland, leading the team in scoring as the Greyhounds qualified for the 2010 NCAA lacrosse tournament. Finnerty graduated from Loyola in May 2010.

David Evans, who had already graduated from Duke before being charged, received an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in May 2012.

{snip}

[TreasonousBastard]

7. Undoubtedly. Years ago I was reading in an abolitionist blog that...

the subject came up a lot by anti DP lawyers, but tended to be quashed by states that didn't want to deal with the inevitable "Oh, Shit" moment.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

8. SCOTUSblog: Today at the Court

TODAY AT THE COURT

At 9:30 a.m. EDT, the court will issue orders from the Oct. 7 conference.
Starting at 10 a.m. EDT, the court will hear oral arguments in National Pork Producers Council v. Ross and Reed v. Goertz. Tune in for live audio here.

[DFW]

9. The outright bloodthirstiness of our "judges" is downright appalling.

If there is even the slightest possibility that our legal system is about to execute an innocent man, and they refuse to find out, our legal system is guilty of negligent homicide at best, first degree murder at worst.

I want a law in place mandating that any judge, up to and including the Supreme Court, that approves the execution of someone whose guilt was in doubt, even the slightest doubt, should suffer the same fate as the person they ordered killed. To err is human. To kill for the sake of it is abhorrent. A robe does not grant you the right to push someone out of a plane at 20,000 feet just to make a point. Anyone want to speculate on the number of executions in the USA if such a law were in place?

[Lunabell]

10. Good god!

I hope he wins. If this evidence can exonerate him it should be done regardless of deadline!! Sickening and I don't oppose some death penalty cases. But seriously? A deadline? Fuck that shit!