Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> Tenth Circuit Blog

Criminal Law

: Tenth Circuit Blog

Numerous IAC Claims Rejected; Death Sentence Affirmed

By Shari Allison

DeLozier v. Sirmons, 2008 WL 2780595 (7/18/08) (Published) - The Court of Appeals affirmed another death sentence. The 10th reviewed, almost always under the stringent AEDPA standard, a number of ineffective assistance of counsel claims, holding in each case that counsel was not deficient. These included:(1) Not peremptorily challenging 2 prospective jurors and not seeking excusal for cause for another where the jurors indicated they had a hard time imagining voting for anything but death. E.g., "Q: if you were instructed to do so, could you give all punishment options fair consideration? A: Yes, but I don't like it; A: It would be real hard. I couldn't give you an honest answer." 2) failing to object to the admission of evidence of the petitioner's priors for mistreating and killing a police dog...continue to full post

Full post as published by Tenth Circuit Blog on July 28, 2008 (boomark / email).