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By stan_sipple

Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals rejects Missouri death row inmate's habeas appeal for his murder conviction for killing a Jasper County Sheriff's deputy in 1996/
063260P.pdf 02/01/2008 Cecil Clayton v. Donald P. Roper U.S. Court of Appeals Case No: 06-3260 U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri - Kansas City
[PUBLISHED] [Smith, Author, with Bye and Bowman, Circuit Judges]. The appeals court rejects funds for still more testing after approving for his appeal $7500 for a new expert evaluation after he obtained a favorable opinion at trial that the defendant suffered from a mental defect. Appeals court reject Defendant's contention that he was not competent to proceed with his habeas action. The prosecutors comments that derided the plaintiff's expert's reduced capacity argument were not prejudicial. While The court's jury instruction pn aggravators of both random killings and shooting a police officer were inconsistent, evidence supported both aggravating circumstances.
Prisoner case - habeas. District court did not abuse its discretion in
denying Clayton a hearing as to his present competency as the court had
before it extensive medical data and detailed opinions from the doctors
who had examined Clayton; court's finding Clayton was competent to
proceed with his habeas proceeding was not clearly erroneous; district
court did not err in refusing to provide additional funds for Clayton's
experts as he had already been examined by two experts - one of his own
choosing and one from the Federal Bureau of Prisons; Clayton's due
process rights were not violated by the prosecution's closing arguments;
even if the court erred in submitting two inconsistent aggravating factors
- random-killing and peace-officer - in this murder prosecution, the error
does not require reversal as Clayton cannot point to any improper
evidence which was admitted because the court included both
aggravators; since Clayton cannot point to an independent constitutional
violation that occurred during his state criminal proceedings, the court
was without jurisdiction to decide his claim of actual innocence.

Full post as published by Showmeblawgs on February 03, 2008 (boomark / email).