SCOTUS (Supreme Court of the United States)

mickeyrat · September 2024

https://www.threads.net/@pamelafbrockman/post/DAEaIO2JfuU/?xmt=AQGzFfTiRUIK-t_x0Pdvx-ldO9JbE2OIjXBNjnbHhnqL6Q

gimmesometruth27 · September 2024

my state just executed a man most likely innocent of this murder.

Supreme Court allows Missouri to execute Marcellus Williams

https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/4897389-supreme-court-marcellus-williams-missouri-execution/

The Supreme Court refused to block Missouri from executing Marcellus Williams on Tuesday amid questions about the jury selection process and key evidence used in convicting him of murder in 2001.

Williams, 55, who maintains his innocence, is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection Tuesday at 6 p.m. CDT.

Moments before, the Supreme Court denied his emergency requests to halt the execution. The three justices appointed by Democratic presidents — Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson — voted to block it.

A jury convicted Williams in the 1998 murder of 42-year-old newspaper reporter Felicia Gayle, who was stabbed 43 times with the knife left lodged in her neck.

Wesley Bell, the St. Louis County’s current prosecuting attorney, does not stand behind the conviction won by his predecessor, citing concerns Williams’s constitutional rights were violated and he may be innocent. Court records show the victim’s widower also does not want the death penalty used.

The Midwest Innocence Project backed Williams’s defense, with his legal team in court filings calling his execution a “horrifying injustice” that reveals “systemic problems bigger than even Mr. Williams’ case.”

“The ever-present undercurrent of residual doubt as to Mr. Williams’ innocence plagues this case, even as his execution looms. Mr. Williams’ conviction and death sentence were secured through a trial riddled with constitutional errors, racism, and bad faith, much of which only came to light recently,” his defense team wrote in an emergency request to delay the execution.

Williams latched on to revelations that the murder weapon was mishandled ahead of trial. Last month, new test results indicated the knife had DNA on it belonging to two people involved in prosecuting the case. A trial attorney has also admitted to repeatedly touching the knife without gloves.

Williams’s legal team also claimed that attorney recently admitted he struck a potential juror in the case in part because they were Black, which would run afoul of Supreme Court precedent.

The state contests that interpretation. The attorney moments later said, “No, absolutely not,” when asked if the person was struck because of their race, saying that it was because he and Williams both wore glasses and had similar piercing eyes.

“He struck this potential juror in part because he thought Williams and this potential juror looked similar, but not because he was black,” the state wrote in court filings.

mickeyrat · September 2024

https://www.threads.net/@tomwellborn3/post/DAV2vhWOurN/?xmt=AQGzaq8wKKaHDx4Ic95R5OgFaGhHyN5FcHGm8njyX33-7g

mickeyrat · September 2024

gift article....

https://wapo.st/3Y0LV9X

Sweeping bill to overhaul Supreme Court would add six justices
By Justin Jouvenal and Tobi Raji
September 26, 2024 at 16:16 ET
A sweeping bill introduced by a Democratic senator Wednesday would greatly increase the size of the Supreme Court, make it harder for the justices to overturn laws, require justices to undergo audits and remove roadblocks for high court nominations.
The legislation by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) is one of the most ambitious proposals to remake a high court that has suffered a sharp decline in its public approval after a string of contentious decisions and ethics scandals in recent years. It has little chance of passing at the moment, since Republicans have generally opposed efforts to overhaul the court.
Wyden, who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, said the goal of the bill is to restore public confidence in a battered institution. He said he hopes to get parts of the bill passed, even if the whole package is not embraced by lawmakers.
“It’s not an atomic secret that the process for selecting justices is politicized,” Wyden said. “You’ve got this thoroughly politicized process resulting in a Supreme Court that now frequently issues sweeping rulings to overturn laws and upend precedents. We are proposing a way to restore some balance between the three branches of government.”
The bill’s most significant measure would increase the number of justices from nine to 15 over the course of 12 years. The staggered format over two or three administrations is aimed at diminishing the chance that one political party would pack the courts with its nominees.
During the rollout, each president would approve justices in the first and third year of their terms.
The bill would also require a ruling by two-thirds of the high court and the circuit courts of appeals, rather than a simple majority, to overturn a law passed by Congress. Wyden said the current court has been too quick to discard precedent and curtail rights by narrow majorities.
The legislation would also require Supreme Court nominees to be automatically scheduled for a vote in the Senate if their nominations have lingered in committee for more than 180 days.
The measure would prevent senators from blocking a president’s nominees by refusing to hold a vote on them, as then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) did after President Barack Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland in 2016.

continues.....