Tag Archives: Death Penalty

CA10: District court should hold evidentiary hearing to determine whether trial counsel should have offered evidence of the defendant’s intellectual disability in death penalty case

Last week, the Tenth Circuit issued a 95-page opinion in Harris v. Sharp, a death penalty case from Oklahoma. The defendant went to his estranged wife’s workplace and fired gunshots, killing her boss, Merle Taylor. Diana Baldwin had this story … Continue reading

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10th Circuit denies habeas relief in high-profile 1984 Utah murder case

Today, in Lafferty v. Benson, the Tenth Circuit (in an order signed by Judge Briscoe) denied a certificate of appealability in the high-profile murder case of Ron Lafferty, who was convicted of murdering his sister-in-law, Brenda Lafferty, and her fifteen-month-old … Continue reading

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10th Circuit rejects habeas claim in Ryder death penalty case

James Chandler Ryder believed that the apocalypse would occur on January 1, 2000, and planned to flee to the Yukon, where he believed he could survive that event. Daisy Hallum and her son, Sam, were storing supplies that Mr. Ryder … Continue reading

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Tenth Circuit upholds Oklahoma death sentence

The Bryan-College Station Eagle has this story about yesterday’s decision by the Tenth Circuit in Eizember v. Trammell, upholding a death sentence imposed against Scott Eizember as a result of a series of crimes he committed in 2003. Judge Neil … Continue reading

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