Post by SoulTrainOz on Jul 20, 2006 7:43:47 GMT -5
The death penalty appeal of Bobby Glen Wilcher will be among the first cases the U.S. Supreme Court will discuss when justices return from vacation this fall.
The justices have scheduled a Sept. 25 conference on the Mississippi case, court officials said Tuesday. The officials said the justices' decision on whether they will hear the case could be announced shortly thereafter.
The Supreme Court, without comment, halted Wilcher's execution shortly before it was to be carried out on July 11.
Attorney General Jim Hood said he expects the court to refuse to hear the case and "we'll proceed with a motion to reset his execution."
A month ago, Wilcher told a federal judge he wanted to drop his appeals and the July 11 execution date was set. Wilcher himself then filed an appeal with the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, saying he had changed his mind. The 5th Circuit declined to stop the execution.
Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps said Wilcher was despondent and cried when told of the stay.
"I've never seen an individual so upset that he didn't get executed," Epps said.
Hood said Wilcher has been lucid in all his statements to the courts but his last minute about-face with the 5th Circuit probably prompted the Supreme Court to act.
Wilcher's attorney, Cliff Johnson of Jackson, has claimed his client is mentally ill and questions whether Wilcher is capable of making a decision to drop his appeals.
"I think it's what was happening in the couple of days before his
execution" that led the Supreme Court to act, Richard Dieter, executive director of the anti-capital punishment Death Penalty Information Center in Washington D.C., said about the flurry of motions filed on Wilcher's behalf and by Wilcher himself.
Kent Scheidegger, legal director for the pro-death penalty Criminal Justice Legal Foundation in Sacramento, Calif., said Wilcher's case does not present a major question to the court.
"It is certainly well established that a mentally competent person can drop his appeals if he chooses to," Scheidegger said.
Wilcher, now 43, was sentenced to death for the 1982 slayings of 2 Scott County women. After meeting them at a Forest bar, Wilcher persuaded the women to drive him home, diverted them down a deserted road and killed them.
Wilcher's case has gone through 2 trials, 2 re-sentencing hearings and countless appeals.
(source: Associated Press)
The justices have scheduled a Sept. 25 conference on the Mississippi case, court officials said Tuesday. The officials said the justices' decision on whether they will hear the case could be announced shortly thereafter.
The Supreme Court, without comment, halted Wilcher's execution shortly before it was to be carried out on July 11.
Attorney General Jim Hood said he expects the court to refuse to hear the case and "we'll proceed with a motion to reset his execution."
A month ago, Wilcher told a federal judge he wanted to drop his appeals and the July 11 execution date was set. Wilcher himself then filed an appeal with the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, saying he had changed his mind. The 5th Circuit declined to stop the execution.
Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps said Wilcher was despondent and cried when told of the stay.
"I've never seen an individual so upset that he didn't get executed," Epps said.
Hood said Wilcher has been lucid in all his statements to the courts but his last minute about-face with the 5th Circuit probably prompted the Supreme Court to act.
Wilcher's attorney, Cliff Johnson of Jackson, has claimed his client is mentally ill and questions whether Wilcher is capable of making a decision to drop his appeals.
"I think it's what was happening in the couple of days before his
execution" that led the Supreme Court to act, Richard Dieter, executive director of the anti-capital punishment Death Penalty Information Center in Washington D.C., said about the flurry of motions filed on Wilcher's behalf and by Wilcher himself.
Kent Scheidegger, legal director for the pro-death penalty Criminal Justice Legal Foundation in Sacramento, Calif., said Wilcher's case does not present a major question to the court.
"It is certainly well established that a mentally competent person can drop his appeals if he chooses to," Scheidegger said.
Wilcher, now 43, was sentenced to death for the 1982 slayings of 2 Scott County women. After meeting them at a Forest bar, Wilcher persuaded the women to drive him home, diverted them down a deserted road and killed them.
Wilcher's case has gone through 2 trials, 2 re-sentencing hearings and countless appeals.
(source: Associated Press)