The L.A. Times yesterday reported that the U.S. Supreme Court restored a death sentence for a Van Nuys murderer Monday, despite evidence that he suffered severe brain damage as a child.
"Scott Pinholster, who stabbed two men to death in a drug robbery gone bad in Tarzana in 1982, is an epileptic who suffered blows to the head in two auto accidents," the Times article said. "His mother backed her car into him when he was 2, and his head slammed into the windshield during an accident a year or two later. By age 10, he was having outbursts at school. At 11, he was sent to a mental institution.
"…but most of the testimony about his brain damage came nearly 15 years later in a federal court hearing in Los Angeles, which prompted the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse Pinholster's death sentence.
"The question for the Supreme Court was whether federal judges erred by relying on the new testimony as the basis for reversing the earlier rulings of California courts, which had affirmed the death sentence.
"By a 5-4 vote, the high court concluded that the federal judges were wrong to have second-guessed the decision of the state courts. Justice Clarence Thomas delivered the decision and relied on a 1996 law that said federal judges should defer to reasonable rulings of state courts."
No comments:
Post a Comment