Capital Defense Weekly - Dec 28

Full edition

Parramore Sanborn v. Parker, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 25912;2010 FED App. 0389P (6th Cir. 12/21/2010)** “In defendant’s petition for habeas relief from his capital murder conviction, district court’s denial for the most part but grant in part on the grounds that the admission of certain testimony at the penalty phase constituted unconstitutional governmental interference with the right to counsel in violation of the Sixth Amendment, is affirmed in part, reversed reversed in part, and remanded where: 1) because the defendant has not demonstrated that the use of a witness’s testimony during his trial was a constitutionally impermissible intrusion, nor that it was prejudicial, the Kentucky Supreme Court did not act contrary to Weatherford or any other clearly established federal law in holding that the Commonwealth’s use of that testimony did not violated his rights to counsel, and as such, district court’s grant of habeas relief on those grounds is reversed; 2) the Kentucky Supreme Court’s decision on defendant’s claim of interference with attorney-client and priest-penitent privileges was predicated on its determination, as a matter of state law, that neither Kentucky’s attorney-client privilege nor its priest-penitent privilege extended to defendant; 3) evidence at defendant’s second trial was constitutionally sufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt the existence of the aggravating factors of rape and sodomy; 4) defendant’s second state court trial did not violate his Fifth Amendment rights by placing him in double jeopardy; and 5) defendant’s Sixth Amendment right to effective assistance of counsel during the guilt phase of trial was not violated.” [via FindLaw]