High court mulls fairness of capital cases
by Griffin Shea
WASHINGTON, Dec 8, 2003 (AFP) - Prosecutors in Texas withheld evidence and allowed witnesses to lie to a jury that sentenced a man to death, his lawyers told the US Supreme Court on Monday, in a case that highlighted concerns about flaws in the capital punishment system.
The case of Delma Banks, who was sentenced to death for the 1980 murder of a 16-year-old co-worker, could produce broad changes to the way death penalty cases are handled.
His trial has attracted unusual attention from high-profile groups.
The American Bar Association and groups of former judges and federal prosecutors, including former FBI director William Sessions, have filed briefs in support of Banks deploring "egregious failings by both the prosecution and the defense counsel."
Banks' trial lasted only one day in 1982. His death sentence was handed down one day later.
His original attorney interviewed no witnesses and never reviewed the evidence against his client. The lawyer offered little evidence to deter the jury from imposing the death penalty.
Only after Banks found new lawyers did new evidence emerge that the state's star witnesses had lied to the jury, and that prosecutors had withheld documents that could have helped his case, Banks's current lawyer, George Kendall told the court.
"We were misled by the state," he said.
Texas assistant attorney general Gena Bunn admitted to the court that false statements were made, but insisted that hadn't affected the trial's outcome.
The state's main witness told the jury he was not a paid informer, when in fact he had received 200 dollars from police. Another key witness lied about the coaching he had received from prosecutors before the trial.
Both witnesses later gave affidavits saying that parts of their testimony had been false. One said that he had received 200 dollars from police to "set up" Banks.
A state court and a lower federal court had earlier ruled in Banks's favor, but the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, Louisiana, tossed out those rulings and sent Banks back to death row, saying none of those problems were enough to affect the guilty verdict or the death sentence.
That appeals court, which has regional jurisdiction over Texas, has already been rapped by the US Supreme Court for failing to give adequate attention to errors in capital trials.
The latest case doesn't challenge the death penalty itself, but does deal with a host of questions about how to ensure the fairness of trials when someone's life is at stake.
The nation's highest court has shown no inclination to eliminating the death penalty, but in recent years it has curtailed its use and changed the way that death sentences are meted out.
The court has outlawed executions of the mentally retarded, required juries rather than judges to hand down death sentences, toughened standards for defense lawyers in capital cases and condemned jury-stacking by race.