Appeals court rules Alabama violated constitutional rights of man sentenced to death
The Monday ruling from a three judge panel on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals means Michael Sockwell, 62, is eligible for a retrial. He was convicted of killing former Montgomery County Sheriff Isaiah Harris in 1988 when he was 26-years old.
The panel issued a 2-1 opinion stating Alabama prosecutors violated Sockwell's 14th Amendment rights by 'repeatedly and purposefully' rejecting potential Black jurors who were believed to be more sympathetic to him on the basis of their shared race.
Prosecutors said Harris' wife hired Sockwell to kill Harris because she wanted to cover up an affair she was having and collect Harris' insurance money. There were no witnesses to the shooting. Sockwell, whose attorneys say has a low IQ that disqualifies him from the death penalty, initially told authorities in a videotaped confession that he killed Harris. At his trial, Sockwell testified that officers threatened to beat and kill him before he confessed and deprived him of food and water.
Sockwell then testified that another man, who was having an affair with Harris' wife, committed the killing. Sockwell also denied he ever received money to kill Harris.
The jury voted 7-5 to sentence Sockwell to life in prison, but the judge overruled the decision and sentenced Sockwell to death. Alabama no longer allows a judge to override a jury's sentence in capital cases.
Attorneys for Sockwell appealed the decision, arguing the prosecutors unconstitutionally used race as the basis for jury selection, rejecting 80% of the Black jurors who were eligible for Sockwell's trial — compared to only 20% white jurors who were disqualified. The appeal cited notes from the prosecutor that rejected one juror who she described as 'a (B)lack male, approximately twenty-three years of age, which would put him very close to the same race, sex, and age of' Sockwell.
Judge Robert J. Luck, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, dissented. Luck emphasized that the prosecutor noted the race of white potential jurors too, a fact Luck said indicated race was not a disqualifying factor for jurors in Sockwell's case.
The opinion, written by former President Bill Clinton-appointed Judge Charles Wilson, also cited four other cases in the years leading up to Sockwell's case where the state prosecutor appeared to have illegally rejected Black jurors based solely on their race, demonstrating a 'pattern' of choosing juries with 'discriminatory intent.'
The Alabama Attorney General's Office did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment Tuesday morning.
Luck disputed that the prosecutor had a pattern of discrimination and said 17% of the jury in Sockwell's trial was Black out of a jury pool that was 24% Black to begin with. ___
Riddle is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
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CNN
19 minutes ago
- CNN
What we know about Bryan Kohberger's plea deal and whether a judge will approve it
Steve Goncalves was stunned over the weekend when he heard that prosecutors in Moscow, Idaho, had reached a plea deal with Bryan Kohberger, the man charged in the 2022 stabbing deaths of his daughter, Kaylee, and three other University of Idaho students. Just days earlier, Goncalves said he and a few of the victims' loved ones told prosecutors they did not support a plea deal. Instead, they urged prosecutors to continue pursuing the death penalty in Kohberger's upcoming quadruple murder trial, which Goncalves hoped would bring much-needed closure to their families. 'We don't want to deal. We're not interested in that. We didn't wait two and a half years for this,' the father said he told prosecutors on a Friday afternoon call. Goncalves said he walked away from the conversation with the impression that a plea deal was not a serious option in the case, leaving him blindsided when he received an email just two days later notifying him a deal had been reached. Ultimately, it was Kohberger's attorneys who broached the possibility of a plea deal as they endured a series of legal blows to their defense strategy, Goncalves told CNN's Jim Sciutto, citing conversations with prosecutors last week. The agreement would avoid a trial by allowing Kohberger to plead guilty to all four counts of murder in exchange for the government dropping the death penalty in the killings of Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and Madison Mogen, a person familiar with the matter told CNN. Goncalves and his family have slammed the deal as 'hurried' and 'secretive,' saying prosecutors should have sought input from victims' loved ones on the conditions of the deal. Jeff Kernodle, Xana's father, also expressed disappointment in the prosecutor's decision. Kernodle mourned the deal as a 'missed opportunity to set a stronger precedent in how accountability should be handled in cases like this,' he said in a statement Tuesday. 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Death penalty convictions often lead to decades of painstaking appeal efforts, which he said some victims' families describe as 'torture.' 'The family is looking at … decades of legal proceedings in a death penalty case, versus if he takes life without parole, it's done and the family gets that degree of closure,' Newton said. Kohberger's legal defense team has also suffered a series of losses in recent weeks which have narrowed their strategy options, including rulings barring the defense from submitting an official alibi – as no one could confirm Kohberger's whereabouts at the time of the killings – and rejecting their attempt to present an 'alternate perpetrator' theory. During Wednesday's hearing, the judge is likely to question Kohberger thoroughly to make sure he understands that he would be forfeiting his right to a trial and sentencing appeals if he accepts the deal, Newton said. 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Kernodle agreed, saying in his statement, 'It's incredibly hard to accept that a trial won't be happening. I had hoped the agreement would include conditions that required the defendant to explain his actions and provide answers to the many questions that still remain, especially where evidence is missing or unclear.' Goncalves also believes the plea deal should have barred Kohberger from reaping financial gain from selling the details of his story in the future. There is a slim chance Kohberger could maintain his innocence while accepting the plea deal by entering an Alford plea, an option that stems from a 1970 Supreme Court case. 'The benefit of the Alford plea is for a defendant who feels that they're innocent but wants to take the deal,' Newton said, noting there are no substantial differences between a regular guilty plea and an Alford plea. 'It has the same result as a guilty plea. It's just the defendant themselves is not going to say that they did it.' If the defense went this route, the state may present a factual basis for Kohberger's guilty plea, including details of how the crime was carried out, and would require him to say 'guilty' after the facts were read, Newton said. Like a regular guilty plea, Kohberger would likely be waiving his right to appeal as well, he added. Newton said it seems unlikely prosecutors would have agreed to a plea deal if they didn't have assurances Kohberger would take responsibility for the killings, making the chances of an Alford plea questionable. CNN's Norma Galeana and Betul Tuncer contributed to this report.
CNN
19 minutes ago
- CNN
What we know about Bryan Kohberger's plea deal and whether a judge will approve it
Steve Goncalves was stunned over the weekend when he heard that prosecutors in Moscow, Idaho, had reached a plea deal with Bryan Kohberger, the man charged in the 2022 stabbing deaths of his daughter, Kaylee, and three other University of Idaho students. Just days earlier, Goncalves said he and a few of the victims' loved ones told prosecutors they did not support a plea deal. Instead, they urged prosecutors to continue pursuing the death penalty in Kohberger's upcoming quadruple murder trial, which Goncalves hoped would bring much-needed closure to their families. 'We don't want to deal. We're not interested in that. We didn't wait two and a half years for this,' the father said he told prosecutors on a Friday afternoon call. Goncalves said he walked away from the conversation with the impression that a plea deal was not a serious option in the case, leaving him blindsided when he received an email just two days later notifying him a deal had been reached. Ultimately, it was Kohberger's attorneys who broached the possibility of a plea deal as they endured a series of legal blows to their defense strategy, Goncalves told CNN's Jim Sciutto, citing conversations with prosecutors last week. The agreement would avoid a trial by allowing Kohberger to plead guilty to all four counts of murder in exchange for the government dropping the death penalty in the killings of Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and Madison Mogen, a person familiar with the matter told CNN. Goncalves and his family have slammed the deal as 'hurried' and 'secretive,' saying prosecutors should have sought input from victims' loved ones on the conditions of the deal. Jeff Kernodle, Xana's father, also expressed disappointment in the prosecutor's decision. Kernodle mourned the deal as a 'missed opportunity to set a stronger precedent in how accountability should be handled in cases like this,' he said in a statement Tuesday. 'It could have sent a message to others that these kinds of horrific crimes carry real consequences. Instead, four beautiful lives were taken, and the person responsible won't be used as an example to help prevent something like this from happening again,' Kernodle added. In contrast, families of the other two victims say they support the plea deal. Ben Mogen, father of Madison, told the Idaho Statesman he was choosing acceptance, adding the plea agreement would let his family avoid a trial and allow its wounds to keep healing. Ethan's mother, Stacy Chapin, told CNN affiliate KHQ her family would be in court Wednesday 'in support of the plea bargain.' But the deal is not set in stone, and the judge could require Kohberger to confess to details of the crime, a legal expert said. 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Death penalty convictions often lead to decades of painstaking appeal efforts, which he said some victims' families describe as 'torture.' 'The family is looking at … decades of legal proceedings in a death penalty case, versus if he takes life without parole, it's done and the family gets that degree of closure,' Newton said. Kohberger's legal defense team has also suffered a series of losses in recent weeks which have narrowed their strategy options, including rulings barring the defense from submitting an official alibi – as no one could confirm Kohberger's whereabouts at the time of the killings – and rejecting their attempt to present an 'alternate perpetrator' theory. During Wednesday's hearing, the judge is likely to question Kohberger thoroughly to make sure he understands that he would be forfeiting his right to a trial and sentencing appeals if he accepts the deal, Newton said. Both Goncalves and Kernodle have criticized prosecutors for not including provisions in the plea deal that would require Kohberger to confess to specific details of the crime. Those details could have been revealed at trial, which is still leaves questions over motive and how the stabbings were carried out. Goncalves hopes Judge Hippler will require Kohberger to make statements in court that would shed light on the remaining mysteries of the case. He also believes such statements would provide the suspect's supporters – many of whom maintain his innocence – less ground to stand on. 'We're all going to live with the repercussion for the rest of our lives … unless Hippler steps in and says, 'You're not going to just say you're guilty. You're going to communicate some of the details so these families can actually move on and not have to be dragged through this true crime nightmare over and over and over again.' Kernodle agreed, saying in his statement, 'It's incredibly hard to accept that a trial won't be happening. I had hoped the agreement would include conditions that required the defendant to explain his actions and provide answers to the many questions that still remain, especially where evidence is missing or unclear.' Goncalves also believes the plea deal should have barred Kohberger from reaping financial gain from selling the details of his story in the future. There is a slim chance Kohberger could maintain his innocence while accepting the plea deal by entering an Alford plea, an option that stems from a 1970 Supreme Court case. 'The benefit of the Alford plea is for a defendant who feels that they're innocent but wants to take the deal,' Newton said, noting there are no substantial differences between a regular guilty plea and an Alford plea. 'It has the same result as a guilty plea. It's just the defendant themselves is not going to say that they did it.' If the defense went this route, the state may present a factual basis for Kohberger's guilty plea, including details of how the crime was carried out, and would require him to say 'guilty' after the facts were read, Newton said. Like a regular guilty plea, Kohberger would likely be waiving his right to appeal as well, he added. Newton said it seems unlikely prosecutors would have agreed to a plea deal if they didn't have assurances Kohberger would take responsibility for the killings, making the chances of an Alford plea questionable. CNN's Norma Galeana and Betul Tuncer contributed to this report.
Yahoo
20 minutes ago
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Sean 'Diddy' Combs Sends 5-Word Message to Mom After Partial Verdict
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