Supreme Court prioritizes expedience, not justice, in wrongful convictions

The U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority decided on Monday that people in state prison no longer have a broad constitutional right to present new evidence in federal court to support claims that they weren’t adequately represented at trial or on appeal.

The court’s opinion effectively guts a final safeguard against prosecutorial and judicial error or misconduct. It will leave people who have been wrongfully convicted without a court to turn to for justice, and increases the likelihood that some innocent prisoners will be executed.

The justices ruled 6-3 against Barry Jones and David Ramirez, two men sentenced to death in Arizona for murder, who petitioned to present new evidence in their cases.

Jones’ lawyers didn’t conduct a pretrial investigation, and he has made a credible case that they simply overlooked medical evidence that proves his innocence. Two lower courts and the three dissenting justices agreed that his legal representation wasn’t constitutionally adequate.

https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/supreme-court-prioritizes-expedience-not-justice-wrongful-convictions-2022-05-25/