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Court rejects death-row inmate's appeal Wednesday, Jul 23, 2008 By John Lyon Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis on Tuesday rejected an appeal by a federal death-row inmate who claimed he received ineffective legal counsel at his trial in Arkansas. Jeffery William Paul was convicted of murder, while aiding and abetting another, in a trial in U.S. District Court in Hot Springs. Prosecutors said Paul and Trinity Ingle fatally shot Sherman Williams in June 1995 during a robbery at Hot Springs National Park. Ingle was convicted of aiding and abetting first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. Paul was sentenced to death. Paul later argued that his trial lawyers should have presented evidence that he had a history of exaggerating his "badness" to impress his peers, evidence he said would have cast a different light on testimony that he told several people he participated in Williams' killing. Paul also claimed his attorneys should have interviewed Ingle about the killing, presented additional testimony about Paul's abusive upbringing and asserted that Paul was not mentally competent to stand trial. The 8th Circuit on Tuesday upheld U.S. District Judge Jimm Larry Hendren's denial of Paul's claims, saying there was no reasonable probability that the evidence Paul described would have changed the outcome of the trial. As for Paul's mental competence, the appeals court said his attorneys obtained three professional opinions on that point, and the fact that they did not pursue the matter further does not undermine confidence in the outcome. Paul also claimed Hendren should have found him incompetent to pursue his appeals. The 8th Circuit rejected that argument as well, noting that the judge received written communications from Paul and spoke directly with him in a video conference in August 2004. "These interactions, together with the pre-trial reports about Paul's competence, gave the court a sufficient basis for its finding" that Paul was able to make decisions about his appeals, the 8th Circuit said in its opinion Tuesday. |
