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Thread: Matthew G. Reeves - Alabama Execution - January 27, 2022

  1. #11
    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
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    State of Alabama distributed for conference May 20, 2021.

    https://www.supremecourt.gov/search....c/20-1084.html
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  2. #12
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    High Court Denies Relief for Alabama Death Row Inmate

    By Cameron Langford
    Courthouse News Service

    The 11th Circuit erred in finding an Alabama state court had applied a blanket rule that a prisoner will always lose a habeas claim of ineffective assistance of trial counsel if they don’t call their attorneys to the stand to testify about their strategic decisions, the Supreme Court ruled Friday.

    In an unsigned 6-3 majority opinion, the high court said the Alabama Court of Criminal of Appeals had correctly employed a case-specific analysis in rejecting Alabama death row inmate Matthew Reeves’ claims that his trial counsel had deficiently represented him because they should have hired a neuropsychologist to develop mitigating evidence he is intellectually disabled.

    “The Eleventh Circuit, however, recharacterized this case-specific analysis as a ‘categorical rule’ that any prisoner will always lose if he fails to call and question ‘trial counsel regarding his or her actions and reasoning,'” the 12-page majority opinion states.

    The majority, made up the high court’s six conservative judges, chastised the 11th Circuit for reviving Reeves’ claims, reversed and remanded the case.

    Reeves was sentenced to death for the Nov. 27, 1996 murder of Willie Johnson.

    Then 18, Reeves and his friends had gone out that day looking for people to rob. Their first target was a drug dealer in a neighboring town, but their car broke down, according to the case record.

    Johnson came by in his pickup truck and offered to give them a ride and tow their car to Reeves’ house.

    When they arrived at the home, Reeves, who was riding in the bed of the truck, stuck a shotgun through the rear window of the cab and fatally shot Johnson in the neck. Reeves then told his friends to go through Johnson’s pockets and they stole his money.

    Reeves showed no remorse for the murder and in fact boasted about it throughout the rest of the day. And that night at a party he made up a dance in which he pretended to pump a shotgun and jerked his body around mocking the way Johnson had died.

    After Reeves was charged with murder, his attorneys successfully lobbied the trial court for funding to hire neuropsychologist Dr. John Goff to evaluate Reeves and prepare mitigation evidence to convince the jury not to recommend the death penalty.

    But Reeves’ defense team ultimately chose not to hire Goff after they obtained other records that showed Reeves had a troubled childhood. He was expelled from school for fighting and misbehaving and referred to counselors for behavioral issues, but he had been denied special education services for intellectual disability. His counsel also learned he had earned certificates in welding, masonry and auto mechanics, and a psychologist they had hired to evaluate Reeves determined he was not intellectually disabled.

    The trial judge sentenced Reeves to death on the recommendation of the jury.

    At a hearing on his postconviction appeal in state court, Reeves called Goff to the stand. Goff testified he believed Reeves was intellectually disabled, citing a controversial theory called the Flynn Effect involving the inflation of IQ scores over time, and said the theory called for adjusting Reeves’ score down into the 60s.

    But an expert called by the state who evaluated Reeves found no evidence he was intellectually disabled, pointing to the fact Reeves had made $2,000 a week as a leader of a crew of drug dealers.

    The trial court denied relief and the Alabama Court of Appeals affirmed. After the Supreme Court declined to review the case, Reeves filed a federal habeas case. The district court denied relief, but the 11th Circuit reversed in part.

    The Atlanta-based appellate court agreed Reeves was not intellectually disabled, but held his lawyers were constitutionally deficient for not developing more evidence of intellectual disability, and said the failure could have changed the outcome of his capital murder trial.

    The Supreme Court reversed that decision Friday and remanded the case, pursuant to a petition for review from Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner Jefferson Dunn.

    It found that in analyzing the Alabama Court of Appeals’ decision denying relief, the 11th Circuit had misinterpreted the state court’s ruling as foreclosing any ineffective-assistance-of-trial-counsel claims not backed by testimony from the trial attorneys.

    In his postconviction proceedings in state court, Reeves opted not to call his attorneys to testify about their decision not to hire Dr. Goff to evaluate him.

    “The court did not merely say, as the Eleventh Circuit wrongly suggested, that Reeves’ ‘failure to call his attorneys to testify was fatal to his claims.’ . . . Rather, the opinion prefaced this quote with an important qualifier—’In this case,’” the majority’s unsigned opinion states.

    In a 14-page dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justice Elena Kagan, said the majority’s decision continues a troubling trend in which the “court strains to reverse summarily any grants of relief to those facing execution.”

    Justice Stephen Breyer also dissented from the majority opinion but did not join his fellow liberal colleagues’ dissenting opinion.

    https://www.courthousenews.com/high-...th-row-inmate/

  3. #13
    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
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    The Eleventh Circuit has denied Reeves' appeal and affirmed the district court’s denial of his habeas petition.

    https://law.justia.com/cases/federal...021-08-09.html
    Thank you for the adventure - Axol

    Tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn’t even matter - Linkin Park

    Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever. - Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt

    I’m going to the ghost McDonalds - Garcello

  4. #14
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    The panel was made up of Judges Wilson (Clinton), Martin (Obama) and Jordan (Obama).

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    Alabama Supreme Court sets death row inmate Matthew Reeves’ execution for Jan. 27

    By Howard Koplowitz
    al.com

    The Alabama Supreme Court has scheduled death row inmate Matthew Reeves’ execution for Jan. 27, according to a court order signed Thursday.

    Reeves, 43, and two others from Selma, including his brother, were convicted of capital murder in the robbery-slaying of 38-year-old Willie Johnson, Jr. in the city in 1996.

    Johnson was a public housing employee from Selma who towed Reeves’ broken-down car.

    “In payment for this act of kindness, Reeves murdered Johnson, stole his money, and mocked his dying spasms,” U.S. Supreme Court justices wrote in their majority opinion in July upholding an appeals court’s ruling rejecting Reeves’ claim that he had ineffective counsel.

    Johnson’s body was found inside his truck on Thanksgiving morning 1996.

    Reeves, a death row inmate at Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, is scheduled to die Jan. 27, according to an 8-0 decision by the Alabama Supreme Court.

    Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Tom Parker recused himself from the decision.

    Reeves’ brother, Julius Reeves, is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole in Donaldson Correctional Facility in Bessemer. A third defendant, Brenda Scuttles, is incarcerated in the Tutwiler Prison for Women in Wetumpka after being sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole

    https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.al....outputType=amp

  6. #16
    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
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    It's nice to have a bit of good news, at least, after this lousy news day as a whole.
    Don't ask questions, just consume product and then get excited for next products.

    "They will hurt you. They will hurt your grandma, these people. The root cause of this is there's no discipline in the homes, they don't go to school, you know, they live off the government, no personal accountability, and they just beat people up for no reason, and it's disgusting." - Former Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters

  7. #17
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Throwing in my bet now that we will hear about how innocent this guy was and how high his GPA was in high school from some celebrities.

    Already reading through the appeal and gems such as " At a young age Reeves head banged in order to abuse himself" are appearing.
    Last edited by Mike; 11-18-2021 at 10:30 PM.
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

  8. #18
    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
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    The Middle District Court of Alabama has Denied in Part and Granted in Part the ADOC’s motion to dismiss Reeve’s claims of Intellectual disability and Eighth Amendment Violations. The denial refers to the Eighth Amendment and the grant refers to the ID.

    https://law.justia.com/cases/federal...0027/71849/41/
    Thank you for the adventure - Axol

    Tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn’t even matter - Linkin Park

    Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever. - Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt

    I’m going to the ghost McDonalds - Garcello

  9. #19
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Alabama death row inmate Matthew Reeves’ execution blocked by federal judge’s order

    By Howard Koplowitz
    Al.com

    An Alabama death row inmate had his execution scheduled for later this month effectively blocked by a federal judge Friday.

    U.S. District Court Judge Austin Huffaker found Matthew Reeves, who was scheduled to die Jan. 27. for the 1996 robbery-murder of 38-year-old Willie Johnson, Jr., in Selma, is likely to prevail on the merits of his case against the state.

    Reeves, 43, who claims to be intellectually disabled, argues in his lawsuit against Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner Jeff Dunn and others that the state did not accommodate his disability when it gave him a form asking him to choose whether he wanted to die by hydrogen gas or another method.

    Reeves claims his IQ is in the upper 60s and lower 70s, which meant he could not read or comprehend the form the state gave him.

    Huffaker issued a preliminary injunction in Reeves’ case ordering that the death row inmate can only be executed by hydrogen gas.

    But the state said in court filings that it has not yet developed protocols for that execution method.

    Alabama said it expects to have a protocol by the end of April, well after Reeves’ scheduled execution date.

    Reeves and two others from Selma, including his brother, were convicted of capital murder in Johnson’s slaying.

    Johnson was a public housing employee from Selma who towed Reeves’ broken-down car.

    “In payment for this act of kindness, Reeves murdered Johnson, stole his money, and mocked his dying spasms,” U.S. Supreme Court justices wrote in their majority opinion in July upholding an appeals court’s ruling rejecting Reeves’ claim that he had ineffective counsel.

    Johnson’s body was found inside his truck on Thanksgiving morning 1996.

    Reeves’ brother, Julius Reeves, is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole in Donaldson Correctional Facility in Bessemer. A third defendant, Brenda Scuttles, is incarcerated in the Tutwiler Prison for Women in Wetumpka after being sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole

    https://www.al.com/news/montgomery/2...ges-order.html

    Yet another "conservative" judge making some great rulings! Ordering that Alabama has to execute everyone by gas!
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

  10. #20
    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
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    This will be probably be overturned on appeal.
    Don't ask questions, just consume product and then get excited for next products.

    "They will hurt you. They will hurt your grandma, these people. The root cause of this is there's no discipline in the homes, they don't go to school, you know, they live off the government, no personal accountability, and they just beat people up for no reason, and it's disgusting." - Former Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters

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