GIST: "A federal judge has ordered a Missouri man’s execution be halted until a hearing on a juror’s literacy can be held. Michael Tisius, 42, was set to die by lethal injection on Tuesday, June 6.
Late last month, his legal team made what they described as a “startling discovery”: One of the jurors was not able to read or write.
According to Missouri law, a person is disqualified from serving on a jury if they are unable to read, speak and understand English.
Keith O’Connor, an attorney for Tisius, said the juror could not read the diagrams, letters or expert reports admitted into evidence.
According to a declaration signed April 29, the man said a courthouse employee helped him fill out his juror questionnaire.
The questionnaires were destroyed within a year of Tisius’ sentencing.
The declaration was read to him by a witness because he cannot read. Tisius’ attorneys said they did not know if prosecutors were aware that the juror was unqualified."
The issue was presented to the Missouri Supreme Court, which struck down the motion.
Tisius’ attorneys then brought it to federal court.
In an order Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Stephen R. Bough wrote that a brief stay of execution was warranted.
Bough ordered an evidentiary hearing.
The Missouri Attorney General’s Office has filed a notice of appeal.
Tisius was 19 when he shot and killed Jason Acton and Leon Egley, two guards at the Randolph County jail, during a botched escape attempt in 2000.
Several groups including the American Bar Association, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the NAACP have called on Gov. Mike Parson to grant Tisius clemency.
They cite Tisius’ remorse, his age and brain development at the time of the double homicide, and missteps by his attorney during sentencing."
The entire story can be read at:
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
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YET ANOTHER FINAL WORD:
David Hammond, one of Broadwater’s attorneys who sought his exoneration, told the Syracuse Post-Standard, “Sprinkle some junk science onto a faulty identification, and it’s the perfect recipe for a wrongful conviction.”
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