In June 22 commentary in Slate, Joseph Margulies, professor of government and law, writes that the Supreme Court refused last week to hear an appeal from Terence Andrus, a prisoner on Texas’ death row.
“Two years ago, the court held that Andrus’ attorney had failed to present a mountain of mitigating evidence that could’ve saved his life. The court ruled that his counsel’s representation fell below the constitutional minimum and sent the case back to the Texas Court,” Margulies writes in the piece. “Instead of following the Supreme Court’s directive, the state court decided that Andrus’ lawyer hadn’t been that bad after all—just the opposite of what the Supreme Court had ruled—and upheld his death sentence.”
