Petitioner Carlos Manuel Ayestas was convicted and sentenced to death for murder in 1995. See Ayestas v. Stephens, 817 F.3d 888, 892 (5th Cir. 2016). After the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed his conviction and sentence, Ayestas petitioned for...
ineffective assistance of counsel
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On October 29, 1999 in Winchester, Virginia, Sergeant Ricky Timbrook and two probation officers encountered Petitioner Edward Bell and another man while searching for a wanted parolee. See Bell v. Kelly, No. 06-22 at 10 (4th Cir. Jan. 4, 2008) (...
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On January 10, 2000, Samuel Morris and Frederick France were repeatedly shot while driving through a strip mall parking lot in Southfield Michigan. See Thompkins v. Berghuis, 547 F.3d 572, 575 (6th Cir. 2008). The shots killed...
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Petitioner Duane Buck was convicted of capital murder for the July 1995 deaths of his ex-girlfriend Debra Gardner and her friend Kenneth Butler. See Buck v. Stephens, No.14-70030 at *2 (5th Cir., filed Aug 20, 2015). During the sentencing phase, Buck’s...
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Facts
Respondent Vonlee Titlow is a transgender male prisoner currently serving a twenty-to-forty year sentence. See Titlow v. Burt,680 F.3d 577, 582 (6th Cir. 2012). A Michigan state court jury convicted Titlow of second-degree murder for assisting...
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Oral argument: Nov. 9, 2010
Appealed from: United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (Dec. 9, 2009)
HABEAS CORPUS, INEFFECTIVE ASSISTANCE OF COUNSEL, EVIDENTIARY HEARINGAfter receiving a...
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In February 2009, Erick Daniel Davila killed Annette Stevenson and her five-year-old granddaughter, Queshawn Stevenson, while the Stevensons were attending a family member’s birthday party in Fort Worth, Texas. See Davila v. Davis, 650 F. App’x 860,...
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Joe Elton Nixon was convicted of first-degree murder, kidnapping, robbery and arson for his involvement in the 1984 murder of a Tallahassee, Florida woman. Nixon v. Florida, 857 So.2d 172 (Fla., 2003). Nixon's attorney offered the prosecutor a guilty plea...
(LIIBULLETIN preview)
In 2015, Gilberto Garza, Jr. was charged with aggravated assault and possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver. Garza v. State of Idaho at 1. Garza entered an Alford plea to aggravated assault and pleaded guilty to the other charge....