In case you wonder were I’ve been, I guess the best answer is on the front page of this morning’s Clarion Ledger.
I attended this morning’s Zach Scruggs hearing, about which more in a bit.
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I am Tom Freeland,
a lawyer in Oxford, Mississippi. The picture in the header is my law office.
I'm on Twitter as NMissC
Missing Posts: If you have a link to a post that's not here or are looking for posts from Summer of 2010, check this page. Search NMC
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I don’t recall ever seeing a court order reproduced as an image on the front page.
Think NMC messed up their planned layout and they needed to replace it in a hurry?
Congratulations! It is a pleasure to see good lawyering in action.
Well done, especially considering … especially especially considering … the panel. Our profession needs more like you.
Tip of the hat from a former death penalty litigator. I know how emotionally draining and physically exhausting those “last hours” are. Did you have a neurological examination to support your agrument or is that something the Fifth Circuit’s ruling will allow you to pursue?
Enjoy the weekend — you certainly have earned a bit of rest.
The child rapists of the world salute you.
So many blogs at which to be an asshole, Terminator — why choose this one?
Simon’s guilt isn’t contested. It happens to be the law in this country that a guy can’t be executed if he’s mentally unable to understand what he did or what’s happening to him.
Maybe Simon is malingering, maybe not. The point is that the Miss. Supreme Court refused to allow an exam by someone not working for the executioners, and that it did so based on a very sloppy review.
You don’t get a unanimous stay from the 5th Circuit without the state courts’ having screwed up significantly. This is one of those times.
Habeas, I have an affidavit from a neuropsychologist after review of medical records saying that the records & affidavits from me and from another lawyer support an exam. The question was whether I’d made a substantial showing that called for going forward for expert assistance and a hearing.
Stand up, Terminator: it’s way over your head.
Congratulations, NMC.
Anderson: Your post at 9:12 provides more detail and better observation than the C-L’s entire story, which seemed to basically vent outrage that a guy wasn’t put to death at the appointed hour.
Overall, I’ve not been terribly impressed with the objectivity of that paper in their coverage of any execution this year. On a related note, I haven’t read the letters to the editor today in the CL, but I can’t wait…
I applaud our friend Tom for taking and doing his JOB well for his client and I understand the legal issue BUT honestly it’s hard to have any sympathy for this man. I feel more for the family of the victims who have to relive this heinous crime every time a stay is issued. But that’s the law and under our oaths we are required to follow it
The death penalty is wrong and states that execute the mentally ill are particularly barbaric.
Lookie here. Our AG also congratulates NMC, sort of.
Hood, who wouldn’t prosecute people who were bribing every judge they came across because the bribers were “family”, has a problem with making sure that someone who is about to be executed knows what’s going on.
Tim, I have zero sympathy for the perpetrator of this crime, but that has nothing to do with my satisfaction in seeing a federal court issue a stay to make sure that the man won’t be executed in violation of the Constitution when the Mississippi Supreme Court clearly could not give a damn. I agree it must be awful for the victims’ family to have their vision of justice delayed at the eleventh hour, and my heart goes out to them, but that portion of the blame ought to be laid at the feet of the Mississippi judiciary, which had ample opportunity to do right by the law and avoid the possibility of a last minute stay. Mr. Freeland and the Fifth Circuit have done their sworn duty. The shills on the Mississippi Supreme Court continue to shirk theirs.
Damn if Jim Hood isn’t going to drive me to voting GOP for AG this fall. And I really hate that.
But it’s the “knot head” in the AG’s office who really concerns me. The courts can handle the other kind.
Tim and Terminator: You guys do realize that Mr. Simon isn’t going free, right? He’s in the same damn place doing the same damn thing he’s been doing for the last two decades of his life. That’s all.
I fail to see how the state of Mississippi or the citizens thereof are any worse off because we didn’t kill him a couple of days ago. If you’d care to explain, please do–but back up your argument with evidence and fact. And bear in mind that if he’d never been on death row in the first place, the citizens of Quitman county could have been spared TWO tax hikes (this is according to Butch Scipper, the Co. Clerk).
The letters in today’s C/L are pretty much the same old drivel. The comments after yesterday’s article are another thing all together. Even our old friend Bellesouth rears her ugly head to attack NMC.
You’re never going to teach that it’s wrong to kill someone by killing someone
I am a lawyer and have done death penalty trials. On both sides, never had one executed. Yet, at least.
I don’t blame NMC for doing his “job”, I just didn’t like the cheerleader type posts. My intent was to insult the posts, not NMC. If I did, sorry TF. Note that NMC has had very little to say to the media. I think that is the only appropriate thing for him to do at this time.
For the record, my personal belief is that the death penalty isn’t a deterrent, is way too expensive, takes too long to litigate, and should very rarely be utilized, never if there is even residual doubt. I beleive that life without any possible release in super max is worse punishment. That said, this particular client of TF is one of those one-in-ten-thousand that should be exterminated regardless whether it deters anyone, no matter how much it has cost, and, as some of you concede, there’s no residual doubt. Why? Good, old fashioned retribution. I only know what I’ve read in the media, but it sounds like a sham, just a delay tactic. But just my opinion on limited information.
Well, I take calling it a sham a pretty serious insult, Terminator. I filed an affidavit based on my own experience. There are 70+ pages of Parchman medical records talking about his head injury, with details about his incoherence and failed memory. I don’t file pleadings that are “shams.”
I’ll email you the fifth circuit brief if you like.
“Good, old fashioned retribution.” I am kinda grossed out that this is cited as a rational argument for the death penalty from someone who claims to be intimately involved in it.
pbpike, I understand and agree. I have nothing but admiration for lawyers, especially Tom, who take on these type difficult cases with little or no compensation and all to often public scorn. I admire him for upholding our laws and Constitution. My father sent a number to the gas chamber and later he was against the Death penalty, which surprised me. But, I have hard time when a crime such is this is committed not supporting the death penalty. I know its NOT a deterent but there are certain things a person does that gives up the right to be a burden on society and should proceed straight to judgment day. Sorry I know some will slam me for that but killing a family coming home from church, raping a child, cutting off a finger to get a wedding ring, I just can’t stomach such. Again I admire Tom tremendously for being able to do so and do not for one second think its a “sham”, but I’m not sure I could do it. He’s a better lawyer than I. [I should keep my mouth shut].
Wow, congratulations! What kind of head injury did this man sustain?
How is raising everyone’s property taxes to pay for an execution while forcing school districts to fire teachers relieving a burden on society?
Dr. X, I have no report from the prison about what head injury he sustained. He has no memory of it. He was delivered to the infirmary unconscious and unresponsive, woke up disoriented, incoherent and then throwing up.
there are other facts that I think will come out later about it but am not sure. Since my neuropsychologist hasn’t examined him yet, I really can’t know more than what’s in the medical records.
I’m not going to slam you Tim. As much as I’m against the death penalty, I can certainly see your point of view. When I hear of crimes as heinous as this one, I have to remind myself that abolishing the death penalty is for the betterment of our society, even if it means a piece of garbage still gets to breath oxygen a little longer. All that said, if someone touched my daughters, they had better pray the police get to them before I do.
Good lawyering. Congratulations.
So NMC – who would you rather be your house guest for a week – Mr. Simon or Mr. Scruggs?
I know the obvious answer is neither. But I feel doing a good thing for a bad man is nothing to self-cheerlead about. If you want and can help him then do so but don’t re-write yourself as Bishop Tutu. Be his lawyer and let it go.
NMC – Mayhaps an fMRI would yield specific incontrovertible evidence of past head trauma? There would be no judgement calls on (in)visible brain damage with an fMRI?
Phil: You are aware, right, that Desmond Tutu is a staunch opponent of the death penalty? In an op/ed to The Guardian in 2007 he wrote:
It is often asked by those favouring the death penalty: “What if your child was murdered?” And it is a natural question. Rage is a common reaction to the homicide of a loved one, and a wish for revenge is understandable. But what if the person condemned to death was your son? No one raises a child to be a murderer, yet many parents suffer the grief of knowing their child is to be killed. In 1988, the parents of those on death row in South Africa wrote to the president, saying: “To be a mother or father and watch your child going through this living hell is a torment more painful than anyone can imagine.” We must not put these children to death. It is to inflict horrific and unacceptable suffering upon them, and their mothers and fathers.
Retribution, resentment and revenge have left us with a world soaked in the blood of far too many of our sisters and brothers. The death penalty is part of that process. It says that to kill in certain circumstances is acceptable, and encourages the doctrine of revenge. If we are to break these cycles, we must remove government-sanctioned violence.
The time has come to abolish the death penalty worldwide.
What neuropsych did you use? I normally have trouble finding one in state to testify, other than Ed Manning or James Irby.
Sorry if offended TF, but the zealots in the anti-death penalty crowd have cried the sky is falling so many, many times that many of us look at these last minute appeals with high skepticism, and in the vast majority of cases, we are correct in the end. I know you by reputation and I am certain you believe there is merit in it. Note I did concede my knowledge is limited what has been reported by the media, so again, sorry if you felt slighted. But I won’t back down on my position that this criminal is so evil that he should die, and soon, and I hope you fail.