Cory Maples sits on Death Row over in Alabama, after having obvious and serious errors made by both his trial and appellate counsel which included some pretty big names in the legal industry.
And by "obvious and serious," we really mean blatant, ludicrous, and shameful treatment of an indigent defendant by, among others, one of the purportedly top law firms in the country, Sullivan and Cromwell.
Maples Argues to the United States Supreme Court This Week
Yesterday, Mr. Maples argued to the highest court in the land for some justice — and now, we must wait and see if the United States Supreme Court will fix a blatant glitch in the system that has allowed Mr. Maples’ case to get as far down the road to execution as it has.
Even Business Week reported that oral arguments before the High Court were " lively," and other media sources have gone so far as to characterized what happened on Tuesday as suggesting that the Justices were "unusually sympathetic" toward Maples’ plight.
One big example, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., whose past experience as a federal prosecutor often brings with it a prosecutorial perspective to criminal matters brought before the court (just go read a few, if you’re wondering about this), asked a question that lots of attorneys across the country are asking even now:
when it was obvious that the ball had been dropped, why didn’t the government agree to waive the deadline and agree to a new hearing? Or, as Justice Alito asked:
“Mr. Maples has lost his right to appeal through no fault of his own, through a series of very unusual and unfortunate circumstances….Now, when his attorneys moved to file an out-of-time appeal, why wouldn’t you just consent to that?”
Error after Error by Attorneys Appointed to Represent Cory Maples
We’ve been following Mr. Maples case for a long while now; for background, please check out our prior posts "Will A Law Firm Missing a Deadline Fail to Stop the Execution of Alabama Death Row’s Cory R. Maples?" and "Death Penalty Defense: Cory Maples’ Sullivan & Cromwell Representation vs Sakineh Ashtiani’s Mohammed Mostafaei."
Let us all hope and pray that justice is served here.
To review the United States Supreme Court docket for Cory R. Maples, go here.