Gary Sampson hearing, day 2
The hearing on Gary Sampson’s 2255 (habeas corpus) petition continued today. Sampson’s defense team has raised 18 issues that they believe violated Sampson’s constitutional rights and entitle him to a new trial.
Today’s arguments aren’t as interesting to write about as yesterday’s, and Judge Mark Wolf considers them less likely to succeed. Sampson’s main argument today was that his trial lawyers failed to adequately investigate the option of pleading guilty earlier on in the process and thereby avoiding the death penalty. The law on this issue was complicated and difficult for me to understand, but I think that if Sampson had pled guilty right away, he would have been ineligible for the death penalty. However, because of a Supreme Court decision sometime during Sampson’s legal proceedings, that no longer was an option by the time he decided to plead guilty.
Sampson’s team argued that his trial attorneys failed to plan for this Supreme Court decision, which was foreshadowed by several prior decisions, and to properly advise their client. Prosecutors, however, argued that expecting someone to predict Supreme Court decisions is unreasonable and stressed the experience and competence of Sampson’s trial lawyers. In order to receive a new trial, Sampson must show that there is a reasonable probability (doesn’t have to be more likely than not) that the jurors would not have arrived at a unanimous death penalty verdict if it weren’t for the incompetence of his trial lawyers.
The hearing will continue tomorrow and probably after that. Then Judge Wolf will formally issue a ruling on whether or not to summarily dismiss Sampson’s claims. If there are any claims he does not summarily dismiss (which is likely), then there will be more detailed hearings on those. Stay tuned!