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Cert Granted for Texas Death Row Inmate Delma Banks

By Jeralyn, Section Court Decisions
Posted on Mon Apr 21, 2003 at 08:17:23 AM EST
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The Supreme Court granted cert today on three issues in 02-8286, Banks v. Cockrell --the case of Texas death row inmate Delma Banks. From a press release received from National Coaltion Against the Death Penalty:
The U.S. Supreme Court Monday announced it will hear a case involving Delma Banks Jr., who sits on Texas' death row despite questions about prosecutorial misconduct, biased jury selection and ineffective legal counsel.
Banks was convicted and sentenced to death in connection with the murder of Richard Whitehead of Texarkana after prosecutors struck all black prospective jurors from the jury pool and withheld critical exculpatory evidence from the defense. NCADP Executive Director Steven W. Hawkins said Banks has never received an opportunity to present in court evidence that prosecutors failed to inform defense counsel that one of its key witnesses was a paid informant and that another key witness received a reduced sentence after testifying against Banks.

"Supreme Court Justice Henry Blackmun once wrote that the execution of a person who can show he is innocent comes perilously close to simple murder," Hawkins said. "Delma has never had the opportunity to demonstrate that he was innocent, not for a lack of facts but rather for a lack of forum. Simply put, though there have been years of appeals and many courts that shuffled the paperwork, no one has ever granted this man the review that he deserves. You can read more about Mr. Bank's case here. Mr. Banks has had the support of former FBi Director General William Sessions, former US Court of Appeals Judges Timothy Lewis and John Gibbons (3rd Circuit) and former US Attorney for Chicago and co-chair of the Illinois Governor's Commission on Capital Punishment Thomas Sullivan, who filed an amicus brief in the Supreme Court asking it to review Banks's case. The brief, which focuses on critical questions regarding prosecutorial suppression of evidence and ineffective assistance of counsel at Banks' trial, can be read here [PDF].

In March, NCADP said that Banks' conviction violates three Supreme Court rulings:

The Brady ruling requires prosecutors to reveal potentially exculpatory evidence. In Banks' case, prosecutors knowingly allowed key witnesses to perjure themselves at trial, withheld evidence from the jury that would have discredited key witnesses and then argued to the jury that it should believe witnesses they knew were lying.

The Batson ruling bans prosecutors from striking prospective jurors on the basis of race. In Banks' case, prosecutors excluded all African American jurors from the jury pool and he was convicted and death-sentenced by an all-white jury. Banks is African American.

The Strickland ruling addresses the issue of competency of legal counsel. A federal judge characterized the performance of Banks' trial attorney as "dismal" and reversed his sentence. That decision itself was reversed by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which has a track record of not seriously considering the claims of people on death row.
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