Supreme Court of the United States · Official docket →
Leonard Maurice Drane v. Eric Sellers, Warden
Paid petition · Supreme Court of Georgia, No. S17E1366 · judgment February 19, 2018
Before the decision, well below the 4.1% base rate, with no standout signals pointing toward a grant.
Questions presented
Petitioner Leonard Drane’s co-indictee, David Robert Willis, has confessed under oath that he and he alone murdered Ms. Renee Blackmon—the crime for which Petitioner was sentenced to death. This Court has held that the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments would prohibit the execution of a person innocent of murder.
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When a prisoner under a sentence of death has acquired compelling and undisputed evidence of his actual innocence after his trial that the state courts fail and refuse to give full and fair consideration, does the Constitution require that his innocence provide an independent and cognizable ground for relief from that sentence?
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Is this compelling evidence of innocence sufficient to serve as both evidence in support of and a gateway to this Court’s consideration of Petitioner’s claim that his sentence of death is disproportionate pursuant to Enmund v. Florida and its progeny?
Counsel of record
For petitioner
L. Joseph Loveland
For respondent
Tayo Popoola
Georgia Office of the Attorney General
Proceedings
- Oct 01 2018Petition DENIED.
- Sep 05 2018DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 9/24/2018.
- Sep 04 2018Reply of petitioner Leonard Maurice Drane filed.
- Aug 22 2018Brief of respondent Eric Sellers, Warden in opposition filed.
- Jul 19 2018Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due August 22, 2018)
- May 10 2018Application (17A1241) granted by Justice Thomas extending the time to file until July 19, 2018.
- May 07 2018Application (17A1241) to extend the time to file a petition for a writ of certiorari from May 20, 2018 to July 19, 2018, submitted to Justice Thomas.