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Peter Capote v. Alabama

Paid petition · Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, No. CR-17-0963 · judgment January 10, 2020

Certiorari denied · April 19, 2021

Pre-decision estimate: 1% cert probability

Before the decision, well below the 4.1% base rate, with no standout signals pointing toward a grant.

Questions presented

Whether the Alabama death penalty sentencing scheme, which leaves it to the judge to find whether the aggravating circumstances outweigh the mitigating circumstances, a factual finding essential to capital punishment, violates a defendant’s Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial.
Whether this Court’s decision in McKinney v. Arizona, 140 S. Ct. 702 (2020), applies when the result of a judicial “weighing process” (weighing aggravating circumstances against mitigating circumstances) increases a defendant’s potential punishment.

For petitioner
Paul Shechtman
Bracewell LLP

For respondent
Richard Dearman Anderson
Office of the Attorney General, State of Alabama

Subject area
Criminal Procedure (estimated from the questions presented, in the Supreme Court Database’s categories)

Conference history
Distributed for 1 conference

Order
Order list, April 19, 2021 · Certiorari denied

Apr 19 2021
Petition DENIED.
Mar 31 2021
DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 4/16/2021.
Mar 25 2021
Reply of petitioner Peter Capote filed.
Mar 15 2021
Brief of respondent State of Alabama in opposition filed.
Feb 16 2021
Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due March 22, 2021)