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Joe Nathan James v. Terry Raybon, Warden, et al.

Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, No. 17-11855 · judgment April 28, 2020

Certiorari denied · March 1, 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 Court of Appeals failed to follow the review requirements of 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d) and the case law produced surrounding Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (1984), by ignoring case law regarding investigating mitigation evidence and instead focused on James’ alleged behavior at the time of trial.
Whether this Court should consider the decision of the District Court to not hold an evidentiary hearing despite serious concerns about Jones’ mental health brought up in his Rule 32 petition undermines the ability to properly determine whether the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals decision was reasonable.

For petitioner
Matthew Aaron Bailey
Maxwell Tillman

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

Conference history
Distributed for 1 conference

Mar 01 2021
Petition DENIED.
Feb 10 2021
DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 2/26/2021.
Feb 05 2021
Reply of petitioner Joe James filed.
Jan 22 2021
Brief of respondent State of Alabama in opposition filed.
Dec 16 2020
Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is extended to and including January 22, 2021.
Dec 15 2020
Motion to extend the time to file a response from December 23, 2020 to January 22, 2021, submitted to The Clerk.
Nov 18 2020
Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due December 23, 2020)