The WaPo has this story a few unusual case on the U.S. Supreme Court docket’s Jan. 6 convention record.
A Texas inmate filmed as a part of a Comedy Central roast by comic Jeff Ross whereas in jail is interesting his case to the U.S. Supreme Court docket, arguing that the stand-up’s footage was improperly used to condemn him to dying for attacking an aged married couple.
Gabriel Corridor was awaiting trial for a high-profile capital homicide cost when Ross, often known as the “Roastmaster Normal” for his insult comedy, was invited to Brazos County Jail and interviewed Corridor and different inmates in 2015.
Although it by no means aired, the video was later subpoenaed and introduced to the jury by the prosecutor, who argued Corridor didn’t present regret 4 years after the 2011 killing. However Corridor’s authorized staff has argued that the taping occurred with out his attorneys’ data and violated the inmate’s Sixth Modification proper to counsel.
Here’s a temporary abstract of the information of the crime, from additional down within the article:
On Oct. 20, 2011, then-18-year-old Corridor broke into the storage of a School Station house in an tried housebreaking, repeatedly stabbing one of many residents, 68-year-old Edwin “Ed” Shaar Jr., a Navy veteran who had Parkinson’s illness. He then shot and killed Ed at point-blank vary. Corridor additionally tried to shoot Ed’s spouse, Linda, who was in a wheelchair, however the gun jammed, so he stabbed her as she was on the telephone with 911. Corridor fled, not taking something, whereas Linda survived and described Corridor to police. He was arrested shortly after and indicted.
Here’s what’s on the video:
The digicam seems to concentrate on Corridor for many of the dialog, as Ross feedback on his intimidating demeanor and references his Asian heritage.
Ross asks Corridor what he’s in jail for and suggests, “Hacking anyone’s laptop?”
“One thing like that, sure,” Corridor solutions.
“‘Hacking’ being the operative phrase,” one other inmate says.
“Yeah. Yeah, used a machete on somebody’s display,” Corridor says.
In one other a part of the dialog, Ross talks with the inmates about life behind bars and brings up Texas’s aggressive use of the dying penalty. Texas kills extra prisoners than another state.
“Properly … they’ll principally screw you over, over probably the most … ah, petty s—,” Corridor says.
The reporter requested me for my remark, and I responded by electronic mail. That is what I advised her, in pertinent half:
Corridor’s attorneys are attempting to stretch the constitutional proper to counsel to an absurd diploma. The Supreme Court docket has held {that a} state might violate the precise to counsel by inserting an agent within the inmate’s cell to attempt to extract info from him with out discover to his lawyer. On this case, a comic went into the jail with no intent to assemble proof and for his personal functions, not the state’s. He was not an agent of the state, not even remotely. The defendant voluntarily talked to him. The precedents about planted informants don’t apply to this case.
I additionally doubt the declare that this video made a lot of a distinction. It doesn’t sound very damaging to me, and it definitely pales compared to the information of the horrific crime.
And here’s what made it into the article:
Ross didn’t search Corridor out for the prosecution like a state agent, and Corridor may haven’t talked with the comic or shared something that would implicate him, stated Kent Scheidegger, authorized director of the Prison Justice Authorized Basis, a company advocating for capital punishment. It’s additionally potential that the video was not what swayed the jury throughout sentencing, Scheidegger stated.
You be the decide. Or the editor.
