Summary
A U.—S. Supreme Court case regarding whether a double murderer can reopen challenges to her convictions after they have been properly dismissed by the state courts. On Mother's Day 1995, Donna Lee and Paul Carasi murdered Carasi's mother, Doris Carasi, and Sonia Salinas, who was Carasi's previous girlfriend and the mother of his child. The California Court of Appeal considered and rejected the claims that Lee raised on appeal. In a second review of the case, called habeas corpus, the state courts properly refused to consider claims that Lee could have raised in the initial appeal, but did not. Nearly all states and the federal courts have similar Procedural default" rules. The U. S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reopened these weak claims, requiring a new round of litigation, by declaring California's rule "inadequate" merely because its courts do not mechanically apply in every instance, but sometimes deny claims on the merits instead. CJLF has filed a brief asking the U. S. Supreme Court to review this decision. In a system of limited resources and long delays, scarce resources should not be spent routinely relitigating defaulted claims in final cases. Such reopening should be limited to cases with strong claims of actual innocence.
