Summary
Unanimous U. S. Supreme Court decision reinstating the conviction of an Oregon murderer. The decision utilized CJLF arguments to unanimously overturn a 2009 Ninth Circuit ruling which had announced that the murderer’s lawyer was ineffective. Randy Moore admitted to kidnapping a man and then killing him with a gunshot to the temple, but claimed that the single-action revolver went off accidently. His defense attorney negotiated a plea deal which spared Moore from the possibility of a death sentence. Years later, the Ninth Circuit invalidated the conviction, ruling that the defense attorney should have sought to have the confession excluded. CJLF joined the state’s appeal to argue that the Ninth Circuit ruling ignored key facts and violated limits on its authority. [CJLF brief in PDF.]
