Court Ruling Favors Defense In Death Penalty Case - WMDT 47 News - Delmarva's Choice

Court Ruling Favors Defense In Death Penalty Case

DOVER, Del.  - A judge who overturned the conviction of former death-row inmate Jermaine Wright says Wright's trial attorney never knew about an attempted robbery that may have helped his defense case.
    
Wednesday's ruling came in response to the state Supreme Court's request for more information before deciding whether to reinstate Wright's conviction and death sentence.
    
The ruling involves the failure by prosecutors to disclose potentially exculpatory evidence about an attempted liquor store robbery shortly before the liquor store killing that led to Wright's 1992 conviction. Prosecutors argued that the nondisclosure was immaterial because defense attorneys already knew about the earlier robbery attempt from news articles.
    
Judge John Parkins Jr. disagreed, saying there was no evidence that Wright's attorney actually read the articles.
    
The case now returns to the Supreme Court.

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