The Supreme Court Investigates Apparently Unauthorized Cert. Petition in Capital Case

Monday, the Supreme Court denied a petition for certiorari filed in Ballard v. Pennsylvania. One interesting aspect of the case is that the defendant on whose behalf the petition was filed says that he never authorized it to be filed, and the lawyer who filed it says that he is not the inmate’s lawyer. The Supreme Court has asked the lawyer to explain himself. First, a bit of background. Ballard is a capital case. The defendant was charged with stabbing four people to death, including his ex-girlfriend. He was on parole at the time, having previously been convicted of murdering another man. He pled guilty to four counts of first-degree murder, and after a sentencing hearing, a jury imposed a sentence of death. He appealed his conviction in the state courts. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court affirmed in November 2013. Com. v. Ballard, 80 A.3d 380 (Pa. 2013). Ballard was represented at trial and in his state court appeals by a public defender. According to the public defender, after the state supreme court decided the case, he wrote Ballard and advised him of his legal options. The normal course in a capital case is to seek Supreme Court review of the state court’s decision, and then to file a federal habeas petition. But Ballard “wrote back and said he did not intend to pursue any further appeals.” So the public defender didn’t file anything. In February 2014, Marc Bookman of the Atlantic Center for Capital Representation in Philadelphia filed a motion for [...]