Ex-judges seek to stop upcoming Missouri execution
Source: Associated Press
Ex-judges seek to stop upcoming Missouri execution
By JIM SALTER, Associated Press | October 27, 2014 | Updated: October 27, 2014 3:57pm
Mark Christeson is scheduled to die at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday for the killing a southern Missouri woman and her two children in 1998. He would be the ninth person put to death in Missouri this year.
Christeson's attorneys and 15 former judges filed a brief Friday with the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals claiming Christeson was denied federal court review because the court-appointed attorneys who took over his case after the trial missed the deadline to file a federal appeals petition by four months.
The 8th Circuit refused the request, prompting the appeal to the Supreme Court.
Sarah Turberville, an attorney for The Constitution Project, a Washington-based organization working with the former judges, said it is rare for anyone to face execution without having appealed the case in federal court.
She said Christeson's court-appointed attorneys, who took over his case in July 2004, had until April 2005 to file the petition seeking federal court review. The petition was filed 117 days late, and a U.S. District Court in Missouri refused to hear the case, Turberville said.
Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Ex-judges-raise-concerns-about-pending-execution-5850249.php
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