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Death Penalty

Dozens of lawyers have missed habeas deadlines, resulting in just one sanction

Lawyers in at least 80 habeas appeals have missed a filing deadline, yet only one has only been sanctioned by disciplinary authorities—in the form of a simple censure.

The Marshall Project, a new nonprofit news organization, covered the issue in a two-part story here and here. Its investigation found that “in at least 80 capital cases in which lawyers have missed the deadline—sometimes through remarkable incompetence or neglect—it is almost always the prisoner alone who suffers the consequences.” Sixteen of the 80 inmates in blown deadline cases have since been executed.

Many lawyers who miss habeas deadlines remain free to seek appointment in new death penalty appeals, the stories say. The second Marshall Project story begins with a U.S. Supreme Court argument in 2006 by Florida lawyer Mary Catherine Bonner, who was representing a death row inmate whose appeal had been blocked because a previous lawyer missed a deadline.

Yet Bonner herself had been scolded by a judge for missing filing deadlines in two other capital cases, the story says. She missed the deadline by 210 days in one case and by 278 days in another. In a third case, she missed deadline by 312 days, according to the story.

Bonner had explained to a judge questioning two of the missed deadlines that her husband had suffered a stroke, and she herself was hospitalized with health issues. In addition, many of her case files were destroyed in a hurricane, she had testified at a hearing. She did not comment to the Marshall Project.

Florida established a private registry of lawyers to help handle capital appeals in 1998, but many on the list lacked experience in the field, the story says. Thirty-seven out of the 80 cases involving missed deadlines are from Florida.