Simpson v. Carpenter

Oklahoma prisoner Kendrick Simpson sought habeas relief from his death sentence for two counts of first-degree murder. The district court granted a Certificate of Appealability (“COA”) on two of the Simpson's eighteen grounds for relief: (1) the trial court’s alleged improper exclusion of Simpson’s PTSD evidence from the guilt stage of the trial; and (2) an alleged Brady violation, whereby prosecutors withheld impeachment evidence as to a jailhouse informant. The Tenth Circuit subsequently granted a COA on five additional issues: (1) whether alleged prosecutorial misconduct denied Simpson a fundamentally fair sentencing proceeding; (2) whether a jury instruction and prosecutorial statements unduly limited jury consideration of mitigating evidence; (3) whether the heinous, atrocious or cruel ("HAC") aggravating factor determination as to one victim was unconstitutional and unreasonable; (4) whether trial counsel was ineffective for failing to investigate, prepare, and present lay witnesses, failing to request a second-degree murder instruction, failing to object to improper prosecutorial arguments, failing to object to the HAC instruction, and failing to object to the jury instruction limiting consideration of mitigating evidence; and (5) whether there was “cumulative error, limited to errors in the grounds on which a certificate of appealability has been granted.” After careful consideration, the Tenth Circuit found no reversible error, and affirmed denial of habeas relief. View "Simpson v. Carpenter" on Justia Law