Mccleskey v. Zant

499 U.S. 467 (1991)

Purchase the Printed Copy at bsmsphd.com

Nature of the Case

To access this section all you need to do is click here and register.

Facts

McCleskey (D) was convicted of murder and sentenced to death. D has since pursued both direct and collateral remedies for more than a decade. Ten years after his conviction, D filed a second federal habeas action. The first petition he filed in federal court did not include the Massiah claim that D now makes in this petition. The statements under issue were conversations that D had with Evans a police informant while D was in jail awaiting trial. D claims in his present writ that Evans was acting in direct concert with State officials and that those officials deliberately elicited inculpatory admissions from D in violation of the Sixth Amendment. The court found that the documents nor a witness by the name of Worthy were not capable of being known or discoverable prior to the first writ filing. D claims that because of this ruling that his failure to raise the claims should be excused.