The issue in this case is whether the 6th Circuit's decision to overturn a 29-year-old double murder conviction violate federal law by second-guessing the decisions of the state courts. "Between 1 and 2 a.m. on the morning of June 29, 1981, respondent David Eugene Matthews broke into the Louisville home he had until recently shared with his estranged wife, Mary Marlene Matthews (Marlene). At the time, Matthews’ mother-in-law, Magdalene Cruse, was staying at the home with her daughter. Matthews found Cruse in bed and shot her in the head at point-blank range, using a gun he had purchased with borrowed funds hours before. Matthews left Cruse there mortally wounded and went into the next room, where he found his wife. He had sexual relations with her once or twice; stayed with her until about 6 a.m.; and then shot her twice, killing her. Cruse would die from her wound later that day.
Matthews was apprehended that morning at his mother’s house, where he had already begun to wash the clothes he wore during the crime. Later in the day, police officers found the murder weapon secreted below the floorboards of a backyard shed on the property. At the police station, Matthews made a tape-recorded statement to a police detective in which he denied responsibility for the murders. A grand jury indicted Matthews for the two murders and for burglary. At trial, he did not contest that he killed the two victims. Instead, he sought to show that he had acted under “extreme emotional disturbance,” which under Kentucky law serves to reduce a homicide that would otherwise be murder to first-degree manslaughter."
This case was argued on June 11th, 2012. It was decided June 11th, 2012 with the decision 9-0, per curiam ruling for Parker. At first I did not agree with the court's decision. With all the evidence against Parker there is no way he was innocent. However further information against his wife shows he just may of had enough with her. Parker's mother and neighbors made claims of his alleged wife doing things like screaming at him across the street when they were seperated, accusing him of sexual relations with their 6-year-old daughter, and also leaving their 6-year-old daugher crying and screaming in the middle of the nights in the street just to antagonize him. Neither one of these parents seem fit to raise this poor child.
No comments:
Post a Comment