Druery v. Thaler, No. 10-70022 (5th Cir. 2011)
Annotate this CasePetitioner was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death. Petitioner raised five claims on appeal of the district court's decision to deny him a certificate of appealability (COA): (1) ineffective assistance of counsel because trial counsel declined a jury instruction on the lesser-included offense of murder; (2) ineffective assistance of counsel based on trial counsel's failure to investigate and plan a mitigation defense for the punishment phase; (3) the penalty phase jury charge denied his due process rights and violated the Eighth Amendment because it did not inform the jury that petitioner would automatically receive a life sentence if the jurors did not reach a unanimous verdict on one or both of the special issues; (4) the trial court deprived petitioner of due process by not sua sponte instructing the jury on the lesser-included offense of murder; and (5) the trial court violated petitioner's Sixth and Fourteenth Amendment rights by not instructing the jury that the state bore the burden of proof to negate his mitigation evidence. The court addressed each claim and held that petitioner had not demonstrated that he was entitled to a COA. Accordingly, petitioner's request for a COA was denied.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.