Black v. Bell, No. 02-5032 (6th Cir. 2011)
Annotate this CaseDefendant, sentenced to death for the murder of his girlfriend and her two children in 1988, exhausted state remedies. The Supreme Court denied certiorari. The federal district court denied his petition for habeas corpus in 2001; the Sixth Circuit held appeal in abeyance while he exhausted "Atkins" claims in state court. Tennessee courts rejected his claim of mental retardation. The district court also denied an Atkins petition. The Sixth Circuit vacated the decision on the Atkins claim and affirmed on all other claims. On remand, the court must consider the relationship between mental retardation and mental illness and whether defendant displayed deficits in adaptive behavior by the time he was 18. Rejected claims concerned the court's failure to answer jury questions regarding whether defendant could be paroled from a life sentence; ineffective assistance in counsel's failing to object to the prosecution's penalty-phase closing argument that giving a life sentence would reward him for the additional killings of the children and by failing to hire a psychiatrist regarding his mental-health issues; and the court's determination of his competency to stand trial.
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