Sheppard v. Bagley, No. 09-3472 (6th Cir. 2011)
Annotate this CaseIn 1994 the then-18-year-old petitioner robbed a liquor store with a 14-year-old accomplice. Both wore masks. The security camera captured petitioner shooting and killing the owner, who did not resist. After a tracking dog led police to petitioner's house, they obtained a warrant and found the murder weapon and cash. Petitioner was convicted of aggravated robbery and murder. The jury recommended the death penalty. A juror admitted consulting an outside source about the definition of paranoid schizophrenia, but stated that her answer had played no role in his deliberations. The judge imposed the death penalty. Petitioner exhausted state appeals and collateral attack, then filed a federal habeas petition. The district court denied the petition. The Sixth Circuit affirmed, rejecting a juror misconduct claim. There is no constitutional imperative to admit cumulative or irrelevant evidence; the court properly excluded evidence of mental illness in petitioner's family. The Ohio Supreme Court's reweighing cured whatever misconduct the prosecutor engaged in at trial. The court also rejected challenges involving exclusion of a juror and jury instructions.
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