Cunningham v. Hudson, No. 11-3005 (6th Cir. 2014)
Annotate this CaseIn 2002, after buying crack cocaine from Liles, Cunningham and his brother, went to rob Liles at his Lima home. After visiting with the occupants, Cunningham produced a gun. Several adults and children were gathered in the kitchen. Cunningham held the group at gunpoint while Jackson used a second gun to force Liles upstairs, where he robbed him of drugs and money. They returned to the kitchen. The group was ordered to hand over their valuables. Jackson and Cunningham shot every occupant of the house. Liles and five others survived. Two children died of their wounds. The police did not recover either gun. Based on an accomplice-liability theory, a jury found Cunningham guilty of two counts of aggravated murder with death-penalty specifications: committing murder during an aggravated robbery and engaging in conduct involving the purposeful killing of multiple people. He was sentenced to death. The Ohio Supreme Court rejected a direct appeal. In an unsuccessful state petition for post-conviction relief he claimed that a juror obtained negative information about him from colleagues where she worked. The federal district court denied Cunningham’s habeas petition, claiming ineffective assistance of counsel, juror bias, voir dire error, erroneous jury instructions, a Brady violation, and prosecutorial misconduct. The Sixth Circuit vacated and remanded a claim that the jury foreperson had a relationship with the victims’ families that impacted her impartiality. The claim was not exhausted nor procedurally defaulted and is “not plainly meritless.”
The court issued a subsequent related opinion or order on July 28, 2020.
The court issued a subsequent related opinion or order on August 24, 2020.
The court issued a subsequent related opinion or order on January 10, 2022.
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