Us Supreme Court Court February 1992 Judgments
Browse smarter
Open an 18-section brief on any judgment
Structured AI Brief in seconds on any result - plus Semantic Search when you need meaning, not just keywords.
- AI Brief & Ask
- Semantic AI Search
- Devil's Bench
Credentials emailed - log in to pick up where you left off.
Medina Vs. California
Court: US Supreme Court
Decided on: Feb-25-1992
Medina v. California - 505 U.S. 437 (1992) OCTOBER TERM, 1991 Syllabus MEDINA v. CALIFORNIA CERTIORARI TO THE SUPREME COURT OF CALIFORNIA No. 90-8370. Argued February 25, 1992-Decided June 22,1992 Before petitioner Medina's trial for, inter alia, first-degree murder, the California court granted his motion for a competency hearing pursuant to a state law that forbids a mentally incompetent person to be tried or punished, establishes a presumption of competence, and placed on petitioner the burden of proving incompetence by a preponderance of the evidence. The jury empaneled for the competency hearing found Medina competent to stand trial and, subsequently, he was convicted and sentenced to death. The State Supreme Court affirmed, rejecting Medina's claim that the competency statute's burden of proof and presumption provisions violated his right to due process. Held: 1. The Due Process Clause permits a State to require that a defendant claiming incompetence to stand trial be...
Sawyer Vs. Whitley
Court: US Supreme Court
Decided on: Feb-25-1992
Sawyer v. Whitley - 505 U.S. 333 (1992) OCTOBER TERM, 1991 Syllabus SAWYER v. WHITLEY, WARDEN CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT No. 91-6382. Argued February 25, 1992-Decided June 22,1992 A Louisiana jury convicted petitioner Sawyer and sentenced him to death for a murder in which the victim was beaten, scalded with boiling water, and set afire. His conviction and sentence were upheld on appeal, and his petitions for state postconviction relief, as well as his first petition for federal habeas relief, were denied. In a second federal habeas petition, the District Court barred as abusive or successive Sawyer's claims, inter alia, that the police failed to produce exculpatory evidence-evidence challenging a prosecution witness' credibility and a child witness' statements that Sawyer had tried to prevent an accomplice from setting fire to the victim-in violation of his due process rights under Brady v. Maryland, 373 U. S. 83 ; and that h...
Denton Vs. Hernandez
Court: US Supreme Court
Decided on: Feb-24-1992
Denton v. Hernandez - 504 U.S. 25 (1992) OCTOBER TERM, 1991 Syllabus DENTON, DIRECTOR OF CORRECTIONS OF CALIFORNIA, ET AL. v. HERNANDEZ CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT No. 90-1846. Argued February 24, 1992-Decided May 4,1992 Respondent Hernandez, a prisoner proceeding pro se, filed five civil rights suits in forma pauperis against petitioner California prison officials, alleging, inter alia, that he was drugged and homosexually raped 28 times by various inmates and prison officials at different institutions. Finding that the facts alleged appeared to be wholly fanciful, the District Court dismissed the cases under 28 U. S. C. 1915(d), which allows courts to dismiss an in forma pauperis complaint "if satisfied that the action is frivolous." Reviewing the dismissals de novo, the Court of Appeals reversed and remanded three of the cases. The court's lead opinion concluded that a court can dismiss a complaint as factually frivolous...
- ‹ Prev
- Next ›