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Court Error – Newly Discovered Evidence

By: Derek Hawkins//November 16, 2020//

Court Error – Newly Discovered Evidence

By: Derek Hawkins//November 16, 2020//

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7th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Bruce Carneil Webster v. T.J. Watson, Warden,

Case No.: 19-2683

Officials: KANNE, HAMILTON, and SCUDDER, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Court Error – Newly Discovered Evidence

In 1996 the federal district court in Fort Worth, Texas sentenced Bruce Webster to death for the murder two years earlier of a 16-year-old girl. Ever since Webster has sought relief from that sentence on the same ground he advanced at trial—that he is intellectually disabled. His efforts gained traction in 2009, when his lawyers came upon records dating to 1994 from the Social Security Administration showing that three different doctors found him intellectually disabled. That development sparked a renewed effort to secure relief in this circuit because Webster is housed in the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana. In 2015, sitting en banc, we held that Webster was not barred by the limitations imposed on successive requests for post-conviction relief from seeking to show that he is ineligible for the death penalty based on newly discovered evidence. Webster v. Daniels, 784 F.3d 1123, 1139–40 (7th Cir. 2015). We remanded to allow the district court to determine whether the Social Security records constituted newly discovered evidence—a question turning on whether the records were “previously existing evidence of [Webster’s] intellectual disability that counsel did not uncover despite diligent efforts.” Id. at 1141.

Following extensive proceedings on remand, the district court found that Webster’s defense counsel did not discover the Social Security records despite reasonable diligence at the time of trial. From there the district court held a five-day hearing and determined that Webster had carried his burden of showing by a preponderance of the evidence that he is intellectually disabled. Having taken our own look at the record evidence, we conclude that the district court’s findings contain no clear error. We therefore affirm the decision to vacate Webster’s death sentence.

Affirmed
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Derek A Hawkins is trademark corporate counsel for Harley-Davidson. Hawkins oversees the prosecution and maintenance of the Harley-Davidson’s international trademark portfolio in emerging markets.

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