[Download] "James P. Free V. Peters" by United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit # eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: James P. Free V. Peters
- Author : United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
- Release Date : January 21, 1993
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 66 KB
Description
POSNER, Chief Judge. In 1979, James P. Free, Jr. was convicted of a felony murder committed the previous year and was sentenced to death. After exhausting his state remedies, see People v. Free, 94 Ill. 2d 378, 447 N.E.2d 218, 69 Ill. Dec. 1 (Ill. 1983), 112 Ill.2d 154, 97 Ill. Dec. 396, 492 N.E.2d 1269 (Ill. 1986), 522 N.E.2d 1184 (Ill. 1988), he sought habeas corpus in federal district court. The district Judge, concluding on the basis of a study by the late Hans Zeisel that the instructions to the jury at the hearing on whether to sentence Free to death had been so confusing as to be constitutionally infirm, ordered the state to resentence Free. United States ex rel. Free v. Peters, 778 F. Supp. 431 (N.D. Ill. 1991), 806 F. Supp. 705 (N.D. Ill. 1992). The state appeals. Free cross-appeals. The Judge's order allows the state to request another death-sentence hearing, since the only infirmity in the previous one was the instructions. Free argues that reimposition of the death penalty is barred regardless of the instructions. So he is not just defending the Judge's order on other grounds, and the cross-appeal is therefore proper. We begin our Discussion with it.