Federal court grants condemned Arizona man's execution request

[The Straight Story]

Federal court grants condemned Arizona man's execution request


Thursday, March 15, 2007 8:50 PM PDT

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A federal appeals court granted the request Thursday of a condemned Arizona murderer who asked to end his appeals and be executed, even though a dissenting judge said there were grounds to reverse the death sentence.

Ruling 14-1, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Robert Charles Comer could end a long odyssey of appeals and be executed by lethal injection for the 1987 murder of an Apache Lake camper during a crime spree in which he also raped a woman after tying up her boyfriend.

In September, a panel of the San Francisco appellate court ruled 2-1 that Comer was competent to waive his appeals, but the judges decided to review claims lower courts rejected.

In reviewing those claims, the three-judge panel upheld his conviction, but found his sentencing violated his constitutional rights because he was hauled before the judge in a wheelchair ‘‘nearly naked, bleeding, shackled, and exhausted'' after he resisted attending the hearing.

The 9th Circuit agreed in December to rehear the case with the larger panel that found any constitutional problems with the case were moot because Comer chose to end his appeals. The court found he was competent to do so, a requirement for any condemned inmate to waive appeals.

http://www.mohavedailynews.com/articles/2007/03/17/news/state/state1.txt

[Kagemusha]

1. If I read this right, at best, he'd simply have been sentenced again?

Except with greater human dignity?