Supreme Court Upholds Holly Wood's Death Sentence: The Associated Press reports on today's Supreme Court's decision to uphold the death sentence of an Alabama man who killed his former lover.  A UPI report is available here.  In Wood v. Allen, the court, in a 7-2 vote, refused to overturn the death sentence of Holly Wood, who was convicted in the shooting death of his former girlfriend, Ruby Lois Gosha, in 1993.  She was killed by a shotgun blast to her head as she slept.  A federal judge had tossed out the death sentence on the basis of the poor performance of one of Wood's lawyer in the sentencing phase of his trial.  The lawyer, the youngest of the three attorneys representing Wood, did not introduce a mental evaluation that showed Wood had an IQ of less than 70 and stated Wood was "functioning in the borderline range of intellect." The 11th Circuit Court reinstated the death sentence, ruling that Wood had failed to how that the lawyer was constitutionally ineffective.  The Supreme Court agreed.  "Even if it is debatable, it is not unreasonable to conclude that ... counsel made a strategic decision not inquire further into the information contained in the report about Wood's mental deficiencies and not present to the jury such information," Justice Sonia Sotomayor said in her first written opinion in a capital case.  CJLF has issued a press release that can be found here.

Mumia Denied New Hearing: Philidelphia Daily News writer Michael Hinkelman reports on yesterday's Supreme Court ruling that tossed out the 3rd Circuit's 2008 ruling that death-row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal deserved a new sentencing hearing.  Abu-Jamal has been on Pennsylvania's death row since his 1982 conviction in the killing of Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner.  The Supreme Court decided to send the case back to the appeals court "for further consideration" in light of a ruling last week in Smith v. Spisak regarding similar sentencing issues that were cited by the 3rd Circuit in Abu-Jamal's case.  If the 3rd Circuit were to find that Abu-Jamal's circumstances are the same as Spisak's, it could reinstate the death penalty for Abu-Jamal.  Kent's blog on Abu-Jamal's case being vacated and remanded can be found here.