John Blume, Cornell professor of law and director of the Cornell Law School Death Penalty Project, will present his seventh case before the U.S. Supreme Court March 21, arguing for the habeas corpus rights of death-row inmate William Weaver.

He will discuss his argument defending Weaver on Wednesday, March 28, at 4 p.m. in the Saperston Student Lounge in Myron Taylor Hall. Blume's campus talk is part of a weeklong series of events organized by Cornell students opposed to the death penalty.

Weaver was found guilty of first-degree murder for killing a prospective witness in a drug trial and was sentenced to death in Missouri in 1988. During his sentencing, the prosecutor made remarks that Weaver viewed as inflammatory, violating his right to habeas corpus. In February 2006, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed, vacating his death sentence. Missouri appealed, invoking the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA).

The AEDPA authorizes federal courts to grant habeas petitions only if the state court's decision violates "clearly established federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court of the United States." Missouri argued that the federal courts did not have the authority to grant Weaver habeas, since the Supreme Court had not held that the penalty-phase argument was too inflammatory. In December 2006, the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case.

The literal question before the Court is a technical one having to do with limitations on habeas relief contained in the AEDPA," says Blume. "[However] ... the underlying constitutional issue regarding whether numerous improper and inflammatory comments made by the prosecutor during his sentencing phase argument at Mr. Weaver's trial should not be lost in the 'AEDPA battle.' Both the district court and the court of appeals found that the prosecutor made a number of inappropriate comments that likely influenced the death sentence imposed by the jury. If the Court were to reverse the decisions of the lower courts, it would essentially be giving prosecutors the green light to make similar, improper arguments in capital cases."

Other activities that are part of a Cornell student-led effort to promote dialogue on capital punishment include: an anti-death penalty petition drive to be launched at the Cornell Law School on March 26; the opening of freelance photojournalist Scott Langley's "Death Penalty Photography Project" on March 27 at 7 p.m. in the Saperston lounge; and a screening of the "The Exonerated," March 29 in 285 Myron Taylor Hall. The film tells the stories of six death row inmates who were later found to be innocent.

For more information about upcoming anti-death penalty events on campus, contact Cornell law student Michael Siegal at (510) 289-3318 or e-mail mjs33@cornell.edu. For background details on the Weaver case, see http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/cert/06-313.html.