{"id":118,"date":"2026-06-01T17:09:29","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T17:09:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americanservicereview.com\/?p=118"},"modified":"2026-06-01T17:09:29","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T17:09:29","slug":"justices-send-case-of-death-row-inmate-back-to-lower-courts-grant-new-first-step-act-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americanservicereview.com\/?p=118","title":{"rendered":"Justices send case of death-row inmate back to lower courts, grant new First Step Act case"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The Supreme Court on Monday morning added one new case to its argument docket for the 2026-27 term, granting another case involving the First Step Act, a 2018 criminal justice law intended to improve federal prison conditions and reduce long federal prison sentences. In an unsigned , the justices also sent the case of a Florida death-row inmate back to the lower courts for another look. The announcements came as part of from the justices\u2019 May 28 conference.<\/p>\n

Read more The most important cases yet to be decided<\/a><\/p>\n

The court granted filed by William Maxwell, who was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for his role in a plan to take over a Texas mortgage company and loot it of its assets. In 2022, Maxwell filed an application for federal habeas relief under a provision that allows inmates to challenge the imposition of their sentences or conditions of confinement, seeking a transfer to a halfway house or home confinement.<\/p>\n

The district court dismissed his application, holding that Maxwell had not fully pursued the administrative remedies available to him under the First Step Act. Maxwell then went to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, which held that he should have brought a federal civil rights lawsuit instead.<\/p>\n

Maxwell \u2013 initially representing himself, but by Masha Hansford, a former assistant to the U.S. solicitor general now in private practice \u2013 then asked the Supreme Court to take his case, which it agreed to do on Monday. The justices indicated that they will decide whether an inmate\u2019s claim regarding the application of time credits, seeking accelerated transfer to a halfway house or home confinement under the First Step Act, can be brought as a petition for habeas relief under the federal law at issue in Maxwell\u2019s case.<\/p>\n

Additionally on Monday, the Supreme Court sent the case of Gary Whitton, who was sentenced to death in Florida for the murder and robbery of James Maulden, back to the lower courts for them to reconsider it. The prosecutors\u2019 evidence against Whitton at his trial included testimony from Jake Ozio, a high school student who had been arrested while on spring break in Florida and who served as a jailhouse informant. Ozio testified at Whitton\u2019s trial that he had no criminal history before his Florida arrest \u2013 testimony that turned out to be false.<\/p>\n

Whitton sought federal post-conviction relief, arguing that prosecutors had known Ozio\u2019s testimony was false and that it likely affected the jury\u2019s verdict. The lower courts rejected that argument. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit noted that the Florida Supreme Court had deemed the evidence against Whitton \u201coverwhelming.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addressing whether the Florida Supreme Court\u2019s decision was reasonable \u2013 the standard for federal post-conviction relief \u2013 the court of appeals, the Supreme Court\u2019s unsigned opinion stressed on Monday, considered DNA evidence that was not provided to the jury. Because that evidence \u201cwas not presented to the jury (indeed, did not exist at the time of the trial), that evidence could not have influenced the jury\u2019s verdict. It therefore sheds no light on whether (or to what extent) Ozio\u2019s testimony influenced that verdict.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more A brewing tariff refund battle<\/a><\/p>\n

The court made clear that it was not deciding whether the Florida Supreme Court\u2019s decision, standing alone, was in fact reasonable. Instead, the justices sent the case back to the 11th Circuit for it to take another look.<\/p>\n

Justice Clarence Thomas dissented. He argued that the additional evidence \u201cwas notable but certainly not dispositive\u201d to the lower court\u2019s ruling. More broadly, he contended, the court should not \u201cintervene based on \u2018technicalit[ies]\u2019 that do not \u2018really affect[t]\u2019 the outcome of a case.\u201d But in any event, Thomas suggested, the court\u2019s ruling ultimately \u201cwill have no real-world effect\u201d because the court of appeals can deny relief when the case returns to it.<\/p>\n

And in a part of his dissent that Justice Samuel Alito, who signed on to the rest of the opinion, did not join, Thomas compared the court\u2019s decision to step in here with its failure to do so in other cases that he regarded as more deserving. He cited, for example, the justices\u2019 refusal \u201cto vindicate the rights of families to pursue education for their children on color-blind terms,\u201d the court\u2019s unwillingness to revisit a longstanding bar on lawsuits by military personnel for injuries suffered as part of their military service, and its rejection of a challenge to Indiana University\u2019s \u201cbias-response team,\u201d \u201cwhich fields anonymous complaints about student speech and considers whether to refer the accused to campus offices or the police.\u201d<\/p>\n

The court also turned down a request from Florida to file an original action \u2013 that is, a new case in which the Supreme Court would serve as a court of first review \u2013 against California, challenging the constitutionality of a California corporate tax rule. Last week Thomas, joined by Alito, dissented from the court\u2019s rejection of Florida\u2019s request to file an original action against California and Washington, alleging that those states have not complied with federal safety regulations governing commercial driver\u2019s licenses and, specifically, have allowed undocumented immigrants \u201cwithout proper training or the ability to read road signs\u201d to obtain such licenses. On Monday, Thomas and Alito indicated that they dissented from the court\u2019s disposition of Florida\u2019s latest request as well.<\/p>\n

Finally, the court asked the federal government for its views in a securities law case brought by investors who had purchased stock in Robinhood Markets, a financial-services company, through its initial public offering in 2021. At issue in the case is whether and when a company violates its obligations under federal securities laws by failing to disclose interim financial data. There is no deadline for the U.S. solicitor general to file his brief providing the government\u2019s views.<\/p>\n

Read more Justices validate arbitration exemption for \u201clast-mile\u201d drivers<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Supreme Court on Monday morning added one new case to its argument docket for the 2026-27 term, granting another case involving the First Step Act, a 2018 criminal justice law intended to improve federal prison conditions and reduce long federal prison sentences. 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