Delaware death row inmate makes dual appeal

Attorneys for Delaware death row inmate Bobby Jackson are making another appeal to stop the execution of the convicted ax-murderer that had been set for July 29th.

An appeal was filed this morning in the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia.  They also filed an appeal to the Delaware Supreme Court.  The Delaware Attorney General’s office filed an appeal Monday asking U.S. District Judge Sue Robinson’s order blocking Jackson’s execution a week from Friday be overturned.

In filing the federal appeal the Atlantic Center for Capital Representation writes the Jackson case should be overturned because of improprieties done during the original Jackson trial. Executive Director Mark Bookman said the case should be overturned because Jackson’s lawyer told the original trial judge that his client was guilty and ought to die. 

He calls it the perfect storm for injustice.  “You take a terrible and high-profile crime and give the accused, who is only eighteen, a lawyer who thinks his client is not only guilty but also should be executed by the state. Then the lawyer actually tells the judge what he thinks,” he said in a statement.  He claims Anthony Lachette told the court on four different occasions that Jackson was guilty.

Jackson was convicted of the 1992 ax murder of Elizabeth Girardi in a case of robbery gone bad. He is the first person scheduled to die by lethal injection in Delaware since 2005.  Judge Robinson has set July 27th to hear the original appeals in the case.