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Friday, March 29, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Death Row Counsel

WASHINGTON (CN) - The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to review the case of a death-row inmate who claimed he was sentenced to death because of his lawyer's bad advice.Idaho inmate Maxwell Hoffman said his lawyer told him to reject a plea bargain that could have spared his life.

Hoffman refused to plead guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced to death for his role in the 1987 murder of police informant Denise Williams. He slit her throat and left her in a cave at a campsite, where she was then stabbed and buried by two accomplices, the New York Times reports.

The justices will decide whether the advice of Hoffman's lawyer was unconstitutionally ineffective and whether Hoffman should be able to accept the original plea bargain. See orders list.

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