U.S. v. TORREZ

No. 14-1.

869 F.3d 291 (2017)

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Jorge Avila TORREZ, Defendant-Appellant.

United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.

Decided: August 28, 2017.


Attorney(s) appearing for the Case

ARGUED: Julie L.B. Stelzig , OFFICE OF THE FEDERAL PUBLIC DEFENDER, Greenbelt, Maryland, for Appellant. James L. Trump , OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY, Alexandria, Virginia, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: James Wyda , Federal Public Defender, OFFICE OF THE FEDERAL PUBLIC DEFENDER, Baltimore, Maryland; Robert E. Lee, Jr. , VIRGINIA CAPITAL REPRESENTATION RESOURCE CENTER, Charlottesville, Virginia, for Appellant. Dana J. Boente , United States Attorney, Richard D. Cooke , Jonathan L. Fahey , Michael E. Rich , Assistant United States Attorneys, Robert J. Heberle, Special Assistant United States Attorney, OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY, Alexandria, Virginia, for Appellee.

Affirmed by published opinion. Judge Thacker wrote the opinion, in which Judge Diaz concurred. Judge Diaz wrote a separate concurring opinion. Judge Floyd wrote an opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part.


Jorge Avila Torrez ("Appellant") was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. In this appeal, he raises a host of challenges to his conviction and death sentence. We find the challenges to his conviction to be without merit. As for sentencing, we focus on three specific challenges: (1) whether Appellant's...

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