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STOKES v. STIRLING

No. 18-6.

10 F.4th 236 (2021)

Sammie Louis STOKES, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Bryan P. STIRLING, Director, South Carolina Department of Corrections; Michael Stephan, Warden of Broad River Correctional Institution, Respondents-Appellees.

United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.

Decided: August 19, 2021.

Attorney(s) appearing for the Case

ARGUED: Paul Alessio Mezzina , KING & SPALDING LLP, Washington, D.C., for Appellant. Michael Douglas Ross , OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF SOUTH CAROLINA, Columbia, South Carolina, for Appellees. ON BRIEF: Diana L. Holt , DIANA L. HOLT, LLC, Columbia, South Carolina; Michele J. Brace , VIRGINIA CAPITAL REPRESENTATION RESOURCE CENTER, Charlottesville, Virginia; Ashley C. Parrish , Joshua C. Toll , Isra J. Bhatty , Edward A. Benoit , KING & SPALDING LLP, Washington, D.C., for Appellant. Alan Wilson , Attorney General, Donald J. Zelenka , Deputy Attorney General, Melody J. Brown , Senior Assistant Deputy Attorney General, OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF SOUTH CAROLINA, Columbia, South Carolina, for Appellees.

Reversed and remanded by published opinion. Chief Judge Gregory wrote the opinion, in which Judge Harris joined. Judge Quattlebaum wrote a dissenting opinion.

Sammie Louis Stokes confessed to capital murder, putting mitigation of the death penalty at the heart of his defense. His trial counsel prepared some personal mitigation evidence but, at the last minute, withheld it. Instead, counsel presented a single witness at sentencing: a retired prison warden who was unprepared and counterproductive...

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