BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The Idaho Supreme Court has denied requests from six death row inmates who said they were entitled to new trials because a U.S. Supreme Court ruling after their convictions called on juries, not judges, to impose the death penalty.
All the inmates argued that the state violated their Sixth Amendment due process rights because they were sentenced to death by a judge instead of a jury, as required under the 2002 federal ruling.
But in a unanimous decision handed down Friday, the Idaho Supreme Court noted that their cases were all appealed and the judgments made final before the U.S. Supreme Court ruled — and that can't be retroactively applied to the Idaho inmates' cases.
All six inmates have appeals in state and federal courts that now will move forward.
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