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Some say the Scott Pinholster was beaten as a child by his Grandmother, because of the sole fact the he had resembled his father.
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Pinholster had a rough childhood. They lived in poverty and did not have alot of wealth or alot of money.
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Pinholster always struggled in school. He spoke out alot in kindergarten, and was failing first grade He got in fights and would run out of the classroom. In third grade, Pinholster’s teachersaid he was more than a disruptive child.
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When he was 5, Pinholster’s stepfather moved in and was abusive, or nearly so.
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Pinholster was reccomended by a psychiatrist to go to a mentally ill school for children. He did not go
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His first was at age at age 2 or 3 when he was run over by a car, and again at age 4 or 5 when he went through thewindshield during a car accident.
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Scott Lynn Pinholster solicited two friends to rob the house of Michael Kumar, a local drug dealer. When Pinholster and his companions arrived at Kumar’s house, they found it empty and the back door unlocked. While searching the house for drugs, however, Kumar’s house-sitters, Thomas Johnson and Robert Beckett, unexpectedly entered through the front door. They had an confrontation, and both men were stabbed to death.
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The LA superior court set his death sentence to June, 4th 1984
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Pinholster filed a habeas corpus petition with the California Supreme Court, alleging that his attorney provided ineffective assistance during the guilt and penalty phases of his trial.
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A federal appeals court reinstated the death sentence of a self-described professional robber Friday for fatally stabbing two men during the burglary of a Los Angeles-area drug dealer's home in 1982.
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Scott lynn Pinholster was convivted of double murder of the first degree.
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This was the day that the argument was heard that Pinholster was not entitled to federal habeas relief.
QUESTION:
Can a federal court overturn a state criminal conviction on the basis of facts the defendant could have alleged, but did not, in state court? -
The district court upheld Pinholster's conviction but granted The district court affirmed the conviction but reversed the grant of habeas relief on the death sentence.
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The U.S. Supreme Court reversed the opinions of two lower federal courts that had granted a new sentencing hearing to Scott Pinholster.
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The reversal votes in court were 5-4 votes authored by Justice Clarence Thomas.
