USA - Pennsylvania. U.S. District Judge James Gardner overturned the death sentence of Darrick Hall

U.S. District Judge James Gardner overturned the death sentence of Darrick Hall, 44, Black.
Hall was 1 of 3 men convicted for the Dec. 18, 1993, armed robbery of a Chester County laundromat, and Hall was convicted for murdering the laundromat attendant. Judge Gardner found today that habeas relief is required because of deficiencies by Hall's trial attorney. Even a basic investigation into Hall's life would have unearthed evidence of extreme childhood abuse and a history of significant head traumas and seizures, according to the 180-page ruling. While the two witnesses Hall's attorney called, Hall's former girlfriend and his mother, provided brief testimony on Hall's overall character, evidence that his father regularly raped and beat his mother, pulled knives on her and threatened to kill her fell through the cracks because of defense counsel's research lapses, Gardner found. Hall has since submitted an affidavit from his mother that Hall's father once kept her "in the house and repeatedly raped and beat her until friends were able to free her." Four affidavits also show that Hall witnessed his father breaking his mother's arm. Hall's father took money allotted for food and household expenses and used them for drugs, the affidavits showed. When Hall was 5, his father was arrested and his mother began a relationship with another man who beat Hall. Around this time, his mother "began drinking as a way to cope with the abuse," the court found, citing the affidavits. Hall's medical history meanwhile includes seizures and a bicycle accident when he was 8 years old that resulted in the loss of consciousness, according to the ruling. A psychological evaluation when Hall was a child revealed an IQ score of 73, significantly below average. Applying the holding of the 1984 Supreme Court case Strickland v. Washington, Gardner said that the outcome of Hall's trial may have been different but for the failure by his attorney to introduce evidence of Hall's extreme emotional or mental disturbance and inability to fully appreciate the criminality of his conduct. A new sentencing hearing will take place in the next 180 days.