Judge Lewis Mentioned in Article on Death Penalty Case

Judge Timothy K. Lewis was mentioned in the October 7, 2006 Washington Post article “Justices to Review Reimposed Death Sentence.” The Supreme Court agreed – for the second time – to review the death penalty case of a convicted Texas man whose sentence the justices had previously overturned. LaRoyce Lathair Smith, condemned to death for the 1991 murder of a Taco Bell manager in Dallas, won a Supreme Court ruling in 2004 setting aside the death sentence because jurors in his trial did not consider his learning disability and other potentially mitigating evidence. The Supreme Court, in an unsigned seven-to-two ruling, held that Smith deserved a new sentencing because the jury questions did not include reasons that the jurors could have spared him. Four former federal appeals court judges, including John J. Gibbons, Timothy K. Lewis, Abner J. Mikva, and William A. Norris, joined Smith’s attorneys in asking the high court to take the case for the second time. The judges said the court should make clear to lower courts that they “must comply with this court’s mandates and must not invent new procedural obstacles to avoid compliance.”