Justices Reject Appeal in Death Row Innocence Case With Informant Issue

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the case of a Florida death row inmate who says he’s innocent but was convicted due to faulty jailhouse informant testimony.

The justices on Monday rejected one of the pending appeals of James Dailey, who was convicted and sentenced to death in 1987 from the murder of a 14-year-old girl.

Dailey asked courts to consider his co-defendant’s 2017 confession taking sole responsibility for the crime, as well as evidence the prosecution failed to disclose. This included a statement by a former inmate at the jail where Dailey had been housed revealing that the lead police investigator offered favorable treatment to inmates in return for testimony against Dailey.

The justices rejected his petition related to evidence the prosecution failed to disclose but took no action on the petition related to the confession, which remains pending.

No eyewitness, physical, or forensic evidence connected him to the crime. The state’s case “hinged almost entirely on the testimony of jailhouse informants—none of whom surfaced until after a jury had already rejected a death sentence for Dailey’s separately-tried codefendant, and the lead detective had combed Dailey’s jail pod looking for new potential witnesses,” he said in one of his petitions.

Dailey’s appeal was supported by Catholic Bishops, former and current law enforcement officials, and a conservative anti-death penalty group. A 2019 ProPublica investigation looked at the informant whose testimony led to Dailey’s conviction and death sentence.

Opposing high court review, Florida officials said the co-defendant went back on the confession and that Dailey’s newly discovered evidence claims don’t warrant consideration.

The case is Dailey v. Florida, U.S., No. 19-1094.