Death Row Inmate Denied Habeas Despite Unreasonable State Ruling

A man who was convicted of killing his parents to collect money from life insurance policies failed convince the Ninth Circuit Thursday to grant his habeas petition on the basis that his trial counsel was ineffective for failing to present evidence of third-party culpability.

Deondre Arthur Staten, who was sentenced to death in 1992, argued at trial that members of the local East Side Dukes Latino gang committed the murders while he was away from home. Police never found any murder weapon, and Staten didn’t file an insurance claim for the three months between the death of his parents and ...