Justices Revive Death-Row Inmate’s Appeal Over Conviction (1)

The Supreme Court revived an appeal by a death-row inmate after finding a lower court improperly considered evidence never considered by the jury in rejecting his bid for federal habeas relief.

The justices in a per curiam opinion issued Monday said the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit shouldn’t have considered post-trial DNA evidence in assessing claims by Gary Richard Whitton, who’s been on death row since 1992 after being convicted in Florida of murder.

The decision vacates the Eleventh Circuit’s judgment and sends it back to the court for further consideration.

Justice Clarence Thomas wrote a dissent that called the court’s decision “unfortunate” and criticized the justices for what he claimed was inconsistent treatment of legal errors, including those involving “students seeking to challenge university censorship.”

Justice Samuel Alito joined the opinion except for one part criticizing the court’s 2025 decision to deny review in Beck v. US.

Whitton’s federal appeal argues that a jailhouse informant’s false testimony about his criminal history had an influence on the jury’s verdict. Central to Whitton’s case is whether the federal courts must defer to judgments by state courts that previously rejected his post-conviction appeals.

The Florida Supreme Court previously said the testimony didn’t affect the ultimate outcome of Whitton’s prosecution.

The justices noted that the state high court didn’t consider the post-trial DNA evidence in making that determination.

“We express no view on whether the Florida Supreme Court’s determination was reasonable in light of the evidence that was presented at trial,” the justices said. “That is for the Court of Appeals to assess in the first instance.”

Monday’s decision comes days after a divided 5-4 court sided with Terry Pitchford, a death-row inmate who claimed a Mississippi state court improperly denied him a chance to challenge a prosecutor’s alleged efforts to exclude Black jurors from his murder trial. That decision clears the way for Pitchford’s conviction to be be vacated and a new trial being ordered, according to his lawyer.

The case is Whitton v. Dixon, U.S., No. 25-580, per curiam, 6/1/26.