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October 11, 2008 11:14:43 PM CDT

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Public Defender Gets Case to Supreme Court

Posted Jan 1, 08 10:39 PM CST in US 

(Newser) – When the Supreme Court hears a case on the legality of a method of capital punishment next week—for the first time in over a century—it will be largely thanks to the toils of a 29-year-old assistant public defender, AP reports. David Barron filed the appeal on behalf of two Kentucky death row inmates, arguing that the three-cocktail lethal injection constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.

A Billerica, Mass., native who graduated from Brooklyn Law school in 2003, Barron tells AP he draws professional hope from fact that the Red Sox won the World Series after 86 years of failure. Legal experts chalk up Barron's success to the fact that the trial court heard comprehensive testimony from over 20 experts on both sides of the fence. But he won't get to argue the case himself—for that, Kentucky is bringing in a seasoned Washington lawyer.

Source Associated Press

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This photo released by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice shows death row inmate Michael Anthony Rodrigurz, one of the "Texas 7," convicts who escaped from a state prison in December 2000 and killed...   (Associated Press)
The "death bed" in the death chamber is separated by bars, foreground, from the witness viewing room at the Walls Unit of the Texas Department of Corrections in Huntsville, Texas, in this Jan. 25, 1995...   (Associated Press)
Attorney David Barron, 29, stands in the door to his office in Frankfort, Ky., on Friday, Dec. 28, 2007. Barron, 29, filed an appeal on behalf of two Kentucky death row inmates, arguing that the three-drug...   (Associated Press)
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US Supreme Court  • trial  • death penalty  • capital punishment  • Kentucky  • lethal injection


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