Court denies bid to rehear decision
State’s attorney general requested rehearing after ruling in favor of death row inmate
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit this week declined to rehear its decision in favor of death row inmate Andrew Thomas in the fatal 1997 shooting of armored truck guard James Day in Memphis.
The court decided in February that the state violated Thomas’ due process rights when the prosecution failed to disclose to him that a witness had received $750 from the federal government before the trial.
Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery, Solicitor General Andrée Blumstein and Associate Solicitor General Jennifer Smith petitioned for a rehearing of the decision, while Thomas’ attorney, Robert Hutton, argued neither a rehearing by the panel of judges who issued the decision or review by the full court is warranted.
A rehearing before the panel was denied Tuesday. The petition will then be circulated to the full en banc court, and the judges have 14 days to request a vote.
“A petition for rehearing en banc is an extraordinary procedure intended to bring to the attention of the entire court a precedent-setting error of exceptional public importance or an opinion that directly conflicts with Supreme Court or Sixth Circuit precedent,” according to the 6th Circuit’s procedures.
If no one requests a vote, the petition is denied at the end of the two weeks. If a vote is requested, it would take the majority of the judges in active service who have not recused themselves to grant a rehearing before the full court.
The victim was a Loomis-Fargo armored car courier who was shot at lunchtime on April 21, 1997, at a Walgreens in the 4500 block of Summer. Day survived the shooting but died two years later on Oct. 2, 1999.
Thomas was tried and convicted in both the federal and state systems.
The Safe Streets Task Force, a multiagency group of federal and state law enforcement, investigated and assisted in the federal trial of Thomas, and a member of the task force, Deputy U.S. Marshal Scott Sanders, requested the $750 payment that was made to Thomas’ former girlfriend, Angela Jackson, according to court records.
After Thomas’ federal trial, Thomas was tried for the murder of Day in state court, and the task force investigated and assisted with that trial also. Jackson also testified in the state death penalty trial, but neither Thomas nor defense lawyers were informed of the $750 payment.
Jackson testified she wasn’t paid, and Shelby County District Attorney General Amy Weirich has said she didn’t know about the payment.
Reach Katie Fretland at kfretland@gannett.com and on Twitter @katiefretland.