US Supreme Court declines Oklahoma murder cases
The U.S. Supreme Court declined, in separate orders Monday, to hear the Oklahoma murder cases of Patricia Burney and Lancey Ray, effectively ending their federal appeals processes.
Burney, 59, was convicted of first-degree murder in 2012 for the death of her husband, Arthur, southeast of Tulsa. Prosecutors and witnesses alleged Patricia Burney paid her daughter's boyfriend to kill her husband because he was abusive. She was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
In a handwritten appeal to the Supreme Court, Burney alleged prosecutors had violated her constitutional rights by withholding from her information about a plea agreement between prosecutors and co-defendant Michael Richardson, her daughter's boyfriend and the shooter in the case. Richardson, who pleaded guilty and testified against Burney, was sentenced to 28 years in prison.
Burney told the high court she was convicted “in a circumstantial case that hinged entirely upon the perjured testimony” of Richardson, calling the plea deal “dirty.” By withholding details of the deal from her, the prosecutor violated her 5th and 14th Amendment rights to a fair trial, she alleged.
The state did not challenge Burney’s request for Supreme Court intervention, but the high court declined to consider her request Monday. It also denied a request for rehearing in the case of Ray.
Ray, 46, was a Fort Sill soldier when he was convicted of first-degree murder in 2012 and sentenced to life in prison for the 2010 beating death of his 10-year-old son, Malik, in Comanche County. In his 47-page appeal to the Supreme Court, Ray claimed prosecutors introduced testimony that was not factual or based on reliable scientific principles.
“In sum, Ray was denied the guarantee of due process afforded by the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment(s) to the United States Constitution,” he wrote. “Moreover, Ray did not receive the effective assistance of counsel guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution.”
The state did not challenge Ray’s appeal to the Supreme Court. The high court refused to consider it on Oct. 1 and denied his request for rehearing Monday.