IdahoReporter.com

Both sides in a death penalty case are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to reconsider the decision of the Idaho Supreme Court that set aside capital punishment for a man convicted of murdering two people.

The state of Idaho is asking the highest court in the country to undo the ruling by the state court vacating the death sentences of Dale Shackelford. Meanwhile, Shackelford is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn his conviction due to alleged problems during his initial trial.

Shackelford was found guilty of murder for the 1999 deaths of his ex-wife and her boyfriend. The Idaho Supreme Court in June upheld Shackelford’s first-degree murder convictions. However, the court also upheld a district court decision vacating the death penalty sentence.

The Idaho Supreme Court agreed with the district court that the trial jury convicted Shackelford of both murders, but not of committing both murders at the same time. That distinction matters, because the double murder served as an aggravating factor that triggered the death penalty.

The attorney general’s office is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to look into the case, arguing that because the jury found Shackelford guilty of two murders and the evidence suggests that both murders took place at the same time, the jury effectively found that there was a multiple murder, which could allow the death penalty sentence.

Shackelford filed a separate appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court to reconsider the state court’s ruling. “Dale Shackelford said that a lot of hearsay evidence was erroneously admitted to his trial and that it deprived him of a fair trial,” said his attorney, Leo Griffard.

In its decision, the Idaho Supreme Court found that some evidence was admitted in error, but that the errors were harmless. Shackelford appealed several other parts of his case, but those aren’t included in the petition to the U.S. Supreme Court, according to Griffard.

Griffard said that the separate petitions by Shackelford and the state to the U.S. Supreme Court is unusual. He also said he isn’t expecting to get a decision until next year from the high court on whether it will hear the case.

“They get a lot of petitions and they have to read them all,” Griffard said. It takes an affirmative vote from four of the nine Supreme Court justices for the court to hear a case.