Joesph is a innocent man on Mississippi death row. He had his Post Conviction Relief denied yesterday.
Opinion Summary: In 1994, Defendant Joseph Patrick Brown (a.k.a. Peanut Brown) was convicted of capital murder for shooting a convenience-store clerk to death on August 8, 1992, during the commission of an armed robbery. Defendant was sentenced to death by lethal injection. His conviction and sentence were affirmed by the Supreme Court. On March 17, 1998, Defendant filed an application for post-conviction relief, which the Supreme Court granted in part, for the sole purpose of determining whether Defendant's trial counsel was ineffective for failing to seek an independent psychological evaluation of Defendant for use as mitigation evidence. A special judge appointed to hear the matter denied Defendant's petition for post-conviction relief, and Defendant appealed. Upon review, the Supreme Court concluded the trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying Defendant's motion for discovery, as he failed to show "good cause" for his request. Furthermore, Defendant did not demonstrate that his trial counsel was ineffective in not introducing, as mitigation, a report of Defendant's psychological evaluation or in further investigating Defendant's psychological state. The Court therefore affirmed the trial court's decision to deny Defendant's petition for post-conviction relief.
