WASHINGTON (AP) — New Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson released her first Supreme Court opinion, a brief dissent Monday in support of a death row inmate from Ohio.
Jackson wrote that she would have thrown out lower court rulings in the case of inmate Dave Chinn, whose attorneys argued the state withheld evidence that could change the outcome of his trial.
Jackson wrote in a two-page op-ed that she would have ordered a new look at Chinn’s case “because his life is at stake and given the significant chance that the suppressed data would have changed the outcome in the process.”
The evidence in question indicated that a key witness against Chinn has an intellectual disability that could have impaired his memory and ability to testify accurately, she wrote.
Prosecutors are required to turn over potentially exculpatory evidence to the defense. In this case, lower courts ruled that the outcome would not have been affected if the witness statements had been provided to Chinn’s lawyers.
Judge Sonia Sotomayor was the only other member of the court to join Jackson’s opinion. The two judges were also allies Monday over disagreements over Sotomayor’s view that there was serious misconduct in the trial of a Louisiana man convicted of sex trafficking.
Jackson joined the Supreme Court on June 30, following the retirement of Judge Stephen Breyer, her former boss.
The court has yet to rule on the cases brought in October or the first few days of this month. Jackson will almost certainly write a majority opinion in one of those cases.
