07 January 2019 :

In the last capital habeas decision of 2018, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has upheld a district court order granting of a new trial to Freddie Lee Taylor, 30 years after he was convicted and sentenced to death. The grant of relief was based upon the state court's failure to conduct a competency hearing at the time of trial and the impossibility of conducting a retroactive competency hearing today. Taylor, now 58, was sentenced to death in Contra Costa County on May 30, 1986 for beating to death Carmen Carlos Vasquez, an 84-year-old widow, on January 22, 1985.