High court turns back death row cases

[Tab]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court ruled Monday that a Florida death row inmate should not get a new trial even though his lawyer conceded the man's guilt without his consent.

The 8-0 ruling sets aside a Florida Supreme Court decision in favor of Joe Elton Nixon. He was convicted in the 1984 murder of a woman he met at a Tallahassee mall.

Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, who did not attend oral arguments for the case in November, did not take part in the decision.

At issue was the court-appointed attorney's decision to admit at trial that Nixon was responsible for the victim's "horrible, horrible death" in hopes that his candor would persuade the jury not to impose the death penalty. The state court said that deprived Nixon of his Sixth Amendment right to a vigorous trial defense.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/12/13/death.penalty.ap/index.html