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Jacobs v. Scott

United States Supreme Court

513 U.S. 1067, 115 S. Ct. 711, 130 L. Ed. 2d 618 (1995)

Facts

Jesse Jacobs (defendant) filed an application for a stay of execution of a death sentence. Jacobs was arrested for the murder of Etta Urdiales. He gave a videotaped confession in which he admitted to abducting and killing Urdiales. At trial, Jacobs testified that his confession was false. He stated that he kidnapped Urdiales and brought her to a house where his sister, Bobbie Hogan, was waiting. He asserted that his sister shot and killed Urdiales and that he did not know Hogan planned to kill Urdiales when he brought Urdiales to her. Jacobs was convicted of murdering Urdiales and sentenced to death. In Hogan’s criminal trial for murder, the state put Jacobs on the stand to testify and vouched for his truthfulness. The state admitted that it was wrong with respect to Jacobs’s involvement with the actual killing. Jacobs filed for a stay of execution based on the state’s change of position. However, the state maintained that it was constitutionally permitted to carry out Jacobs’s death sentence. Jacobs filed a petition for writ of certiorari to the United States Supreme Court, which was denied.

Rule of Law

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Issue

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Holding and Reasoning

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Dissent (Stevens, J.)

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