Shockingly, the SUpreme Court rules for sanity.

Death Row Inmate Whose Lawyer Slept at Trial Gets New Trial (washingtonpost.com)
A Texas Death Row inmate whose lawyer slept for long portions of his murder trial will either win freedom or a new trial, after the Supreme Court refused to intervene Monday.

The high court rejected an appeal from Texas authorities, who argued that the lawyer's inattention did not necessarily equal an unfair trial.

The Supreme Court's action means that Texas must choose whether to retry Calvin Jerold Burdine or set him free.

Burdine was convicted of stabbing to death his gay lover, W.T. Wise, at the Houston trailer they shared in 1983. Burdine confessed to police, but now denies killing Wise. He claims an accomplice actually killed Wise, while Burdine tried to talk him out of it.

Jurors and a court clerk later described how court-appointed lawyer Joe Cannon slept for up to 10 minutes at a time during the 1984 trial, and the separate sentencing phase that followed. Burdine was sentenced to death.