Miss. death row inmate seeks new trial
By JACK ELLIOTT JR. - Associated Press Writer

http://www.sunherald.com/218/story/1484416.html

JACKSON, Miss. -- Death row inmate Frederick Bell argues in court documents for a new trial on the grounds that his attorney could have done a better job of investigating his alleged alibi.

The attorney general's office says it wouldn't have mattered because the evidence was overwhelming against Bell.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments in the case Monday in Houston, Texas.

A federal judge in Mississippi in 2008 granted Bell, now 37, a certificate of appealability on the issue of ineffective counsel.

A certificate of appealability is similar to a post-conviction petition, in which an inmate argues he has found new evidence - or a possible constitutional issue - that could persuade a court to order a new trial.

Bell was convicted in 1993 in Grenada County for killing a grocery store clerk. The Mississippi Supreme Court upheld his conviction and death sentence in 1998. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear his appeal in 1999.

Bell and Anthony Doss, who is also on death row, were convicted for the 1991 killing of grocery store clerk Bert Bell. The Bells were not related. Bert Bell was killed during the armed robbery of Sparks Stop-N-Shop.

In 2004, the Mississippi Supreme Court rejected Frederick Bell's post conviction claim that his attorney didn't do a good job. The justices said Bell failed to show that anything his attorney did hindered his defense or how the verdict might have turned out differently.

Bell then filed appeals in federal court which lead up to the 5th Circuit hearing.

In court documents, Bell claims he was in Memphis when the killing occurred and told his trial attorney so. Bell said that claim was supported by testimony from Bernard Gladney, who, according to court documents, testified that he had driven Bell to Memphis.

That testimony came in an extradition hearing that returned Bell to Mississippi to face capital murder charges.

Bell alleges his lawyer never contacted Gladney even though he knew of Gladney's testimony.

The attorney general's office counters that the decision not to call Gladney was trial strategy. The attorney general's office said Gladney frequently contradicted himself about whether he drove Bell and then there was Gladney's credibility as a convicted murderer.

"Gladney would have been a witness with no credibility," the attorney general's office said in its brief. "Any decision to leave Gladney aside was clearly an exercise of not merely reasonable but sane trial strategy."

Bell argues that it is not just Gladney's testimony but another nine affidavits from people who would have supported his alibi had they been contacted by Bell's trial attorney.

The attorney general's office said the nine affidavits were presented 15 years after the slaying and come from close relatives of Bell.