Judge Sets Hearing for Condemned Wyoming Man
CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — A federal judge has set aside two weeks for a hearing on claims by Wyoming's lone death row inmate that he didn't get a fair trial before a jury sentenced him to death nearly ten years ago.
Lawyers representing inmate Dale Wayne Eaton have listed scores of witnesses they intend to call at the hearing set to start next week before U.S. District Judge Alan B. Johnson in Cheyenne.
The 68-year-old Eaton is challenging the constitutionality of the death sentence he received for the 1988 rape and murder of Lisa Marie Kimmell, 18, of Billings, Mont.
Eaton's lawyers don't dispute that he killed Kimmell. But the lawyers claim that Eaton's trial lawyers failed to present evidence of his troubled background that might have caused the jury to spare his life.