Death penalty reinstated in beating death

Ed Carnes, an 11th Circuit judge, issued a strong dissent in a rare vote to overturn a death sentence. He wrote that Jefferson's lawyers should have had their client examined for neurological damage that occurred when Jefferson's head was run over by a car when he was 2 years old.

If so, Carnes wrote, the jury would have heard that the injury left Jefferson with an abnormally enlarged skull and brain damage that had a profound and lifelong impact on his behavior, including learning disabilities, diminished impulse control and intermittent outbursts of rage. Jurors would have heard the brain damage deprived Jefferson of "a normal ability to premeditate, deliberate, distinguish right from wrong and act rationally," Carnes wrote.

As to whether there was a reasonable probability that a juror would have voted differently having heard such evidence, the "question is not even close to being close," Carnes wrote.

Judge Stanley Marcus, who wrote the majority opinion, noted that Jefferson's lawyers never saw any evidence that Jefferson was brain damaged. His lawyers also thoroughly investigated the guilty-innocence phase of the case and presented a residual doubt defense, which was not unreasonable, said Marcus, joined by Judge Gerald Tjoflat.

Lawrence's lawyers "performed an investigation into Jefferson's background and mental health and obtained an expert on this issue before intentionally abandoning the defense in favor of others that seemed more promising," the ruling said.