Stephen Elliot Powers v. State of Mississippi

Summary

The court denied Powers’s motion for rehearing and reaffirmed that he has no statutory or constitutional right to competency during state post-conviction proceedings. It also held that his Ford-based execution-competency claim was unripe, that a federal court’s characterization of claims as sufficiently meritorious did not require a state evidentiary hearing, and that his juror-related claims were barred or lacked merit on the record presented. The opinion’s discussion of the remaining jury, Batson, sufficiency, and sentencing claims is incomplete because the supplied text ends before the opinion’s tail.