State ex rel. Brian Dorsey v. David Vandergriff, Respondent; and In re Brian Dorsey v. David Vandergriff

Summary

The Supreme Court of Missouri denied both habeas petitions challenging Dorsey's death sentences. It held that Dorsey failed to establish either freestanding or gateway actual innocence, that his conflict-of-interest claim was procedurally barred and previously rejected, and that his post-sentencing rehabilitation claim was not a cognizable Eighth Amendment basis for relief. The court concluded that the rehabilitation claim was instead a request for executive clemency outside judicial authority.