Legal Challenges
Bloodgood filed two petitions for habeas corpus with the Supreme Court of Virginia. His contention was that the death sentence, later commuted to life, was based in part on the fact that he was a repeat offender, having been convicted twice of burglary in Delaware. But these convictions had been obtained before the U.S. Supreme Court decision of Gideon v. Wainwright which guaranteed the right to counsel. He argued that since no defense attorney had been assigned to him in the Delaware cases, the two convictions were unconstitutional and thus the Virginia death sentence was unconstitutional as well. The court rejected his contentions, resulting in two decisions of the Virginia Supreme Court in Bloodgood v. Virginia and Bloodgood v. Garraghty, 783 F.2d 470, 475 (4th Cir. 1986).
Read more about this topic: Claude Bloodgood
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