2009

November 21, 2009

Evelyn Case is again invited to speak at Professor Gary Kowaluk's Wrongful Convictions class.

October 30, 2009

U.S. District Court judge Gary Kays denies Byron's Certificate of Appealability application. The case is forwarded to the United States Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals for review.

October 26, 2009

Now without the assistance of an attorney to offer legal counsel, Byron files his application for a Certificate of Appealability pro se (on his own).

September 30, 2009

True-crime writer and radio host Burl Barer posts a relatively open-ended piece about Anastasia's murder on his "In Cold Blog" column. He has not read Judge Kays' opinion nor the petition that prompted it, or else his piece might have been more favorable to Byron.

September 29, 2009

Judge Gary Kays issues a ten-page opinion denying Byron's habeas corpus petition. The single silver lining in this instance lies in the judge's response to Byron's third claim (regarding the admission of his pre-arrest silence as substantive evidence of guilt): Petitioner notes that while neither the Supreme Court nor the Eighth Circuit have ruled on this issue, several Circuits have adopted the Petitioner's view. The Court has reviewed this authority, and it would certainly support his position. [...] Petitioner fails to note that there is strong authority for the opposite conclusion in multiple Circuits as well. [...] This is an interesting issue that may be ripe for review by the Supreme Court, but it is not within this Court's authority to grant habeas relief on the basis of this claim.

July 5, 2009

Evelyn Case appears on Georgia Prisonworld Radio to briefly discuss Byron's wrongful conviction.

June 19, 2009

The traverse to the State's Response to the Order to Show Cause is filed. Now the Court must decide whether to grant Byron a writ of habeas corpus on the merits of the two parties' respective arguments.

June 13, 2009

Evelyn Case returns to Sharon Lockhart's "Every Woman" show, on KKFI community radio, to discuss the travesty of her son's case, and her tireless efforts to free him.

May 17, 2009

The Wrongful Convictions class at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, again invites Evelyn Case to speak.

April 16, 2009

Assistant Attorney General Andrew Hassell files the State's rebuttal to Byron's petition, the Response to Order to Show Cause.

March 8, 2009

With substantial content provided by Professor Gary Kowaluk, Byron's petition for a writ of habeas corpus is filed with the United States District Court of the Western District of Missouri, at Kansas City. In it are argued claims of Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment violations, based on the admission into evidence of Byron's so-called "tacit admission," as well as his pre-arrest silence (not the same thing, legally speaking), and the trial court's determination that there was sufficient evidence for reasonable jurors to return a guilty verdict.