In Re: United States of America

In this case, the Government has requested a writ of mandamus to prevent the federal district court from enforcing discovery orders in a federal death penalty case not by dismissing the Government’s Notice of Intent to seek the death penalty against this defendant, but by poisoning the jury’s consideration of that option with an impermissible punishment phase in struction. The court also threatened to delay the scheduled start of the proceedings for a year. For the following reasons, we grant the writ, and expect proceedings to resume promptly.

Background

Defendant Tyrone Mapletoft Williams…