Hammonds v. Commissioner, Alabama Department of Corrections

An Alabama jury convicted Hammonds of murder and sentenced him to death. Hammonds petitioned for federal habeas review, arguing that the prosecutor made statements during trial that violated Ham-monds’s constitutional rights — namely, his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination as articulated in Griffin v. California, 380 U.S. 609, 615, 85 S.Ct. 1229, 14 L.Ed.2d 106 (1965), and his due-process right to a fair trial as set forth in Estelle v. Williams, 425 U.S. 501, 503-13, 96 S.Ct. 1691, 48 L.Ed.2d 126 (1976). The district court denied Hammonds’s petition. Because Hammonds cannot…