A Decatur jury in 1997 convicted Cory Maples of the 1995 murders of Stacy Alan Terry and Barry Dewayne and sentenced him to death on a 10-2 vote.
Maples confessed to the shootings. But he appealed his death sentence in part because attorneys at trial made little effort to bring evidence to the jury that might have prevented the imposition of the death penalty.
At one point, he got pro bono representation from a New York-based law firm. But a few months after filing a post-conviction appeal in 2001, Maples’ attorneys left the firm without informing the court or the firm that they were representing Maples…