The horrific life of Joe Elton Nixon, briefly referenced last week during a narrow procedural hearing before the U.S. Supreme Court, is at the heart of a capital murder case that Eric M. Freedman predicts will be studied in law schools for years to come.
Freedman, part of a team of New York attorneys in the cause of winning Nixon a new trial in Florida, is a professor of constitutional law at Hofstra University School of Law.
The Nixon case, he said, "illustrates all the elements that typify death penalty cases, and the people who wind up getting sentenced to death. Race, lousy counsel -- all the fundamental problems.