Supreme Court hears arguments on death penalty, right to counsel, Miranda

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website] heard oral arguments [day call, PDF] in three cases on Tuesday. In Maples v. Thomas [transcript, PDF; JURIST report], the court considered a death penalty appeal where Cory Maples missed his ability to appeal his sentence due to a clerk’s error. An Alabama trial court had dismissed Maples’ petition for post-conviction relief and sent notice of this ruling to his out-of-state attorneys, but the notice was returned to the court unopened because the…