The U.S. Supreme Court has denied a request to hearthe case of Frankie Maybee, a Green Forest man who was convicted last year of federal hate crimes after he used a Ford pickup to run a car off the road, injuring five Hispanic men.
Byron Rhodes of Hot Springs, Maybee’s attorney, fileda petition with the Supreme Court on Sept. 18 asking the high court to consider the case because it was the first jury conviction in the country under a 2009 law that expanded the federal government’s role in investigating and prosecuting hate crimes.
The Supreme Court denied that request Monday,according to its website, supremecourt.gov. Rhodes’ petition for writ of certiorari was distributed to the justices on Oct. 4. They met on Oct. 26 in private to discuss whether to grant or deny certain petitions, including the one from Rhodes, according to the website.
“The Supreme Court has denied to look at it so they’re allowing the lower court decision to stand,” Rhodes said Friday when informed of the court’s website entry.“They’re satisfied with it.”
Rhodes said he hadn’t been contacted by the court concerning the decision.
He said he won’t ask the Supreme Court to reconsider the case, but his client still has other options. Since the law is so new, it is being challenged elsewhere in the country, and other rulings pertaining to the same law could affect the Maybee case, Rhodes said.
Maybee, 21, was convicted in May 2011 in U.S. District Court in Harrison of five counts of violating the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act after he used a pickup on June 20, 2010, to force a car off U.S. 412 near Alpena, the Hispanic men inside.
Maybee also was found guilty of one count of conspiring to violate the hatecrimes act.
U.S. District Judge Jimm Hendren sentenced Maybee to 11 years and three months in federal prison. Maybee is serving time in a medium-security federal prison 15 miles north of Alexandria, La.
Rhodes has argued that there was no evidence that Maybee, who is white, committed the act because of race. Rhodes also argued that the hate-crimes act is unconstitutional because Congress exceeded its authority by enacting the law.
On Aug. 6, the 8th U.S. Circuit of Appeals in St. Louis upheld the district-court ruling.
In a unanimous decision, the three-judge panel also upheld the act, a law that Congress approved under the power of the 13th Amendment, which calls for abolishing vestiges of slavery. The judges found that attacking someone because of his ethnic background is constitutionally prohibited under the Hate Crimes Prevention Act.
Sean Popejoy, 20, also of Green Forest, pleaded guiltyto one count of violating the hate-crimes act and one count of conspiring with Maybee to violate the act.
Popejoy testified against Maybee at trial.
Popejoy is serving a fouryear sentence at a low-security federal prison in Yazoo City, Miss.
On Oct. 22, Maybee filed a motion in district court asking the federal government to return the 2001 Ford 250 diesel pickup that he was driving at the time of the incident. Maybee wants the court to return the truck to his father, Jerrell D. Maybee of Green Forest, and Chad Allan Inman of Harrison, whose name is still listed on the title as the owner, according to the motion. Maybee wrote that he bought the truck from Inman and made an $8,400 down payment on April 30, 2010. Frankie Maybee wrote that his father, has been making payments onthe truck.
Maybee said the truck has been “dismantled” and is in the possession of the U.S. Marshals Service. Maybee wants the federal government to cover the cost of repairing and reassembling the pickup.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Deborah Groom filed a court response Friday saying the truck shouldn’t be returned because Maybee owes a $10,000 fine, $5,440 in restitution to the victims and $600 from a court-ordered special assessment.
On Sept. 30, 2011, the federal government filed a writ of execution on the truck for payment of the judgment. On Aug. 16, 2012, the court denied Maybee’s request for a hearing regarding the execution.
Evidence indicates Frankie Maybee is the owner of the truck, Groom wrote in her brief. If Frankie Maybee doesn’t own the truck, he can’t demand its return, she wrote. Documents found in the truck indicate Frankie Maybee bought the truck from Inman for $8,400 and the title was transferred to Maybee.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 9 on 11/03/2012