U.S. Supreme Court Won't Hear Indiana Man's Death Sentence Appeal

The U.S. Supreme Court won’t take the case of an Indiana man convicted of murder who says his lawyers weren’t good enough. 

Jeffrey Weisheit was sentenced to death in 2013 for murdering two children in a fire he set. Weisheit appealed – he argued his lawyers did not provide him adequate counsel. For example, he says his attorneys didn’t work hard enough to get mental health records or call certain expert witnesses to help mitigate his sentence.

And the Indiana Supreme Court ruled in 2017 that while Weisheit’s attorneys could have done a better job defending him, their issues were not egregious enough that the conviction or sentence should be overturned.

Weisheit took his appeal as high as he could, to the U.S. Supreme Court. But the nation’s high court announced Monday it won’t hear his case. That means the Evansville man’s conviction – and death sentence – are now final.