Atlanta, GA – The federal appeals court in Atlanta has denied a new sentencing hearing for an Alabama inmate condemned to death for blasting a grocer's in the face with a double-barreled shotgun in 1992.
Max Landon Payne robbed Braxton Brown and abducted him from his Cullman, Ala., grocery before killing him. In the latest appeal of his death sentence, Payne argued that he had inadequate counsel in his previous appeal. He said attorneys failed to properly raise claims that his trial attorneys were ineffective by failing to introduce certain mental health issues in his defense.
A federal judge rejected Payne's arguments, and a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that ruling on Wednesday.
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