Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson publishes first Supreme Court opinion in Ohio death row case

Washington — Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson on Monday published her first written opinion since joining the Supreme Court, dissenting from the court's refusal to hear a case involving an Ohio man on death row.

In a short, two-page dissent joined by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Jackson wrote that she would have tossed out a lower court decision denying relief to Davel Chinn, who was convicted and sentenced to death for murdering a man in early 1989.

Chinn's lawyers argued the state suppressed evidence during his trial showing that its primary witness, Marvin Washington, had an intellectual disability that led to substantial memory problems and affected his ability to distinguish between reality and things he imagined. Washington, who was 15 years old at the time, admitted his involvement in the fatal shooting of Brian Jones, according to court filings, and provided officers with a description of Chinn.