Supreme Court won’t hear 1996 Alabama capital murder case

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court will not hear the case of an Alabama death row inmate who said his lawyer had an undisclosed conflict of interest that caused evidence of childhood abuse to not be presented in court.

The court said Monday it will not review the case of 47-year-old Nicholas Acklin. He was convicted in the 1996 shooting deaths of four people in Huntsville.

Appellate attorneys wrote that Acklin’s trial attorney wanted to show Acklin had grown up in an abusive home, but Acklin’s father, who denied the accusation, threatened to stop paying legal fees if that was done.

Attorneys for Alabama argued there was no conflict because Acklin himself forbade the attorney from presenting the abuse evidence.

Prosecutors said the slayings began in a dispute over a stolen cellphone.