Aubrey Trial seeks federal challenge

Aubrey Trail, who chose not to go through with a state court appeal of his death sentence for the killing and dismemberment of Sydney Loofe, has gone forward instead with a federal challenge.

In it, his federal public defenders out of Kansas City, Missouri, raised two dozen claims, among them that Trail’s sentence amounts to cruel and unusual punishment because he is “severely mentally ill” and his previous counsel was ineffective for failing to raise the issue earlier.

Attorney Laurence Komp, chief of the Capital Habeas Unit, said: “Mr. Trail’s case provides an example of what happens when th...