In an Alabama case championed by the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday held in a narrow 5-4 ruling that an Alabama Death Row inmate was denied his right to consult with a mental health experts in his 1986 capital murder trial.

Persuaded by an April 24 oral argument made on behalf of Alabama inmate James Edmund McWilliams Jr. by Stephen Bright, president and senior counsel of the Southern Center for Human Rights, the high court reversed a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit that had affirmed McWilliams' death penalty sentence and remanded the case to the appellate panel for further consideration. It was Bright's fourth appearance before the U.S. Supreme Court and his fourth win.

The majority opinion, written by Stephen Breyer, held that Alabama's provision of mental health assistance “fell so dramatically short” of what the U.S. Supreme Court established more than 30 years ago in Ake v. Oklahoma that the Alabama court decision affirming McWilliams' conviction and sentence was “contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established federal law.” Breyer was joined by Justices Anthony Kennedy, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.