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SCOTUS Monday

By Kent Scheidegger et al.

The Supreme Court issued one opinion in a criminal case today, Boulware v. United States, No. 06-1509, but it's really more of a tax case. In the orders list, the Court asked for the views of the Solicitor General in a state-prisoner capital habeas case, Harbison v. Bell, No. 07-8521. That is an unusual order for this type of case. The Sixth Circuit opinion in the case is here. The case involves the use of Rule 60(b) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure to reopen a habeas case. Before 1996, the usual method was to file a successive habeas petition, but Congress cracked down hard on that practice in the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996. The Court addressed Rule 60(b) in this context in Gonzalez v. Crosby in 2005. Update: Three of Harbison's petitions are on the orders list today...continue to full post

Full post as published by Crime and Consequences on March 03, 2008 (boomark / email).