Arthur Calderon, Warden v. Thomas Thompson (523 U.S. 538)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided April 29, 1998 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 523 U.S. 538 · 118 S. Ct. 1489
- Decided
- April 29, 1998
- Term
- October Term 1997
- Vote
- 5–4
- Majority author
- Justice Kennedy
- Issue area
- Criminal Procedure
- Disposition
- Reversed and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Justice Kennedy delivered the opinion of the Court. Thomas M. Thompson was convicted in California state court of the rape and murder of Ginger Fleisehli. More than 15 years after the crime, 13 years after Thompson’s conviction, and 7 years after Thompson filed his first petition for federal habeas relief, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued its mandate denying the writ of habeas corpus. Two days before Thompson’s scheduled execution, however, the Court of Appeals, sitting en bane, recalled the mandate and granted habeas relief to Thompson. The case presents two issues: First, whether the Court of Appeals’ order recalling its mandate violated 28 U. S. C. § 2244(b) (1994 ed., Supp. II), as amended by the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA), Pub. L. 104-132, §104, 110 Stat. 1218; and second, whether the order was an abuse of the court’s discretion. The recall of the mandate was not controlled by thé precise terms of AEDPA, but this does not save the order, which, we hold, was a grave abuse of discretion. I A Thompson met his 20-year-old victim, Ginger Fleischli, in the summer of 1981. Fleischli shared a Laguna Beach studio apartment with David Leiteh, with whom she had an intermittent sexual relationship. In August of that year, Fleischli moved out and Thompson moved in. Fleischli took up residence with Tracy Leiteh, the…
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