In re JAMES BLODGETT, SUPERINTENDENT, WASHINGTON STATE PENITENTIARY, et al. (502 U.S. 236)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided January 13, 1992 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 502 U.S. 236 · 112 S. Ct. 674
- Decided
- January 13, 1992
- Term
- October Term 1991
- Vote
- 7–2
- Issue area
- Criminal Procedure
- Disposition
- Petition denied or appeal dismissed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Per Curiam. The Court has before it a petition from the State of Washington for a writ of mandamus to the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The petition seeks an order directing the Court of Appeals to issue its decision on an appeal from the District Court’s denial of a second federal habeas petition in a capital case. The appeal was argued and submitted to the Court of Appeals on June 27, 1989, and no decision has been forthcoming. Charles Rodman Campbell was convicted of multiple murders in 1982 in the State of Washington and sentenced to death. After his conviction was affirmed on direct appeal and we denied certiorari, Campbell v. Washington, 471 U. S. 1094 (1985), his first federal habeas petition was filed in July-1985 in the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington. Proceedings in that matter were completed when we denied certiorari in November 1988. Campbell v. Kincheloe, 488 U. S. 948. No relief was granted. In March 1989, Campbell filed a second federal habeas petition in the same District Court. The court acted with commendable dispatch, holding a hearing and issuing a written opinion denying a stay or other relief within days after the second petition was filed. On March 28, 1989, Campbell appealed to the Ninth Circuit. The Court of Appeals granted an indefinite stay of execution and set a briefing schedule. The case was argued…
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