Larry Grant Lonchar v. Albert G. Thomas, Warden (517 U.S. 314)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided April 1, 1996 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 517 U.S. 314 · 116 S. Ct. 1293
- Decided
- April 1, 1996
- Term
- October Term 1995
- Vote
- 5–4
- Majority author
- Justice Breyer
- Issue area
- Criminal Procedure
- Disposition
- Vacated and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
Justice Breyer delivered the opinion of the Court. This case asks us to decide whether a federal court may dismiss a first federal habeas petition for general “equitable” reasons beyond those embodied in the relevant statutes, Federal Habeas Corpus Rules, and prior precedents. We decide that the Court of Appeals erred in doing so in this case. The primary “equitable” consideration favoring dismissal of the “eleventh hour” petition before us is serious delay. A Federal Habeas Corpus Rule deals specifically with delay. See 28 U. S. C. § 2254 Rule 9(a) (permitting courts to dismiss a habeas petition when “it appears that the state ... has been prejudiced in its ability to respond ... by delay in its filing”). And, in our view, this Rule, not some general “equitable” power to create exceptions to the Rule, should have determined whether or not the petition’s dismissal was appropriate. I Petitioner Larry Lonchar was sentenced to death for murder nine years ago. He filed this “eleventh hour” petition for habeas corpus — his first federal habeas corpus petition— on June 28, 1995, the day of his scheduled execution. To understand the procedural significance of this petition, the nature of the delay here at issue, and other relevant special features of this case, we must consider the petition in the context of earlier proceedings, which, for ease of exposition, we divide into five…
Excerpt of a 36,281-character opinion. The full text and citation network load in the interactive viewer above.