Lonnie Lee Burton v. Belinda Stewart, Superintendent, Stafford Creek Corrections Center (549 U.S. 147)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided January 9, 2007 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 549 U.S. 147 · 127 S. Ct. 793
- Decided
- January 9, 2007
- Term
- October Term 2006
- Vote
- 9–0
- Issue area
- Criminal Procedure
- Disposition
- Vacated and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Per Curiam. We granted certiorari in this case, 547 U. S. 1178 (2006), to determine whether our decision in Blakely v. Washington, 542 U. S. 296 (2004), announced a new rule and, if so, whether it applies retroactively on collateral review. We do not answer these questions, however, because petitioner — a state prisoner seeking postconviction relief from the federal courts — failed to comply with the gatekeeping requirements of 28 U. S. C. § 2244(b). That failure deprived the District Court of jurisdiction to hear his claims. Accordingly, we vacate the judgment of the Court of Appeals and remand with instructions to direct the District Court to dismiss petitioner’s habeas corpus application for lack of jurisdiction. I On October 31, 1994, a Washington jury convicted petitioner Lonnie Burton of rape, robbery, and burglary. App. 3-4. The state trial court initially entered judgment and sentence on December 19, 1994 (1994 judgment). In that judgment, the court sentenced Burton to a total of 562 months in prison. State v. Burton, No. 35747-6-I etc., 1997 WL 306429, *12 (Wash. App., June 9,1997). The trial court rested the 562-month sentence on two alternative grounds under Washington’s determinate sentencing scheme. First, it sentenced Burton to within-guidelines sentences for each offense — 153 months for robbery, 105 months for burglary, and 304 months for rape — and directed…
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