Margaret Bradshaw, Warden v. John David Stumpf (545 U.S. 175)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 13, 2005 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 545 U.S. 175 · 125 S. Ct. 2398
- Decided
- June 13, 2005
- Term
- October Term 2004
- Vote
- 9–0
- Majority author
- Justice O'Connor
- Issue area
- Criminal Procedure
- Disposition
- Affirmed and reversed (or vacated) in part and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Justice O’Connor delivered the opinion of the Court. This case concerns respondent John David Stumpf’s conviction and death sentence for the murder of Mary Jane Stout. In adjudicating Stumpf’s petition for a writ of ha-beas corpus, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit granted him relief on two grounds: that his guilty plea was not knowing, voluntary, and intelligent, and that his conviction and sentence could not stand because the State, in a later trial of Stumpf’s accomplice, pursued a theory of the case inconsistent with the theory it had advanced in Stumpf’s case. We granted certiorari to review both holdings. 543 U. S. 1042 (2005). I On May 14, 1984, Stumpf and two other men, Clyde Daniel Wesley and Norman Leroy Edmonds, were traveling in Edmonds’ car along Interstate 70 through Guernsey County, Ohio. Needing money for gas, the men stopped the car along the highway. While Edmonds waited in the car, Stumpf and Wesley walked to the home of Norman and Mary Jane Stout, about Í00 yards away. Stumpf and Wesley, each concealing a gun, talked their way into the home by telling the Stouts they needed to use the phone. Their real object, however, was robbery: Once inside, Stumpf held the Stouts at gunpoint, while Wesley ransacked the house. When Mr. Stout moved toward Stumpf, Stumpf shot him twice in the head, causing Mr. Stout to black out. After he regained…
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