Mintzes, Warden v. Buchanon (471 U.S. 154)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided April 15, 1985 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 471 U.S. 154 · 105 S. Ct. 2006
- Decided
- April 15, 1985
- Term
- October Term 1984
- Vote
- 7–1
- Issue area
- Judicial Power
- Disposition
- Petition denied or appeal dismissed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
Per Curiam. The Court is advised that the respondent died in Ingham County, Mich., on December 7, 1984. The Court’s order granting the writ of certiorari, see 469 U. S. 1033 (1984), therefore is vacated, and the petition for certiorari is dismissed. See Warden v. Palermo, 431 U. S. 911 (1977). It is so ordered. Justice Powell took no part in the decision of this case. Chief Justice Burger, dissenting. In this case, the District Court and the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ordered that respondent either be released or given a new hearing on the degree of his crimes and a resentencing. This was ordered despite the passage of 25 years since respondent’s convictions for two murders committed while he was a fugitive on escape from prison. Both courts held that laches did not bar respondent’s claim that he did not knowingly and intelligently waive his right to counsel at the hearing and sentencing in 1956. Understandably troubled by the possible ramifications of such a drastic holding and concerned that even in this particular case it would be prejudiced in its defense to the allegations, given the loss of records, faded memories, and intervening deaths, the State of Michigan sought certiorari to review the judgment of the Court of Appeals. We granted the State’s petition and set the case for argument. 469 U. S. 1033 (1984). Now, having been informed that the respondent has…
Excerpt of a 9,108-character opinion. The full text and citation network load in the interactive viewer above.