Ryan v. Schad (570 U.S. 521)

U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 24, 2013 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)

Citation
570 U.S. 521 · 133 S. Ct. 2548
Decided
June 24, 2013
Term
October Term 2012
Vote
9–0
Issue area
Civil Rights
Disposition
Vacated and remanded
Outcome
Petitioning party lost
Ideological direction
Liberal

Opinion excerpt

Cite as: 570 U. S. ____ (2013) 1 Per Curiam SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES CHARLES L. RYAN, DIRECTOR, ARIZONA DEPART- MENT OF CORRECTIONS, PETITIONER v. EDWARD HAROLD SCHAD ON PETITION FOR WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT No. 12–1084. Decided June 24, 2013 PER CURIAM. Respondent Edward Schad was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. After an extensive series of state- and federal-court proceedings concluded with this Court’s denial of respondent’s petitions for certiorari and for rehearing, the Ninth Circuit declined to issue its mandate as normally required by Federal Rule of Appel­ late Procedure 41(d)(2)(D). The Ninth Circuit instead, sua sponte, construed respondent’s motion to stay the mandate pending the Ninth Circuit’s decision in a sepa­ rate en banc case as a motion to reconsider a motion that it had denied six months earlier. Based on its review of that previously rejected motion, the court issued a stay a few days before respondent’s scheduled execution. Even assuming, as we did in Bell v. Thompson, 545 U. S. 794 (2005), that Rule 41(d)(2)(D) admits of any exceptions, the Ninth Circuit did not demonstrate that exceptional cir­ cumstances justified withholding its mandate. As a result, we conclude that the Ninth Circuit’s failure to issue its mandate constituted an abuse of discretion. I In 1985,…

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