Sullivan v. Wainwright, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections, et al. (464 U.S. 109)

U.S. Supreme Court · decided November 29, 1983 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)

Citation
464 U.S. 109 · 104 S. Ct. 450
Decided
November 29, 1983
Term
October Term 1983
Vote
7–2
Issue area
Criminal Procedure
Disposition
Petition denied or appeal dismissed
Outcome
Petitioning party lost
Ideological direction
Conservative

Opinion excerpt

Per Curiam. Applicant was sentenced to death in November 1973 for the murder of the manager of a restaurant he had robbed. His conviction and sentence were affirmed by the Florida Supreme Court and this Court denied certiorari. Sullivan v. State, 303 So. 2d 632 (Fla. 1974), cert. denied, 428 U. S. 911 (1976). After exhausting state postconviction remedies, Sullivan v. State, 372 So. 2d 938 (Fla. 1979), applicant filed his first habeas petition in 1979. The District Court held an evidentiary hearing and denied the writ. The Eleventh Circuit affirmed, and this Court denied certiorari. Sullivan v. Wainwright, 695 F. 2d 1306 (CA11 1983), cert. denied, post, p. 922. In October 1983, applicant filed his second petition for postconviction relief in state court. The denial of that relief was affirmed on appeal, Sullivan v. State, 441 So. 2d 609 (Fla. 1983), and applicant filed a second petition for writ of habeas corpus in the federal court. Following a hearing, the District Court declined to issue the writ, and refused to issue a stay of execution or a certificate of probable cause to appeal. The Eleventh Circuit affirmed, with one judge dissenting in part. That court issued a temporary stay in order to allow a vote on applicant’s suggestion for rehearing en banc. That stay was lifted when the suggestion was denied. This application for a stay pending completion of the rehearing…

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