Terry L. Stewart, Director, Arizona Department of Corrections v. Robert Douglas Smith (536 U.S. 856)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 28, 2002 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 536 U.S. 856 · 122 S. Ct. 2578
- Decided
- June 28, 2002
- Term
- October Term 2001
- Vote
- 9–0
- Issue area
- Judicial Power
- Disposition
- Reversed and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Per Curiam. At issue in this case is whether, when an Arizona Superior Court denied respondent’s successive petition for state post-conviction relief because respondent had failed to comply with Arizona Rule of Criminal Procedure 32.2(a)(3) (West 2000), the state court’s ruling was independent of federal law. The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit thought not. We granted certiorari and certified to the Arizona Supreme Court a question concerning the proper interpretation of Rule 32.2(a)(3). We have received a response and now reverse the Ninth Circuit’s decision. I Respondent, Robert Douglas Smith, was convicted in Arizona in 1982 of first-degree murder, kidnaping, and sexual assault. He was sentenced to death on the murder count and to consecutive 21-year prison terms on the other counts. After a series of unsuccessful petitions for state postconviction relief, respondent filed a federal petition for a writ of habeas corpus under 28 U. S. C. §§2241 and 2254 in the United States District Court for the District of Arizona. The petition alleged, among other things, that respondent’s Sixth Amendment right to counsel had been violated because his trial counsel had provided ineffective assistance during the sentencing phase of his trial. Respondent had previously brought this ineffective-assistance claim in a 1995 petition for state postconviction relief pursuant to Ariz. Rule…
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