William Fiore v. Gregory White, Warden, et al. (528 U.S. 23)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided November 30, 1999 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 528 U.S. 23 · 120 S. Ct. 469
- Decided
- November 30, 1999
- Term
- October Term 1999
- Vote
- 9–0
- Majority author
- Justice Breyer
- Issue area
- Judicial Power
- Disposition
- Certification to/from a lower court
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Justice Breyer delivered the opinion of the Court. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania convicted codefend-ants William Fiore and David Searpone of violating a provision of Pennsylvania law forbidding any person to “operate a hazardous waste” facility without a “permit.” Pa. Stat. Ann., Tit. 35, § 6018.401(a) (Purdon 1993) (reprinted at Appendix A, infra). Each codefendant appealed to a different intermediate state court, one of which affirmed Fiore’s conviction, the other of which reversed Searpone’s. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court denied further review of Fiore’s case, and his conviction became final. However, that court agreed to review Searpone’s case, and it subsequently held that the statutory provision did not apply to those who, like Searpone and Fiore, possessed a permit but deviated radically from the permit’s terms. Consequently, it set aside Searpone’s conviction. In light of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s decision in Commonwealth v. Scarpone, 535 Pa. 273, 634 A. 2d 1109 (1993), Fiore asked the Pennsylvania courts to reconsider his identical conviction. They denied his request. He then brought a federal habeas corpus petition in which he argued, among other things, that Pennsylvania’s courts, either as a matter of Pennsylvania law or as a matter of federal constitutional law, must apply the Scarpone interpretation of the statute to his identical ease. If this…
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