NCJ Number
139644
Journal
Criminal Law Bulletin Volume: 28 Issue: 6 Dated: (November-December 1992) Pages: 521- 553
Date Published
1992
Length
33 pages
Annotation
The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decisions have been discouraging for habeas corpus petitioners; between narrowing the scope of claims cognizable on habeas through the retroactivity doctrine and expanding the definition of "abuse of the writ" so that more successive habeas petitions will be dismissed at the district court level, the Supreme Court has made it increasingly difficult for a habeas petitioner to prevail.
Abstract
In Stringer v. Black, the Supreme Court recently found that the petitioner somehow fell within the narrow strictures of the retroactivity doctrine, entitling him to relief. After the District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi denied his petition for habeas corpus, Stringer appealed on several grounds to the Fifth Circuit, with no favorable result. Stringer appealed the Fifth Circuit's decision to the Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari, and the Supreme Court ruled in Stringer's favor. One of the primary reasons Stringer that won involved the persuasive arguments of his counsel, in comparison to the poor showing by the State of Mississippi. The author examines how and why the Supreme Court reached its decision, relevant death penalty cases involved in the Stringer litigation, retroactivity cases that provide the framework for the Stringer decision, lower court opinions, and Stringer case briefs filed with the Supreme Court. 160 footnotes