Dead Letter Office; Supreme Court Death Penalty Case

[Rasputin]

I understand why the 11th circuit did what it did.

Looking at the full transcript, it is clear that Alito was assuming that there was some "good cause" time extension rule in Alabama; Neiman appeared to concede that there was but said the court found the rule didn't apply to these particular circumstances.  The open question is what would have happened if the prosecutor, instead of fighting the extension request, either didn't oppose or affirmatively took the position that the there was good cause here.

and that gets to my original point, if there is a good cause exception then surely this would have been good cause and even the 11th as tough as it otherwise is would've allowed thelate filing

if however the 11th believed the matter jurisdictional, then they likely wouldve felt they had no choice in the matter even if alabama said we think this is good cause

[The Minsky Moment]

and that gets to my original point, if there is a good cause exception then surely this would have been good cause and even the 11th as tough as it otherwise is would've allowed thelate filing

if however the 11th believed the matter jurisdictional, then they likely wouldve felt they had no choice in the matter even if alabama said we think this is good cause

Well once the Alabama courts take the position that good cause didn't exist under Alabama law, there isn't really anything the 11th circuit can do other reverse on constitutional DP or 6th amendment grounds, and I can easily see why that would pass on that and let the Supreme Court make that call.  But based on the colloquy it seems this problem could have and should have been fixed in the state.

But this case helps show the problems inherent in Bowles and treating time limits as jurisdictional.  If time to appeal is mandatory but not jurisdictional, the courts can use equitable discretion to fix up these kinds of cases; now the Supreme Court is faced with the choice either of letting this result stand or making some creative interpretations.

[Rasputin]

thats why this is in actuality an interesting case

[viper37]

on a serious note, this seems to be a case of the system working....

I don't know... it seems like an awful lot of needless procedures and appeals just because the guy was condemned to death penalty in the first place.  Had he been convicted of murder but sentence to life emprisonment, he would have received adquate counsel (in theory, I mean, he wouldn't have been left to himself).  But because he's sentenced to death, he gets to fend for himself.  I suppose it's good for Alabama, meaning that the overturned convictions on appael are probably rare.