Court Opinion

ID: 9494482
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 15:38:41.018954+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:56:26.023477
License: Public Domain

BOGGS, Circuit Judge,
dissenting from the refusal to vacate the panel’s stay and dissenting from the order extending the stay.
The panel’s order of September 11, 2001, Order Denying John Byrd’s Motion to Determine whether 28 U.S.C. § 2244(b) of the AEDPA Applies to his Case, addresses Byrd’s self-titled “Motion [to] Determine Whether 28 U.S.C. § 2244(b) of the AED-PA applies to His Case.” However, procedurally Byrd’s motion can only be one thing if it is to be properly before this court: an application pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2244(b)(3)(A), seeking permission of the court of appeals to file a second habeas petition. The panel dealt with Byrd’s motion as such, see id at n. 1, and rendered a decision on the merits, first holding that § 2244(b) does apply to Byrd and then denying his request to file a second habeas petition. An order such as this, denying permission to file a second habeas petition, is not reviewable en banc. See In re King, 190 F.3d 479, 480-81 (6th Cir.1999).
Alternatively, the panel may have found Byrd exempt from AEDPA. However, in that case, this court would have no jurisdiction over his petition, as a habeas petition must be filed first in district court. Had Byrd gone to district court, it is conceivable that action by the district court could be reviewed on appeal or en banc. However, our court cannot take jurisdiction over a non-AEDPA habeas petition in the first instance.
I can understand how a panel, faced with a last-minute motion, and out of an abundance of caution, could stay an execution while it is considering the motion. I can understand why a member of the panel, for tactical or other reasons, could request that the panel defer a ruling and issue a stay.
However, I cannot understand how a panel can render a decision on the merits, which affirmatively finds that the prisoner’s claims have no merit, and then issue a stay to allow one member of the panel “additional time to consider the matter.” We are not a “super-court” that supervises all executions in the states within our jurisdiction. Our jurisdiction is’ limited by Constitution and statute. The panel has determined all matters that come within that jurisdiction.
This court’s power to issue a stay was therefore dubious at best (a fact that the panel apparently later recognized, since it removed all reference to the stay from its amended decision. Compare September 10, 2001, Order Denying John Byrd’s Motion to Determine whether 28 U.S.C. § 2244(b) of the AEDPA Applies to his Case, and Granting a Temporary Stay of Execution until September 18, 2001, with September 11, 2001, Order Denying John Byrd’s Motion to Determine whether 28 U.S.C. § 2244(b) of the AEDPA Applies to his Case). Then, however, the situation was exacerbated when the clerk of this court issued a much longer stay, apparently based on the word of one Article III judge that a majority of the active members of the court had approved it. This *582act was taken in response to no apparent motion, it had no jurisdictional basis, and it was done without providing any notice to some members of the court.
What we hold, apparently, is that death-sentenced prisoners need not resort to creative legal tactics to come within this court’s jurisdiction. So prisoners may file anything, regardless of statute or prior law, and the en banc court may stay their execution for any length of time it chooses. For example, they could file a hot dog menu, and the en banc court might use that as a legal basis to stay their execution.
The truth may be that for this prisoner, a majority of the active members of this court would grant a stay based on a hot dog menu. This, however, is not a correct statement of the law (nor is it of any sort of law at all).
Under these circumstances:
either the Supreme Court must reverse, at a minimum, the extended stay;
this court must adopt new court rules explicitly allowing this type of currently lawless action; or
we must recognize and confess that a majority of the court simply feels that it is not bound by law when it comes to some death-sentenced prisoners.