Court Opinion

ID: 9488199
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 12:39:00.44034+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:52:45.214840
License: Public Domain

DAVID R. THOMPSON, Circuit Judge,
in which MICHAEL DALY HAWKINS, Circuit Judge, joins, dissenting:
I respectfully dissent.
The majority of the en banc court adopts the panel opinion as its own. This fails to decide McKenzie’s claims on the merits.
The panel issued a certificate of probable cause. In this circumstance, we must address the merits of the petitioner’s claims. “When a certificate of probable cause is issued by the district court, as it was in this case, or later by the court of appeals, petitioner must then be afforded an opportunity to address the merits, and the court of appeals is obligated to decide the merits of the appeal.” Barefoot v. Estelle, 463 U.S. 880, 893, 103 S.Ct. 3383, 3395, 77 L.Ed.2d 1090 (1983). We said the same thing in Campbell. Campbell v. Wood, 18 F.3d 662, 680 (9th Cir.1994).
The majority’s assertion of what it would decide if alternatively it should reach the merits, is not a decision on the merits; it is simply conclusory dicta adopting language from Richmond v. Lewis, 948 F.2d 1473 (9th Cir.1990), rev’d on other grounds, — U.S. -, 113 S.Ct. 528, 121 L.Ed.2d 411 (1992), vacated, 986 F.2d 1583 (9th Cir.1993). In my view, this does not satisfy our obligation un*1495der Barefoot See Barefoot, 463 U.S. at 893-94, 103 S.Ct. at 3394-95.
We should give this case the en banc review it deserves, take the time to do so, and issue a definitive opinion. True, this would require yet another stay of McKenzie’s execution and it would take some time to complete the process. This is a small price to pay, however, to get the decision right and to issue a thoughtful and thorough en bane opinion resolving the difficult issues McKenzie presents.
For these reasons, I respectfully dissent from the denial of a stay of execution, from adoption of the panel opinion, and from the majority’s purported alternative holding “on the merits.”