Court Opinion

ID: 9478426
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 06:48:50.559839+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:46:25.551098
License: Public Domain

ALVIN B. RUBIN and KING, Circuit Judges,
concurring:
Resolution of the group of issues referred to in the per curiam — the Franklin-Penry-Selvage issues — turns on the constitutionality of the Texas capital sentencing procedure, whether these issues can now be considered because they were not raised at trial, and whether trial counsel was ineffective in not doing so. Like Judge Higginbotham, we are uneasy in applying the law of the circuit rule in this capital case, but we are bound by prior precedent of this circuit and are, therefore, required to deny the application for a stay on these issues because, under this circuit’s precedents, they are without arguable merit. The Supreme Court, however, has granted an application for a writ in Penry v. Lynaugh, 832 F.2d 915 (5th Cir.1987), cert. granted — U.S. -, 108 S.Ct. 2896, 101 L.Ed.2d 930 (1988); rendered an opinion in Franklin v. Lynaugh, — U.S. -, 108 S.Ct. 2320, 101 L.Ed.2d 155 (1988), in which the concurring opinion of Justices O’Connor and Blackmun is particularly relevant, 108 S.Ct. at 2332; and has granted a stay pending consideration of a writ application in Selvage v. Lynaugh, 842 F.2d 89 (5th Cir.1988), stay granted, — U.S. -, 108 S.Ct. 1283, 99 L.Ed.2d 494 (1988). The cumulative effect of these actions seems to us to undermine the continuing validity of the Fifth Circuit precedents and demonstrates that reasonable jurists might find both that the Supreme Court decisions in those cases would be dispositive of the issues in this capital case and that a stay should be granted pending the outcome of those events. We, therefore, urge the Supreme Court to grant a stay pending its determination of Penry and the writ application in Selvage.