Court Opinion

ID: 9494480
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 15:38:41.012502+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:56:26.021382
License: Public Domain

AMENDED CONCURRENCE
NATHANIEL R. JONES, Circuit
Judge, concurring with the order granting the stay of execution to October 8, 2001, in which COLE, Circuit Judge, joins.
With the United States Supreme Court’s September 12th (6-3) denial of the State of Ohio’s application to lift the stay of execution entered by a majority of the active judges of this court on September 11, and the dissatisfaction the non-prevailing judges have expressed with the procedures of this court in this matter, I feel compelled to write in support of the order of a majority of the en banc court extending the stay of execution. In so doing, it is necessary to refute the gross mischarac-terization and factual misstatements contained in the dissents filed in this case.
On Tuesday September 11, a majority of the active judges did the following two things with respect to this case: (1) declined to lift an eight-day stay of execution set out in the Order drafted by Judge Suhrheinrich, and (2) decided to grant a stay of execution until October 8, 2001.
How this took place is very simple. The three-judge panel consisting of Judges Suhrheinrich, Batchelder, and myself, split, 2 to 1, over the issue of Byrd’s entitlement to file a second petition and his request for stay of execution. On Saturday, September 8, I requested that Judge Suhrheinrich join in granting a thirty-day stay of execution. He tentatively agreed to do so. However, on September 10, during a panel conference call, he pro*579posed a stay of only eight days. Judge Batchelder objected in the strongest of terms and threatened to dissent. And she did dissent. I told Judge Suhrheinrich that I was withholding judgment until receipt of his Order. Upon reviewing the panel majority’s twenty-five page Order and its injudicious language, I advised Judge Suhrheinrich, its author, orally and in writing, with a copy to Judge Batchel-der, that in the interests of justice and fundamental fairness regarding this most final and irreversible of punishments, I was compelled to seek the longer stay.
I then spoke with Chief Judge Martin and a majority of the active judges. I expressed to each my views and urged them to consider my dissent to the panel majority’s proposed order refusing realistic relief for the Petitioner, who faced death within thirty-six hours. Discussions between judges of this court are nothing new, especially in emergency situations such as the one involved here. Mr. Byrd was scheduled for execution at 10:00 a.m. September 12. Judge Suhrheinrich’s proposed Order was received in chambers at 1:01 p.m. on the afternoon of September 10. However, before I had formalized a stay motion, on September 10, Judge Boggs, a non-panel member, interceded by filing an objection to the eight-day stay proposed by Judge Suhrheinrich and sought to have the en banc court vacate the stay. Judge Boggs also requested a polling of the active judges be taken by the Clerk of Courts regarding the stay.
The en banc court was thus activated by Judge Boggs’s request. “Only Sixth Circuit judges in regular active service may cast votes on” an en banc poll. Sixth Circuit Internal Operating Procedure 35(a). In response to Judge Boggs’s intervention seeking to vacate the eight-day stay, when polled, less than a majority of the en banc court favored his application. Instead, in individual communication with the Chief Judge and/or the Clerk of Courts, a majority favored extending the stay to October 8, 2001; pursuant to a directive to the Clerk of Courts by the Chief Judge, an Order to this effect was filed on September 11. The exigencies of the circumstances required the prompt entry of the Order to preserve the status quo.
There was nothing secretive or mysterious about the procedure. Judge Suhrhein-rich states in his dissent that “[TJhere was no discussion as to the views and opinions of the minority of the Court members.” These views were quite well-known by virtue of the panel Opinion and the filing of the objection. There seldom is a joint discussion when the polling occurs. It is not a collaborative process nor is a plenary session required. Judges are polled in a variety of ways for they are often in locations remote from the seat of the court. On numerous occasions this court, faced with urgent deadlines in death penalty and other cases, has needed to make contact by telephone and the other expeditious methods of communication in order to ascertain the will of individual judges.
Moreover, the significance of the fact that this process took place in the midst of the catastrophic events of September 11 should not be lost on my colleagues. On that day, the Chief Judge was away from his home chambers in Washington D.C., attending sessions of the Judicial Conference of the United States. Everything in our nation’s Capital was disrupted that day, necessitating even an evacuation of the Judicial Conference. Notwithstanding the difficulties of the moment, the Chief Judge was able to use the means available to him to conduct the affairs of this court and did so appropriately.
An action is taken in the name of the en banc court when a majority of the judges *580in “regular active service” votes a particular way on a particular issue. The method of ascertaining views is not prescribed. When a majority of the active judges registered their preference — by whatever means — the requirement was met. It should be noted that none of the en banc majority has questioned the procedures that led to the filing of the stay order.
At approximately the same time, the State of Ohio presented an application to United States Supreme Court Justice Stevens, as Circuit Justice, seeking to have the Supreme Court vacate the enlarged en banc stay. Upon referral to the entire Supreme Court, the application was denied, with three justices in dissent.
A majority of the active judges of this court felt that, in this emergency situation, a reasonable extension to October 8th was in order. Six justices of the United States Supreme Court voted not to disturb that decision. This court clearly acted appropriately in this matter, assertions to the contrary notwithstanding.