Court Opinion

ID: 9426301
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:17:30.389191+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:00.128267
License: Public Domain

*599Mr. Justice Marshall,
with whom Mr. Justice Brennan joins, dissenting.
In 1973, the Court refused to review the affirmance on direct appeal of Mr. Ross’ conviction. 414 U. S. 1080. In dissenting from that refusal, I observed that “[t]o deny this petition for certiorari is to see our decision in Ham v. South Carolina, [409 U. S. 524 (1973),] stillborn and to write an epitaph for those ‘essential demands of fairness’ recognized by this Court 40 years ago in Aldridge [v. United States, 283 U. S. 308 (1931)].” Id., at 1085. Today, in reversing the Court of Appeals’ affirmance of the District Court’s grant of a writ of habeas corpus, the Court emphatically confirms that the promises inherent in Ham and Aldridge will not be fulfilled. For the reasons expressed in my dissent from the earlier denial of certiorari, I cannot join in this confirmation. Accordingly, I respectfully dissent.