Court Opinion

ID: 9433608
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:40:48.413707+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:43.049709
License: Public Domain

Justice Stevens,
dissenting.
The Court of Appeals’ decision denying petitioner Breard’s first application for a federal writ of habeas corpus became final on February 18, 1998. Under this Court’s Rules, a timely petition for a writ of certiorari to review that decision could have been filed as late as May 19, 1998. See Rule 13.1 (“[A] petition for a writ of certiorari to review a judgment in any case, civil or criminal, entered by... a United States court of appeals ... is timely when it is filed with the Clerk of this Court within 90 days after entry of the judgment”). Ordinary review of that petition pursuant to our Rules would have given us additional time thereafter to consider its merits in the light of the response filed by the Commonwealth of Virginia. We have, however, been deprived of the normal time for considered deliberation by the Commonwealth’s decision to set the date of petitioner’s execution for today. *380There is no compelling reason for refusing to follow the procedures that we have adopted for the orderly disposition of noncapital cases. Indeed, the international aspects of this case provide an additional reason for adhering to our established Rules and procedures. I would therefore grant the applications for a stay, and I respectfully dissent from the decision to act hastily rather than with the deliberation that is appropriate in a case of this character.