Court Opinion

ID: 9457768
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 20:32:37.957891+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:35:30.203131
License: Public Domain

ON PETITION FOR REHEARING AND PETITION FOR REHEARING EN BANC
PER CURIAM:
In our original opinion we stated, “On March 12, 1969, petitioner was convicted by a jury of two counts of burglary.” Appellant directs the court’s attention to the fact that two defendants were involved in the district court habeas corpus proceeding; and petitioner here, unlike his co-petitioner, was convicted by a jury on a charge of robbery on May 9, 1968.
Appellant in his petition for rehearing argues that this change in the date of trial renders erroneous our refusal to consider the retroactive effect of the district court’s judgment. We believe, however, that whatever the outcome might be on the issue of retroactive application of the rule announced in the instant case, petitioner here must be given the benefit of our decision. As held by the Supreme Court in Stovall v. Den-*580no, 388 U.S. 293, 87 S.Ct. 1967, 18 L.Ed. 2d 1199 (1967):
That [he] must be given that benefit is an unavoidable consequence of the necessity that constitutional adjudications not stand as mere dictum. Sound policies of decision-making, rooted in the command of Article III of the Constitution that we resolve issues solely in concrete cases or controversies, and in the possible effect upon the incentive of counsel to advance contentions requiring a change in the law, militate against denying . . . the benefit of today’s decision.
388 U.S. at 301, 87 S.Ct. at 1972.
We, therefore, realizing the gravity of the issue involved, continue to refuse to consider, in the absence of necessity, the retroactive effect of our decision prior to the Eighth Circuit decisions of 1969 and the Supreme Court’s resulting action. See Smith v. Smith, 5th Cir. 1971, 454 F.2d 579, n. 4.
The Petition for Rehearing is denied and no member of this panel nor Judge in regular active service on the Court having requested that the Court be polled on rehearing en banc (Rule 35 Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure; Local Fifth Circuit Rule 12), the Petition for Rehearing En Banc is denied.