SCOTUSblog has its new relist post up. Many of the cases from the prior relist post were relisted again. These were: Cavazos, Maxwell (for which the Court ordered the lower court record), Dixon, Cross, and Buck.
But not all cases were relisted again. The petitions in Rocha and Adams, the cases that concerned questions about the independent and adequate state law ground, were denied.
The Court also denied cert in Doody. That's pretty significant. Doody is a habeas grant out of the Ninth Circuit. The Supreme Court previously had GVR'd that case after a prior Ninth Circuit grant. On remand, the Ninth Circuit reaffirmed the habeas grant. I guess the Court decided to give up on that one.
There were also two petitions that SCOTUSblog was watching for that conference: Harrison and Abu-Jamal. According to SCOTUSblog, the Court appears to be holding Harrison in light of the cert grant in Blueford.
And the Court denied cert in Abu-Jamal. That's also significant for two reasons. First, it's a habeas grant out of the Third Circuit. And, similar to Doody, a prior habeas grant in that case had been GVR'd. Second, it's a well-known petitioner, Mumia Abu-Jamal. So Mumia will get a new sentencing hearing. There was a bunch of media coverage of the denial, for example here and here, with CNN speculating that a new death sentence was unlikely.
There will be a conference tomorrow (Oct. 14) at which the Court will consider the relisted cases. I'll try and post something soon after the order list gets issued.
Comments