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Article: Protecting first federal habeas corpus petitions: closing the opening left by Gomez.(Supreme Court Review)
- Article from:
- Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology
- Article date:
- March 22, 1997
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1997 Northwestern University, School of Law. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Lonchar v. Thomas, 116 S. Ct. 1293 (1996)
I. INTRODUCTION
In Lonchar v. Thomas,(1) the Supreme Court held that a court may not dismiss a first federal habeas corpus petition for ad hoc equitable reasons outside the framework of the Federal Habeas Corpus Rules.(2) Lonchar involved a petitioner who filed his first federal petition nearly eight years after a jury convicted him on three counts of malice murder and one count of aggravated assault.(3) In an opinion by justice Breyer, the Court first noted that a court cannot deny a stay of execution when a first petition contains claims worthy of consideration, because that court would abuse its ...