March 30 SOUTH DAKOTA: Supreme Court sides with death row inmate, says filing deadline may sometimes be suspended The Supreme Court on Wednesday sided with a South Dakota death row inmate, saying it may be possible for him to return to federal court once state courts finish reviewing challenges to his conviction for a 1992 murder. The Anti-terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 contains a 1-year statute of limitations that would have barred Charles Russell Rhines, facing execution by lethal injection, from coming back to federal court, where he had taken his case in 2000. Regarding the federal law's deadline, "we recognize the gravity of this problem and the difficulty it has posed," Justice Sandra Day O'Connor wrote in a 9-0 decision. A federal judge held the one-year federal deadline in abeyance while Rhines' claims in state court are dealt with. Setting aside an appeals court ruling, the Supreme Court said such an abeyance is permissible, but only in limited circumstances because of the possibility that death row inmates might engage in delaying tactics to avoid execution. The court sent the case back to the federal appeals court to consider. "It's a mixed bag," state Deputy Attorney General Craig Eichstadt said of the Supreme Court's ruling. The ruling could allow Rhines to put his federal court appeal on hold until all issues are settled in state court, but it says that abeyance cannot be allowed unless Rhines shows a good reason why those issues were not raised earlier in state court, Eichstadt said. Rhines' lawyer, Bob Lange of Sioux Falls, said he is pleased with the Supreme Court decision. Rhines has not sought to delay the appeals process, his claims have merit, and there is good reason why some of the claims were not raised earlier in state court, Lange said. The Supreme Court ruling means the federal judge may be able put Rhines' federal claims on hold pending the conclusion of proceedings in state court, Lange said. "It does not mean he's out on the street tomorrow. It simply means that certain of his claims are still alive," Lange said. The case now returns to the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals to determine whether the federal judge's decision was proper considering the standards set out in Wednesday's decision by the Supreme Court. The appeals court could require U.S. District Judge Karen Schreier to review her earlier decision to put Rhines' federal appeal on hold, Eichstadt and Lange said. In 2003, the federal appeals court ruled that Schreier could not freeze the clock on Rhines' federal habeas corpus petition while he returned to state court with legal claims that had not been exhausted in the state court system. In a habeas corpus procedure, prisoners challenge the legality of their sentences and claim that their constitutional rights have been violated. Rhines, 48, was sentenced to be executed after being found guilty of slaying a former co-worker during the 1992 burglary of a Rapid City doughnut shop. Donnivan Schaeffer, 22, was stabbed to death when he stumbled upon the burglary. Congress passed the federal Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act in 1996 to limit the lengthy appeals that typically precede executions. Rhines filed a federal habeas in 2000 after the apparent end of proceedings in the state court system. He claims such things as violation of his right to remain silent during police questioning, improper jury selection and ineffective legal representation. He also argues that the death penalty is unconstitutional. Schreier ruled in 2002 that Rhines habeas petition contained several claims that had not been exhausted in state court. She placed his federal habeas on hold while ordering him to return quickly to state court on the unsettled issues. If the federal judge had dismissed Rhines' petition, he would have been unable to refile it after the state courts finished their work. Federal law and a 1980 Supreme Court ruling require prisoners to exhaust all state remedies before filing for federal habeas corpus relief, giving state judges first crack at correcting any legal mistakes. South Dakota Attorney General Larry Long had urged the U.S. Supreme Court to enforce a strict time limit on federal habeas corpus petitions filed by state prisoners. The attorney general said Rhines is trying to circumvent Congress' intention that legal issues raised by people convicted of crimes in state courts be fully exhausted there before those matters may be raised at the federal level. The case is Rhines v. Weber, Warden, 03-9056. ON THE NET -- The opinion is available at: http://wid.ap.org/documents/scotus/050330rhines.pdf (source: Associated Press) MARYLAND----impending execution Death row inmate to speak to campus----Prisoner, socialist group argue death penalty sentence was racially biased A Maryland death row inmate who may have as few as 20 days left to live will speak via telephone with the campus community at the Nyumburu Multipurpose Room in an open event starting at 7 p.m. Inmate Vernon Evans Jr., whose execution is scheduled for sometime between April 18 and 22, recently appealed for a stay of execution on grounds that his sentence was unfair. He cited racial and geographic biases in the states application of the death penalty, which university criminology and criminal justice professor Ray Paternoster uncovered in a January 2003 study. Paternosters study concluded that the states application of the death penalty was biased against people accused of killing whites and in certain counties. Evans appeal follows death row inmate Wesley E. Bakers recent successful appeal for a stay of execution. Both men were convicted of murdering white victims and their cases were heard in Baltimore County. A member of Evans legal and activist campaign and a family relative will also be in on the phone-in, said event organizer Nick Chin. About 40 minutes of the 2-hour event will be set aside for audience questions. Chins organization, the university chapter of the International Socialist Organization, is sponsoring the event as part of an anti-death penalty advocacy campaign. "The main purpose of this event is to get people out to join the movement against Vernon Evans execution and against execution in general," Chin said. "The prisoner himself is often the person you hear from the least." Evans has held and will hold several more similar phone-ins. He was convicted and sentenced to death in 1984 for a 1983 double murder in Pikesville, according to the Associated Press. Former Gov. Parris N. Glendening (D) issued a moratorium on executions as his term wound down in May 2002, pending the results of Paternosters study. Gov. Ehrlich (R) lifted the moratorium in late January 2003. The Maryland Coalition Against State Executions website, last updated in October 2004, lists 7 men on death row. All of their victims were white and five of the cases were handled in Baltimore County. The list could not be verified at press time. The state most recently executed Steven Oken, who was processed in Baltimore County and found guilty of killing a white victim. He was lethally injected in June. (source: Diamondbackonline)
