"Justice SCALIA, with whom JUSTICE THOMAS joins,dissenting -- Today this Court takes the extraordinary step—one nottaken in nearly 50 years—of instructing a district court toadjudicate a state prisoner’s petition for an original writ of habeas corpus. The Court proceeds down this path even though every judicial and executive body that has examined petitioner’s stale claim of innocence has been unpersuaded, and (to make matters worst) even though it would be impossible for the District Court to grant any relief. Far from demonstrating, as this Court’s Rule 20.4(a) requires, "exceptional circumstances" that "warrant the exercise of the Court’s discretionary powers," petitioner’s claim is a sure loser. Transferring his petition to the District Court is a confusing exercise that can serve nopurpose except to delay the State’s execution of its lawful criminal judgment. I respectfully dissent..."
August 18, 2009
