Did the decision in Beard vs. Kindler decide anything?
Yesterday the Supreme Court issued its opinion in Beard vs. Kindler. This was a habeas corpus case. For those that don't know, habeas corpus is an incredibly complex and technical area of the law. Most decisions are based on procedure, and not on the actual merits of the case. If you want a thumbnail understanding of habeas law, just remember that everything is designed to ensure the defendant loses.
Federal habeas law is even more complex and technical. The idea is that State courts should be allowed to decide their own cases. One of the doctrines that has developed to ensure that is the "independent and adequate" concept. Simply put, if the decision is based solely on State law, a federal court will not review it. Most often that doctrine comes up in cases where the State court has decided the case on a procedural basis; in other words, the case was dismissed or rejected for some procedural reason.
Beard vs. Kindler is one of those cases. Kindler was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death. While his appeal was pending, he escaped. He managed to remain at large for several years, and in the meantime the appeal was denied based on the fact that he had abandoned his claims by escaping. The State court reviewed the case only to determine if there was a basis for imposing the death penalty.
Kindler filed a state writ,which was denied. He then went into federal court. Although the reasons differed, both the District Court and the Court of Appeals addressed the merits of the case, and reversed. If there is one thing that has become apparent over the last several years its that a reversal in a habeas case has a high likelihood of beign reversed by the Supreme Court. So it wasn't a big surprise that the court granted review.
To consitute an independent and adequate basis, the rule must be regularly enforced. In other words, if the State courts only rarely enforce a procedural rule, they cannot argue that prevents the federal court from reviewing the case. The Court granted review in this case on an extremely narrow issue: if the court has discretion in applying a particular rule, does that mean it is not "firmly established and regularly enforced". The court answered that question in the negative, which was fairly obvious to everyone. In other words, the fact that the State court has discretion doesn't end the inquiry.
It is not entirely clear what Kindler's main argument was; it is clear the discretionary aspect of the rule was not the only argument. He also argued the rule applied by the court was not adopted until after his conviction, and therefore was not "firmly established". That would be an exepction, and the court recognized that.
In the end the Court sent the case back to the Court of Appeals to address the remaining claims. The court also refused the State's request to explain the doctrine further, and provide some guidance to the lower courts. The court's reason was that escape was not the "typical" type of default. I guess that means the court is still open to explaining the rules when a more "typical" reason comes before them.
Like the decision yesterday in Michigan v. Fisher I'm not sure this added much to our understanding of habeas law.
As a side note, Kindler is apparently an extremely resourceful criminal. He didn't escape once, but several times. The first time he went to Canada, and became somewhat of a celebrity when he fought extradition. When Canada finally gave in, he escaped again - using 13 stories of bedsheets tied together to do so. He remained on the lam for mor than two years before he was caught again. Oh yeah - he also escaped before his trial. If he llives for awhile, maybe he has a future as a consultant for prison security.
