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August 29, 2006
Top-side brief in Burton, the SCOTUS Blakely retroactivity case
As detailed in posts linked below, the Supreme Court this Fall will consider Blakely's retroactivity in Burton v. Waddington. (For lots of background on retroactivity issues, I have this category archive cleverly titled "Apprendi/Blakely Retroactivity.") Though the argument in Burton is not until November, I just received a copy of the brief filed today by the petitioner. This brief is available for download below, and here are snippets from the summary of argument:
The retroactivity doctrine established in Teague v. Lane, 489 U.S. 288 (1989), does not bar applying this Court's decision in Blakely v. Washington, 542 U.S. 296 (2004), to Petitioner's habeas corpus claim.
I. The Teague doctrine applies only to decisions that announce "new rules" of criminal procedure, not to those that are "merely an application of the principle that governed" a prior Supreme Court case. The Blakely decision falls into the latter category....
II. Even if this Court were to hold that Blakely did somehow announce a "new rule," its rule would apply retroactively under Teague's exception for "watershed rules of criminal procedure."
Download burton_opening_merits_brief_final.pdf
Related posts on Burton:
August 29, 2006 at 06:01 AM | Permalink
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