Ninth Circuit rings out 2006 with en banc bonanza

As Howard Bashman details here, Ninth Circuit has closed out 2006 by granting rehearing en banc in four separate cases.  It appears that all four involve criminal issues, and in the bunch is Comer v. Schriro (panel ruling here) the case in which September a split panel rejected a competent Arizona inmate's decision to abandon legal challenges to his death sentence (background here; commentary here).