Evans Iii v. Bennett

Decision Date05 April 1979
Docket NumberNo. A-868,A-868
Citation440 U.S. 1301,99 S.Ct. 1481,59 L.Ed.2d 756
PartiesBetty EVANS, Individually and as next friend acting on behalf of John Louis Evans, III, Applicant, v. Larry BENNETT, Commissioner, Alabama Correctional System, and Joseph Oliver, Warden, Holman Unit
CourtU.S. Supreme Court

Mr. Justice REHNQUIST, Circuit Justice.

This application for stay has come to me by reason of the unavailability of Mr. Justice POWELL. Applicant is the mother of John Louis Evans; her son was tried and convicted of robbery-murder and was sentenced to death pursuant to Alabama law by an Alabama trial court in April 1977. Evans did not contest his guilt at trial. Instead, he took the stand, confessed to the crime, and requested the jury to find him guilty so that he could receive the death penalty. His conviction and sentence were appealed (according to the application, against his will) under the Alabama automatic appeal statute, and the judgment and sentence were affirmed by the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals and the Supreme Court of Alabama. Evans v. State, 361 So.2d 654 (Ala.Crim.App.1977); Evans v. State, 361 So.2d 666 (Ala.1978). With his approval, a petition for writ of certiorari seeking review of the sentence imposed upon him was filed in this Court in November 1978. On February 3, 1979, Evans' counsel, at Evans's insistence, filed a formal request for withdrawal of his petition for writ of certiorari, but both the petition for withdrawal and the petition for writ of certiorari were denied by this Court on February 21, 1979. Evans v. Alabama, 440 U.S. 930, 99 S.Ct. 1267, 59 L.Ed.2d 486. Following that action by this Court, the Supreme Court of Alabama set an execution date of April 6, 1979.

According to the application for stay, John Louis Evans has refused to undertake any further appeals on his behalf and has repeatedly expressed his desire to die. On April 2, 1979—nearly six weeks after this Court had denied the petition for certiorari, and only four days before the execution date set by the Supreme Court of Alabama—applicant, the mother of the condemned killer, filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the United States District Court in the Southern District of Alabama. That court heard oral argument on April 3, and following that argument dismissed the petition on the grounds that "the reason forwarded by petitioner for the inmate's failure to verify the petition, i. e., incompetency is not supported by credible evidence, that Betty Evans is not entitled to next friend status by reason thereof, that accordingly, this Court has no jurisdiction over the action and the action must therefore be DISMISSED and the stay DENIED."

A timely notice of appeal was filed and the District Court issued a certificate of probable cause. On April 4, the applicant moved for a stay of execution in the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. That court likewise denied the application for a stay, reciting in its order:

"A majority of the Court concludes that a factual issue justifying standing in a next friend has not been made.

"Judge Hill would grant the stay in order to ascertain whether or not a mental deficiency short of incompetency would authorize proceedings by a next friend."

If I were casting my vote on this application for a stay as a Member of the full Court, I would vote to deny the stay. Evans has been found guilty of an atrocious crime, sentenced to be put to death in accordance with Alabama law, and has had his conviction and sentence reviewed both by the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals and by the Supreme Court of Alabama. His petition for certiorari to review the judgments of those courts affirming his conviction and sentence was denied by this Court. A Federal District Court has denied a stay and dismissed the petition for habeas corpus filed by Evans' mother on his behalf, and a panel of the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit also has denied a stay. There must come a time, even when so irreversible a penalty as that of death has been imposed upon a particular defendant, when the legal issues in the case have been sufficiently litigated and relitigated that the law must be allowed to run its course. If the holdings of our Court in Proffitt v. Florida, 428 U.S. 242, 96 S.Ct. 2960, 49 L.Ed.2d 913 (1976); Jurek v. Texas, 428 U.S. 262, 96 S.Ct. 2950, 49 L.Ed.2d 929 (1976), and Woodson v. North Carolina, 428 U.S. 280, 96 S.Ct. 2978, 49 L.Ed.2d 944 (1976), are to be anything but dead letters, capital punishment when imposed pursuant to the standards laid down in those cases is constitutional; and when the standards expounded in those cases and in subsequent decisions of this Court bearing on those procedures have been complied with, the State is entitled to carry out the death sentence. Indeed, just as the rule of law entitles a criminal defendant to be surrounded with all the protections which do surround him under our system prior to conviction and during trial and appellate review, the other side of that coin is that when the State has taken all the steps required by that rule of law, its will, as represented by the legislature which authorized the imposition of the death sentence, and the state courts which imposed it and upheld it, should be carried out.

There is not the slightest doubt in my mind that the United States District Court made every effort to resolve doubts as to legal issues in favor of granting a stay, but was nonetheless unable to find legal authority for granting the stay. My conclusion in this regard is supported by the following language from the opinion of that court:

"Having concluded that next friend applications are permissible in habeas corpus cases, it remains for the Court to determine whether this is such a case that a next friend petition ought to be allowed. Both Funaro [United States ex rel. Funaro v. Watchorn, 164 F.152 (CA2 1908)] and Preiser [United States ex rel. Sero v. Preiser, 506 F.2d 1115 (CA2 1974)] limited the use of such applications to incidents of infancy, incompetency, or lack of time, and the Court is unpersuaded that any other grounds are permissible. In the instant case the inmate is over the age of majority and adequate time exists for him to verify his own petition, so the petitioner must fail unless the inmate is incompetent.

"The only evidence presented to the Court in support of John Evans' incompetency is a sworn affidavit of a staff psychiatrist at the Mobile Mental Health Center. The psychiatrist, who has not personally interviewed or otherwise examined John Evans,...

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  • Briley v. Bass
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Virginia
    • 19 April 1984
    ...may be, recognize that such delaying tactics are a disservice to justice. They are anarchistic. In Evans v. Bennett, 440 U.S. 1301, 1303, 99 S.Ct. 1481, 1482, 59 L.Ed.2d 756 (1979), Justice Rehnquist stated: There must come a time, even when so irreversible a penalty as that of death has be......
  • O'Bryan v. Estelle
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    • 26 August 1983
    ...sufficiently litigated and relitigated so that the law must be allowed to run its course ....' Evans v. Bennett, 440 U.S. 1301, 1303, 1306, 99 S.Ct. 1481, 1482, 1484, 59 L.Ed.2d 756 (1979) (Rehnquist, J., granting a stay of execution). In a capital case, we must be particularly certain that......
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    ...443 U.S. 1306, 1307, 100 S.Ct. 3, 4, 61 L.Ed.2d 885 (1979) (Rehnquist, Circuit Justice). In Evans v. Bennett, 440 U.S. 1301, 99 S.Ct. 1481, 59 L.Ed.2d 756 (1979) (Rehnquist, Circuit Justice), the defendant was convicted and sentenced to death. His conviction and sentence were then reviewed ......
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    ...issues in favor of granting a stay; however, there must be authority for the Court to so act. Evans v. Bennett, 440 U.S. 1301, 1303-4, 1306, 99 S.Ct. 1481, 1482-3, 1484, 59 L.Ed.2d 756 (1978) (Rehnquist, J. Opinion in Chambers). Moreover, the Court is also guided by District Court Rules for......
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