Barefoot v. Estelle

I cannot subscribe to the Court’s conclusion that the procedure followed by the Court of Appeals in this case was “not inconsistent with our cases.” Ante, at 890. Nor can I accept the notion that it would be proper for a court of appeals to adopt special “summary procedures” for capital cases. Ante, at 894. On the merits, I would vacate petitioner’s death sentence.

I

I wholeheartedly agree that when a state prisoner has obtained a certificate of probable cause to appeal from the denial of a petition for a writ of habeas corpus, he “must then be afforded an opportunity to address the merits, and…