Ex Parte Williams

We granted Lawrence Paultic Williams's petition for a writ of certiorari to determine whether the Court of Criminal Appeals, in an unpublished memorandum affirming the denial of Williams's Rule 32, Ala.R.Crim.P., petition, violated "the law of the case" established by the opinion that court had already published in previously affirming Williams's conviction on direct appeal, Williams v. State, 736 So.2d 1134 (Ala.Crim.App. 1998), cert. denied, 736 So.2d 1134 (Ala. 1999). We conclude that the crucial statement of law in the published opinion on direct appeal is not a holding but is, rather,…