Greenawalt v. Ricketts

Once again, a death row habeas petition is denied solely on the basis of Teague v. Lane, 489 U.S. 288, 109 S.Ct. 1060, 103 L.Ed.2d 334 (1989). Once again, the courts uphold a death sentence following an unconstitutional conviction on the ground that the Supreme Court did not recognize that the type of state conduct involved was unconstitutional until too late. This time, a panel of our court applies Teague in a case in which it is neither necessary nor proper to do so: it construes the Teague rule — a rule that (at least when applied to capital cases) offends the sensibilities of most serious…