Rumbaugh v. Procunier

A majority of this panel has concluded that Charles Rumbaugh is competent to waive whatever rights stand between him and state-imposed death. Despite the existence of substantial questions regarding the constitutionality of his sentence, we are told that no one will be allowed to press these issues on his behalf because the district court’s pronouncement of competency was not clearly erroneous. We are told not only that we cannot scrutinize the validity of an admittedly hair’s-breadth call by a single judge but also that this man is not necessarily competent — he has merely not been proved…