WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that a Florida death row prisoner lost an opportunity to challenge his conviction in the federal court system because he missed a one-year filing deadline.
In a 5-4 decision, the justices sided with the state of Florida against inmate Gary Lawrence, who faces execution for murdering a man who had moved in with Lawrence's wife.
Under the federal Anti-terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, death row inmates have one year after a conviction becomes final in state courts to petition the federal system to review the case.
Lawrence's lawyers say they stopped the clock from running on the state's one-year time limit by petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court. A majority of the court rejected that argument.
Writing for the majority, Justice Clarence Thomas said the language of the law is clear and that the approach favored by lawyers for the death row inmate "would provide incentives for state prisoners to file ... as a delay tactic ... regardless of the merit of the claims asserted."
In dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said rejecting Lawrence's arguments is "neither a necessary nor a proper interpretation" of the law.
Lawyers for the state of Florida had argued that Lawrence's request to the Supreme Court did not suspend the one-year deadline in effect in the state. Therefore, state attorneys argued, Lawrence's subsequent habeas petition seeking review of his conviction in U.S. District Court in the northern district of Florida was nearly four months too late.
In the Supreme Court, Lawrence's attorney argued that his previous lawyer made a mistake in miscalculating the deadline and that the death row inmate should therefore be entitled to pursue the case in the federal courts.
"Attorney miscalculation is simply not sufficient to warrant" suspending the deadline, Thomas wrote.
The case is Lawrence v. Florida, 05-8820.
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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