Criminal appeals in turmoil after rulings, state says
http://www.azstarnet.com/public/dnews/112-8294.html

Saturday, 27 November 1999

PHOENIX (AP) - Recent court decisions have thrown the criminal-appeals process into chaos in Arizona, the state Attorney General's Office says.
A ruling this month by a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals allows appeals in most criminal cases to bypass Arizona's Supreme Court altogether. But the ruling also allows defendants to simultaneously appeal in state and federal court, doubling the workload, prosecutors say.
``The ensuing dramatic drain on federal judicial resources is easy to foresee,'' says a petition for a rehearing filed by state Attorney General Janet Napolitano's office.
The petition seeks to undo the ruling through a rarely granted review by a majority of the 21 appellate judges of the 9th Circuit, based in San Francisco.
At worst, prosecutors say, the new ``bypass the Arizona Supreme Court rule'' set forth Nov. 2 could open the door to thousands of new appeals in cases dating back as far as 10 years.
That's because the ruling was based on what prosecutors say is a misinterpretation of an Arizona decision on how writs of habeas corpus are handled. A writ of habeas corpus is a federal court order with which authorities justify imprisonment.
In Arizona, after a state prisoner's habeas corpus appeal has made its way through a mandatory review by the state Court of Appeals, it can be forwarded to the state's top court.
The state Supreme Court has the option of reviewing it or not; but in the past, none of the claims could be carried to the next level, U.S. District Court, without giving the state Supreme Court a chance to consider them first.



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