{"ID":54973,"name":"Stewart v. Smith","href":"https:\/\/api.oyez.org\/cases\/2001\/01-339","view_count":0,"docket_number":"01-339","additional_docket_numbers":null,"manner_of_jurisdiction":"Other","first_party":"Terry L. Stewart, Director, Arizona Department of Corrections","second_party":"Robert Douglas Smith","timeline":[{"event":"Certified question to Arizona Supreme Court","dates":[1008136800],"href":"https:\/\/api.oyez.org\/case_timeline\/case_timeline\/51680"},{"event":"Decided","dates":[1025240400],"href":"https:\/\/api.oyez.org\/case_timeline\/case_timeline\/38683"}],"lower_court":{"ID":5,"name":"United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit","href":"https:\/\/api.oyez.org\/taxonomy\/term\/5"},"facts_of_the_case":"\u003Cp\u003ERobert Smith was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. Smith filed a series of petitions for state postconviction relief, alleging that his trial and appellate counsel were ineffective. The Superior Court denied Smith\u0027s claims, finding them waived under Arizona Rule 32.2(a)(3) because he failed to raise them in his previous Rule 32 petitions. The court rejected Smith\u0027s argument that his failure to raise these claims was also due to ineffective assistance because his prior appellate and Rule 32 counsel, who are members of the Arizona Public Defender\u0027s office, refused to file ineffective assistance of counsel claims because his trial counsel was also a member of the Public Defender\u0027s office. The Federal District Court held that Smith\u0027s claim was barred by the lower court\u0027s procedural ruling. In reversing, the Court of Appeals held that the state procedural default was not independent of federal law and thus did not bar federal review of the merits of Smith\u0027s claim. The appellate court reasoned that Arizona Rule 32.2(a)(3) applies a different standard for waiver depending on whether the claim asserted in a Rule 32 petition was of sufficient constitutional magnitude and that determination whether a claim is of sufficient magnitude required consideration of the merits of the claim.\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\n","question":"\u003Cp\u003EDid the Court of Appeals err in interpreting Arizona law concerning its postconviction-relief rule?\u003C\/p\u003E\n","conclusion":"\u003Cp\u003EOn the certification question (534 U.S. 157):In a per curiam opinion, the Court granted certiorari to review the Court of Appeals holding. The Court reasoned that in order to determine whether the District Court may review Smith\u0027s claims, it first had to know whether the Court of Appeals properly interpreted Arizona law concerning Rule 32.2(a)(3) and, therefore, certified the following question to the Arizona Supreme Court: \u0022At the time of respondent\u0027s third Rule 32 petition in 1995, did the question whether an asserted claim was of \u0027sufficient constitutional magnitude\u0027 to require a knowing, voluntary and intelligent waiver for purposes of Rule 32.2(a)(3) depend upon the merits of the particular claim or merely upon the particular right alleged to have been violated?\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E\n","advocates":null,"oral_argument_audio":null,"citation":{"volume":"536","page":"856","year":"2002","href":"https:\/\/api.oyez.org\/case_citation\/case_citation\/20505"},"decisions":[{"description":"Since Arizona\u0027s waiver determination is independent of federal law, the judgment of the Court of Appeals must be reversed","votes":[{"member":{"ID":15141,"name":"William H. 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