In a capital habeas matter involving whether Pennsylvania’s fugitive forfeiture rule provided an adequate basis to bar federal habeas review of petitioner’s claims, grant of his habeas petition is vacated and remanded where a state procedural rule is not automatically “inadequate” under the adequate state ground doctrine (and therefore unenforceable on federal habeas review) because the state rule was discretionary rather than mandatory.
Read Beard v. Kindler, No. 08-992
Appellate Information
Argued November 2, 2009
Decided December 8, 2009
Judges
Opinion by Chief Justice Roberts
Concurrence by Justice Kennedy
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