Federal Habeas Corpus Relief: Background, Legislation, and Issues

Seghetti, Lisa M ; James, Nathan

Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service.

关键词: Civil liberties;    Habeas corpus;    Criminal justice;   

RP-ID  :  RL33259
RP-ID  :  RL33259_2006Feb01

美国|英语

来源: UNT Digital Library

【 摘 要 】

This report examines the issues surrounding the debate on whether to furtherrestrict state prisoners’ access to federal habeas corpus filings. This report does notdiscuss issues related to federalism and the proper role of the federal court system inoverseeing the actions of state courts pertaining to prisoners’ constitutional rights.The report opens with a discussion of a commission that was established in 1988 tostudy and make recommendations of the then-current federal habeas corpus systemand the 1996 law that restricted prisoners’ access to federal habeas corpus relief. Itthen provides an analysis of federal habeas corpus petition data since 1990. Thereport examines whether the number of federal habeas corpus petitions and the timeit takes for the federal court system to process these claims have increased since theenactment of the the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act(AEDPA). It then discusses legislation introduced in the 109thCongress that would further restrict state prisoners’ access to federal habeas corpusrelief. The report concludes with an analysis of two dominant issues that are at thecenter of this debate: delays caused by habeas corpus petitions and post-convictionrepresentation.