Gomez v. District Court, 503 U.S. 653 (1992)

Gomez v. United States District Court for the

Northern District of California
No. A-767

Decided April 21, 1992
503 U.S. 653

ON APPLICATION TO VACATE STAY

Syllabus

The Court of Appeals granted Robert Alton Harris a stay of execution pending a review of his 42 U.S.C. § 1983 claim that his execution by lethal gas would be cruel and unusual in violation of the Eighth Amendment.

Held: The application to vacate the stay of execution is granted. Harris’ action is an obvious attempt to avoid the application of McCleskey v. Zant, 499 U.S. 467, to bar this successive claim for relief. He has made no convincing showing of cause for his failure to raise this claim in his four prior federal habeas petitions. Even assuming that he could avoid the application of McCleskey, his claim should not be considered on the merits. Since he is seeking an equitable remedy, the State’s strong interest in proceeding with its judgment and Harris’ obvious attempt at manipulation must be taken into consideration. This claim could have been raised more than a decade ago, and there is no reason for this abusive delay, which has been compounded by the last-minute attempts to manipulate the judicial process.

Application granted.