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Opinion of the Court
would prove enforceable. The Court concluded that it is "clearly within our discretion to refuse to hear a criminal case in error, unless the convicted party, suing out the writ, is where he can be made to respond to any judgment we may render." Ibid. On two subsequent occasions, we gave the same rationale for dismissals based on the fugitive status of defendants while their cases were pending before our Court. Bohanan v. Nebraska, 125 U. S. 692 (1887); Eisler v. United States, 338 U. S. 189 (1949).11
Enforceability is not, however, the only explanation we have offered for the fugitive dismissal rule. In Molinaro v. New Jersey, 396 U. S. 365, 366 (1970), we identified an additional justification for dismissal of an escaped prisoner's pending appeal:
"No persuasive reason exists why this Court should proceed to adjudicate the merits of a criminal case after the convicted defendant who has sought review escapes from the restraints placed upon him pursuant to the conviction. While such an escape does not strip the case of its character as an adjudicable case or controversy, we believe it disentitles the defendant to call upon the resources of the Court for determination of his claims."
As applied by this Court, then, the rule allowing dismissal of fugitives' appeals has rested in part on enforceability concerns, and in part on a "disentitlement" theory that construes a defendant's flight during the pendency of his appeal as tantamount to waiver or abandonment.
11 The dissenting Justices in Eisler, noting that the case was not rendered moot by Eisler's escape, believed that the Court should have exercised its discretion to decide the merits in light of the importance of the issue presented. See 338 U. S., at 194 (Murphy, J., dissenting); id., at 195 (Jackson, J., dissenting). In United States v. Sharpe, 470 U. S. 675 (1985), despite the respondent's fugitive status, the Court declined to remand the case to the Court of Appeals with directions to dismiss, and proceeded to decide the merits. Id., at 681, n. 2. See also id., at 688 (Blackmun, J., concurring); id., at 721-723 (Stevens, J., dissenting).
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