Cite as: 512 U. S. 849 (1994)
Opinion of the Court
corpus proceeding.3 McFarland filed such a motion and was entitled to the appointment of a lawyer.
B
Even if the District Court had granted McFarland's motion for appointment of counsel and had found an attorney to represent him, this appointment would have been meaningless unless McFarland's execution also was stayed. We therefore turn to the question whether the District Court had jurisdiction to grant petitioner's motion for stay.
Federal courts cannot enjoin state-court proceedings unless the intervention is authorized expressly by federal statute or falls under one of two other exceptions to the Anti-Injunction Act. See Mitchum v. Foster, 407 U. S. 225, 226 (1972). The federal habeas corpus statute grants any federal judge "before whom a habeas corpus proceeding is pending" power to stay a state-court action "for any matter involved in the habeas corpus proceeding." 28 U. S. C. § 2251 (emphasis added). McFarland argues that his request for counsel in a "post conviction proceeding" under § 848(q) (4)(B) initiated a "habeas corpus proceeding" within the meaning of § 2251, and that the District Court thus had jurisdiction to enter a stay. Texas contends, in turn, that even if a "post conviction proceeding" under § 848(q)(4)(B) can be
3 Justice Thomas argues in dissent that reading § 848(q)(4)(B) to allow the initiation of a habeas corpus proceeding through the filing of a motion for appointment of counsel ignores the fact that such proceedings traditionally have been commenced by the filing of a habeas corpus petition and creates a divergent practice for capital defendants. Post, at 872, n. 3. As Justice O'Connor agrees, post, at 860, however, § 848(q)(4)(B) bestows upon capital defendants a mandatory right to counsel, including a right to preapplication legal assistance, that is unknown to other criminal defendants. Because noncapital defendants have no equivalent right to the appointment of counsel in federal habeas corpus proceedings, it is not surprising that their habeas corpus proceedings typically will be initiated by the filing of a habeas corpus petition.
857
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