OPINIONS OF INDIVIDUAL JUSTICES
IN CHAMBERS
on application for stay
No. A-126. Decided August 17, 1995
South Carolina's application for relief from an order of the Court of Appeals, which refused to stay the issuance of a writ of habeas corpus to respondent criminal defendants, is granted in part and denied in part. Respondents claimed double jeopardy by reason of a second trial, which was calendared after the first trial ended in a mistrial over respondents' objection. After the second trial started, the District Court enjoined its continuation and released respondents from custody. Nothing can undo the interruption of the state trial, and therefore the District Court's order staying those proceedings will not be stayed. However, the State has met the traditional criteria for a stay of the enlargement of a prisoner in a habeas proceeding. Therefore respondents' enlargement will be stayed pending disposition of the State's appeal from the District Court's order.
Chief Justice Rehnquist, Circuit Justice.
The State of South Carolina seeks relief from an order of the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, in which that court refused to stay the issuance of a writ of habeas corpus to respondents, defendants in criminal proceedings in South Carolina. The State asks that I stay the District Court's order and allow the State to resume its prosecution of respondents, and stay the enlargement of respondents pending appellate review of their habeas corpus petition.
Respondents were prosecuted in South Carolina state court in 1994 on charges of murder and lynching. During the trial, confusion and dispute arose over whether particular photographs that had been seen by the jury during a luncheon recess had actually been admitted into evidence or
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