316
Opinion of the Court
filing this federal habeas petition was in part to delay his execution. The Court expresses no view about the proper outcome of the Rules' application in this case. Pp. 322-332. 58 F. 3d 590, vacated and remanded.
Breyer, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Stevens, O'Connor, Souter, and Ginsburg, JJ., joined. Rehnquist, C. J., filed an opinion concurring in the judgment, in which Scalia, Kennedy, and Thomas, JJ., joined, post, p. 334.
Donald B. Verrilli, Jr., argued the cause for petitioner. With him on the briefs were Paul M. Smith and Clive A. Stafford Smith.
Mary Beth Westmoreland, Senior Assistant Attorney General of Georgia, argued the cause for respondent. With her on the brief were Michael J. Bowers, Attorney General, and Susan V. Boleyn, Senior Assistant Attorney General.
Justice Breyer delivered the opinion of the Court.
This case asks us to decide whether a federal court may dismiss a first federal habeas petition for general "equitable" reasons beyond those embodied in the relevant statutes, Federal Habeas Corpus Rules, and prior precedents. We decide that the Court of Appeals erred in doing so in this case. The primary "equitable" consideration favoring dismissal of the "eleventh hour" petition before us is serious delay. A Federal Habeas Corpus Rule deals specifically with delay. See 28 U. S. C. § 2254 Rule 9(a) (permitting courts to dismiss a habeas petition when "it appears that the state . . . has been prejudiced in its ability to respond . . . by delay in its filing"). And, in our view, this Rule, not some general "equitable" power to create exceptions to the Rule, should have determined whether or not the petition's dismissal was appropriate.
I
Petitioner Larry Lonchar was sentenced to death for murder nine years ago. He filed this "eleventh hour" petition
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