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Paul Spreng v. Brian Thompson, Superintendent, State Correctional Institution at Mercer, et al.

Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, No. 17-1445 · judgment September 7, 2017

Certiorari denied · March 26, 2018

Pre-decision estimate: 3% cert probability

Before the decision, well below the 4.1% base rate, with no standout signals pointing toward a grant.

Questions presented

Where the trial Court excised significant portions of warrant recitals, pursuant to Franks v. Delaware, 438 U.S. 154 (1978); the Pennsylvania appeals Courts reviewed the matter as if those portions of the warrant had not been excised; and the federal Courts evoked the authority of Stone v. Powell, 428 U.S. 465 (1976) to deny habeas review even though that case requires state Courts to use proper Fourth Amendment standards, was due process denied when the federal Courts did not permit review of the state court proceedings?
Given the facts above, should this Court grant a summary remand and direct the Third Circuit to grant a Certificate of Appealability and review the merits of this due process violation?
Is it time for this Court to re examine Stone v. Powell where there appears to be a variety of interpretations of that case’s “full and fair

For petitioner
Jerome M. Brown
Law Office of Jerome M. Brown

For respondent
Nancy Winkelman
District Attorney's Office

Conference history
Distributed for 1 conference

Mar 26 2018
Petition DENIED.
Mar 07 2018
DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 3/23/2018.
Feb 27 2018
Waiver of right of respondent Supt. SCI Mercer, et al. to respond filed.
Jan 25 2018
Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due March 14, 2018)