United States First Circuit

In a case in which Rhode Island's governor refused a request under the Interstate Agreement on Detainers Act (IAD) to release a prisoner for a federal trial because of the governor's stated opposition to capital punishment, the First Circuit en banc upholds a writ of habeas corpus ad prosequendum, where: 1) given the Supremacy Clause, the states have always lacked the authority to dishonor an ad prosequendum writ issued by a federal court, and compliance is not merely a matter of comity that the governor may withhold; and 2) under United States v. Mauro, 436 U.S. 340 (1978), if a state has never had the authority to refuse the writ, the IAD does not provide it.

Appellate Information

• Decided 05/07/2012
• Published 05/07/2012

Judges

• Boudin

Court

• United States First Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Robert B. Mann, Donald C. Lockhart