Opinion
No. CIV S-96-1401-RRB-CMK, DEATH PENALTY CASE.
December 10, 2007
ORDER
Petitioner, a state prisoner proceeding with appointed counsel, seeks a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254.
Petitioner's counsel are required to obtain budget authorization before preparing and filing objections to the court's May 15, 2007, findings and recommendations or further litigating petitioner's motion for leave to conduct discovery. Currently, no budget authorization beyond briefing the guilt phase claims is in place. On October 15, 2007, petitioner's counsel filed a request (Doc. 240, filed under seal) for approval of a supplemental Phase III. Because petitioner's counsel cannot file objections until a supplemental budget is approved, the court finds it appropriate to vacate the current objection deadline of December 17, 2007.
In the supplemental Phase III budget request, petitioner's counsel suggest that no further merits briefing should occur in this phase. Rather, counsel propose that it would be more prudent to proceed directly to a motion for an evidentiary hearing and leave all remaining merits briefing to Phase IV. In order to evaluate petitioner's case management proposal and fashion a case management order for the remainder of Phase III, the court requires input from respondents' counsel. Therefore, the hearing set for January 8, 2008, for argument on petitioner's motion for leave to conduct discovery will instead be a case management conference. Following a case management discussion with all counsel present, the court will address the supplemental Phase III budget request on an ex parte basis with petitioner's counsel only. In the meantime, further briefing on the discovery motion is suspended.
Following the January 2008 hearing, the court will issue a case management order for the remainder of Phase III. That order will also set a new deadline for objections to the findings and recommendations, and a new briefing schedule for petitioner's motion for leave to conduct discovery. The parties need not file any case management statements prior to the January 8, 2008, hearing and may appear telephonically.
Accordingly, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that:
1. The December 12, 2007, deadline for the parties to file objections to the court's May 15, 2007, findings and recommendations is vacated;
2. Further briefing on petitioner's motion for leave to conduct discovery is suspended; and
3. In lieu of hearing oral argument on petitioner's discovery motion on January 8, 2008, at 1:30 p.m., the court will conduct a case management conference with all parties and an ex parte budget conference immediately following with petitioner's counsel only.