Supreme Court Draws The Line On Habeas Filings for Petitioners

Kind of a difficult area of the law to understand when you get lost in it like some post-conviction lawyers (myself included). Anyone incarcerated has the writ to file a petition for writ of habeas corpus in which that person contests the legality of their detention.

Prisoners file them frequently. They can be based on anything from newly discovered evidence to the ineffectiveness of a trial lawyer to prison conditions. The State, through post-conviction prosecutors, often argues that the prisoner is "abusing the writ." I always take that to mean that, in their view, the prisoner has adequately tested the legality of his or her conviction and the conviction should now stand undisturbed.

The Supreme Court will be releasing its decision in Turner v. Commissioner of Correction on December 22, 2009 and let stand that inmate's conviction. The decision can be found here.

Take a look at the final footnote. What struck me is that the Supreme Court often decides that it cannot decide a matter because "no controversy exists" and by that they mean that they will avoid speculating on an outcome when nothing is really at stake. In this footnote, the Supreme Court appears to be saying that they will view any future petition filed by Turner as an abuse of the writ. Trouble is, he hasn't filed one yet.

How can we know what it would say? Shouldn't we wait until Turner files another petition -- if he does -- to determine if he is abusing anything?