Mena v. Long, No. 14-55102 (9th Cir. 2016)
Annotate this CasePetitioner, convicted of five counts of lewd and lascivious acts by use of force for sexually abusing his stepdaughters and their cousin, appealed the district court's denial of petitioner's request for a Rhines v. Weber stay. In Rhines, the Supreme Court held that a district court has discretion to stay, rather than dismiss, a timely-filed “mixed” petition for habeas corpus relief - that is, a single petition that includes both exhausted and unexhausted claims. The court joined several of its sister circuits in holding that the Rhines stay-and-abeyance procedure is not limited to mixed petitions, and a district court may stay a petition that raises only unexhausted claims. In this case, the district court dismissed the petition on the assumption that it lacked authority to grant petitioner's request for a Rhines stay. Accordingly, the court reversed and remanded for the district court to decide the issue in the first instance.
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