Riley v. Filson, No. 17-15335 (9th Cir. 2019)
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The Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court's denial of Nevada's Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b)(6) motion for relief from the district court's judgment granting on remand petitioner's habeas corpus petition challenging his first degree murder conviction.
At issue was whether the Nevada Supreme Court has, since the panel's prior decision in this case, changed the elements for first-degree murder in Nevada in 1991, when petitioner's murder conviction became final. The panel held that intervening Nevada Supreme Court cases did not change the law or undermine Riley I. Therefore, because there was no change in the law that affected Riley I's interpretation of the required elements for first-degree murder in Nevada, the district court did not abuse its discretion by denying the state's motion.
Court Description: Habeas Corpus. The panel affirmed the district court’s denial of the State of Nevada’s motion pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 60(b)(6) for relief from the district court’s judgment granting—on remand from this court’s decision in Riley v. McDaniel, 786 F.3d 719 (9th Cir. 2015) (“Riley I”)—Billy Ray Riley’s habeas corpus petition challenging his first-degree murder conviction. In the Rule 60(b) motion, the State argued that post-Riley I decisions of the Nevada Supreme Court changed the elements for first-degree murder in Nevada in 1991, when Riley’s murder conviction became final, thus requiring this court to eschew its earlier interpretation of Nevada law. The panel held that the recent Nevada Supreme Court decisions do not disagree about the relevant state-law question that was the basis for Riley I: whether, at the time of Riley’s conviction, first-degree murder in Nevada required three discrete elements for mens rea. The panel wrote that the decisions simply disagree about whether these elements need to be separately defined, and do not constitute a change in the relevant law required to support the State’s Rule 60(b)(6) motion. RILEY V. FILSON 3
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