Thomas v. John Doe
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Bill Thomas was convicted and sentenced for deliberate homicide. Thomas subsequently field a petition for writ of habeas corpus, which the district court denied. Thomas filed a notice of appeal. At issue before the Supreme Court was whether the Court would continue to consider a party's appeal from a district court's denial of a petition for writ of habeas corpus as an original petition. The Supreme Court held (1) a district court's denial of a petition for writ of habeas corpus in a criminal proceeding is not appealable to the Court; (2) because a writ of habeas corpus may be granted by either a district court or the Supreme Court, the district court's denial of such a writ is not res judicata because it does not divest the Court of jurisdiction to grant a subsequent petition; and (3) a party must file an original petition for writ of habeas corpus for the Court to consider it. The Court then (1) granted Thomas's motion to proceed on appeal without payment of a filing fee; and (2) ordered that Thomas's appeal from the district court's order denying his petition for writ of habeas corpus be dismissed with prejudice.
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