Magwood v. Patterson

Magwood v. Patterson
Supreme Court of the United States
Decided June 24, 2010
Full case name	Magwood v. Patterson
Citations	561 U.S. 287 (more)
Holding
When a state prisoner obtains federal habeas corpus relief and is re-sentenced, a habeas application challenging the new judgment is not a "second or successive" challenge even if the prisoner could have challenged the original sentence on the same ground.
Court membership
Chief Justice John Roberts Associate Justices John P. Stevens · Antonin Scalia Anthony Kennedy · Clarence Thomas Ruth Bader Ginsburg · Stephen Breyer Samuel Alito · Sonia Sotomayor
Case opinions
Majority	Thomas, joined by Scalia; Stevens, Breyer, Sotomayor (except part IV-B)
Concurrence	Breyer (in part and in judgment), joined by Stevens, Sotomayor
Dissent	Kennedy, joined by Roberts, Ginsburg, Alito
Laws applied
28 U.S.C. § 2244(b)

Magwood v. Patterson, 561 U.S. 287 (2010), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that, when a state prisoner obtains federal habeas corpus relief and is re-sentenced, a habeas application challenging the new judgment is not a "second or successive" challenge even if the prisoner could have challenged the original sentence on the same ground.^[1]

In this context, the Court said the habeas petition challenged the judgment, not the state's overall custody of the petitioner. If the Court had interpreted this situation as a "second or successive challenge," the petitioner's case would have been ignored under 28 U.S.C. § 2244(b)—even if it was meritorious.^[2]

• Text of Magwood v. Patterson, 561 U.S. 287 (2010) is available from: Cornell Findlaw Justia