(Article) This is a bad sign. Regardless of what the inmate was convicted of or whether he’s guilty of the crime, everyone has the constitutional right to appeal their conviction to a higher court. In this case, a lower court judge gave the defendant’s attorney 17 days to file the paperwork for his appeal. Turns out that the federal deadline is only 14 days. The appeals court threw out the inmate’s appeal because it was turned in late.
So the matter before the Supreme Court is whether or not it’s fair to hold the defendant accountable for following instructions that happened to be incorrect. Is the basic right to appeal a conviction less sacred than the couple of days it was denied because of? What do you personally value more – a constitutional right or a bureaucracy’s deadline? How do you think most Americans would answer that question?
Chief Justice John Roberts, Samuel Alito, Anthony Kennedy, Antonin Scalia, and Clarence Thomas felt that the bureaucratic deadline was more important than the inmate’s constitutional right to appeal his conviction.