Brett Pensinger v. Kevin Chappell

Brett Patrick Pensinger was convicted of kidnapping and first-degree murder and sentenced to death in 1982. After his California state appeals, Pensinger filed a writ of habeas corpus in federal court prior to the enactment of the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (“AEDPA”), Pub.L. No. 104-132, 110 Stat. 1214. The district court granted in part and denied in part Pensinger’s federal ha-beas petition, ultimately vacating the kidnap-murder special circumstance and the death sentence. Both parties appealed. “[B]eeause in most matters it is more important that the applicable rule of law be settled than that it be settled right,” we agree with the district court, and uphold Pensinger’s conviction for the kidnappings and murder but overturn his sentence of death. Burnet v. Coronado Oil & Gas Co., 285 U.S. 393, 406 , 52 S.Ct. 443 , 76 L.Ed. 815 (1932) (Brandeis, J., dissenting).

We reject the State’s request that we invoke our discretion to sua sponte apply the non-retroactivity bar under Teague v. Lane, 489 U.S. 288 , 109 S.Ct. 1060 , 103 L.Ed.2d 334 (1989), which ordinarily prevents a federal court from granting habeas relief to a state prisoner based on…