James Nelson Blair v. Jeanne S. Woodford, Warden

ORDER

James Nelson Blair is a prisoner of the State of California who filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus in federal district court, seeking relief on the ground that the failure to process his appeal constitutes a denial of his due process rights. The failure at issue is the thirteen-year delay in filing of the opening brief in Blair’s direct appeal of his conviction for first degree murder with special circumstances.

Blair was convicted on July 19, 1985, of the attempted murders of Dorothy Green and Rhoda Miller by placing cyanide in a bottle of gin from which they drank. He was sentenced to a term of 14 years and 4 months, and his conviction and sentence were affirmed on appeal. In October 1986, after Dorothy Green died as a result of complications from the poisoning, Blair was charged with murder. On May 2, 1989, a jury found him guilty of murder in the first degree and found true the special circumstance that he intentionally killed the victim by poison. Approximately two months later, Blair was sentenced to death.

Blair’s opening brief in his direct appeal to the California Supreme Court was filed on April 15, 2002, just under thirteen years after his capital…