Yesterday, the Supreme Court granted a stay of execution in the Texas case of Mosley v. Thaler, No. 08-9991. Mosley argued that a stay was in order due to alleged similarities between his case and the Alabama case of Wood v. Allen, to be argued November 4. The state responded that the cases are quite different.

The case has come to the Supreme Court in the usual course, after the initial federal habeas proceeding. It is not a last-minute stay on a successive petition. In addition, a certiorari petition is pending and has not yet been set for conference. Given these two factors, I would not read much into the grant of a stay. We will see what happens when it is set for conference and whether the petition is decided the first time or relisted.

Our brief in Wood goes in tomorrow.