The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office approached a second U.S. Supreme Court justice yesterday seeking a stay of a state Court of Appeals ruling that could relieve as many as 1,000 inmates from having to face parole-style supervision following their release from prison. Prosecutors asked Justice Samuel A. Alito to grant the stay to give them time to prepare an application for certiorari to the high court to hear an appeal of the Court of Appeals’ Feb. 23 ruling in People v. Williams and four related cases.
On Wednesday, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg denied, without comment, the stay request. Supreme Court rules permit parties seeking stays to go to a second judge in such circumstances, though court observers said it is rarely done. Prosecutors are seeking to block the release of inmates or the rescinding of terms of post-release supervision the Court of Appeals said were unconstitutional because the terms were not pronounced in open court during sentencing. The state high court held that the imposition of those sentences after offenders have finished their sentences constitutes double jeopardy (NYLJ, March 2).
