Irvin v. Dowd
| Irvin v. Dowd | |
|---|---|
| Argued January 15, 1959 Decided May 4, 1959 | |
| Full case name | Leslie Irvin, Petitioner, v. Alfred F. Dowd, Warden of the Indiana State Prison |
| Citations | 359 U.S. 394 (more) 79 S. Ct. 825; 3 L. Ed. 2d 900 |
| Case history | |
| Prior | Certiorari to the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit |
| Holding | |
| The doctrine of exhaustion of state remedies does not bar resort to federal habeas corpus if the petitioner has obtained a decision on his constitutional claims from the highest court of a State, even though that court could have based its decision on another ground. | |
| Court membership | |
| |
| Case opinions | |
| Majority | Brennan, joined by Warren, Black, Douglas, Stewart |
| Concurrence | Stewart |
| Dissent | Frankfurter |
| Dissent | Harlan, joined by Frankfurter, Clark, Whittaker |
| Laws applied | |
| 28 U.S.C. § 2254 | |
Irvin v. Dowd, 359 U.S. 394 (1959), was a United States Supreme Court case. It involved the denial of appeal of an escaped convict, Leslie Irvin. The convict sought a federal writ of habeas corpus.
Irvin v. Dowd was one of the first of many cases to underscore the "swing vote" role played by Justice Potter Stewart, who recently had come to the Supreme Court and was caught between the two warring camps of justices: the liberal camp of Justices Earl Warren and William Brennan and the conservative camp headed by Justice Felix Frankfurter.