En banc Ninth Circuit recognizes right to die for death row defendants

Last year in this post, I described a Ninth Circuit panel decision in Comer v. Schriro, No. 98-99003 (9th Cir. Sept. 12, 2006) (available here), as essentially deny the right to die to an Arizona death row defendant eager to waive all his appeals and be executed.  Today, as well covered by Crime & Consequences and How Appealing, “a fifteen-judge Ninth Circuit en banc panel, by a vote of 14-1, issued a decision that allows the death row inmate to withdraw the pending legal challenge to his death sentence.” 

The new version of Comer is available here.  At C&C, Kent has this take: “The Ninth’s increasing willingness to correct fringe panel opinions favoring criminal defendants is a welcome, if overdue, development…. If this keeps up, maybe the Supreme Court can spend less of its time correcting obviously erroneous decisions from the Ninth.” 

UPDATE:  Dan Filler here at Concurring Opinions and Rick Garnett here at PrawfsBlawg have great (and very different) commentaries on Comer.