In the 12 years since petitioner was convicted of murder and sentenced to death, the issues now raised in the petition for certiorari have been considered by this Court four times, see Darden v. Florida, 430 U.S. 704, 97 S. Ct. 1671, 51 L. Ed. 2d 751 (1977) (dismissing certiorari as improvidently granted); Darden v. Wainwright, 467 U.S. 1230, 104 S. Ct. 2688, 81 L. Ed. 2d 882 (1984) (denying certiorari); Wainwright v. Darden, 469 U.S. 1202, 105 S. Ct. 1158, 84 L. Ed. 2d 311 (1985) (vacating and remanding 725 F.2d 1526 (CA11 1984)); Darden v. Wainwright, 473 U.S. 927, 106 S. Ct. 20, 87 L. Ed. 2d 698 (1985) (order dated September 3, 1985, denying application for stay), and have been passed upon no fewer than 95 times by federal and state court judges. Upon review of the petition and the history of this case, I conclude that no issues are presented that merit plenary review by this Court. Because we abuse our discretion when we accept meritless petitions presenting claims that we rejected only hours ago, I dissent.
Justice WHITE, Justice REHNQUIST, and Justice O'CONNOR would deny the application.
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