UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT DECISIONS ON-LINE

An application for a stay, pending consideration of a petition for certiorari, of a California Supreme Court order in connection with the extradition to Arkansas of respondent, who had escaped from an Arkansas prison, is granted. The order, inter alia, directed the California Superior Court to conduct hearings to determine if the Arkansas prison was presently operated in conformance with the Eighth Amendment and stayed execution of the Governor of California's warrant of extradition pending final determination of the proceeding. A stay of the order is warranted since the Governor of California had granted the request for extradition, which was in compliance with federal standards; the proper forum for respondent's challenge to Arkansas prison conditions was in the Arkansas courts; and the order was very much at odds with principles set forth in this Court's decisions governing judicial proceedings in extradition cases.