FREDDIE CRESPIN V. CHARLES RYAN ( 2022 )


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  •                                 FOR PUBLICATION                             FILED
    UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS                          OCT 20 2022
    MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK
    U.S. COURT OF APPEALS
    FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT
    FREDDIE CRESPIN,                                  No.    18-15073
    Petitioner-Appellee,             D.C. No. 2:15-cv-00992-SPL
    District of Arizona,
    v.                                               Phoenix
    CHARLES L. RYAN; ATTORNEY                         ORDER
    GENERAL FOR THE STATE OF
    ARIZONA,
    Respondents-Appellants.
    Before: HAWKINS, M. SMITH, and HURWITZ, Circuit Judges.
    SUMMARY *
    Habeas Corpus
    In light of petitioner-appellee’s death on September 7, 2022, in this case in which
    the panel issued an opinion on August 19, 2022, the panel issued an order remanding
    to the district court with instructions to dismiss the petition for writ of habeas corpus
    as moot.
    Noting that the decision whether to vacate a filed opinion based on post hoc
    mootness is within its discretion based on equity, and that no party sought vacatur,
    the panel, in the exercise of its discretion, declined to vacate the opinion.
    The petition for rehearing and rehearing en banc remains pending.
    *
    This summary constitutes no part of the opinion of the court. It has been
    prepared by court staff for the convenience of the reader.
    ORDER
    The opinion in this case was issued on August 19, 2022. Crespin v. Ryan, 
    46 F.4th 803
     (9th Cir. 2022). Petitioner-Appellee Freddie Crespin died on September
    7, 2022. In light of Crespin’s death, we remand to the district court with instructions
    to dismiss the petition for writ of habeas corpus as moot. See Farmer v. McDaniel,
    
    692 F.3d 1052
     (9th Cir. 2012); Griffey v. Lindsey, 
    349 F.3d 1157
     (9th Cir. 2003).
    “The decision whether to vacate a filed opinion based on post hoc mootness
    ‘is within our discretion based on equity.’” Dickens v. Ryan, 
    744 F.3d 1147
    , 1148
    (9th Cir. 2014) (en banc) (quoting United States v. Payton, 
    593 F.3d 881
    , 885 (9th
    Cir. 2010)). No party has sought vacatur, and in the exercise of our discretion, we
    decline to vacate the filed opinion. See 
    id.
     (noting that “judicial precedents ‘are not
    merely the property of private litigants,’ but are ‘valuable to the legal community as
    a whole’” (quoting U.S. Bancorp Mortg. Co. v. Bonner Mall P’ship, 
    513 U.S. 18
    , 26
    (1994))).
    The petition for rehearing and rehearing en banc remains pending.
    REMANDED WITH INSTRUCTIONS.
    2