28 U.S.C. § 2262
Section 2262 · Mandatory stay of execution; duration; limits on stays of execution; successive petitions
This is § 107 of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 9 court decisions — leading case Spears v. Stewart (2002)
Most recently applied in Ernest Porter v. Pennsylvania Department of Cor (September 2020)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
(a) Upon the entry in the appropriate State court of record of an order under section 2261(c), a warrant or order setting an execution date for a State prisoner shall be stayed upon application to any court that would have jurisdiction over any proceedings filed under section 2254. The application shall recite that the State has invoked the post-conviction review procedures of this chapter and that the scheduled execution is subject to stay.
(b) A stay of execution granted pursuant to subsection (a) shall expire if—
(1) a State prisoner fails to file a habeas corpus application under section 2254 within the time required in section 2263;
(2) before a court of competent jurisdiction, in the presence of counsel, unless the prisoner has competently and knowingly waived such counsel, and after having been advised of the consequences, a State prisoner under capital sentence waives the right to pursue habeas corpus review under section 2254; or
(3) a State prisoner files a habeas corpus petition under section 2254 within the time required by section 2263 and fails to make a substantial showing of the denial of a Federal right or is denied relief in the district court or at any subsequent stage of review.
(c) If one of the conditions in subsection (b) has occurred, no Federal court thereafter shall have the authority to enter a stay of execution in the case, unless the court of appeals approves the filing of a second or successive application under section 2244(b).