The Fourth Time Is Not the Charm for Van Hook

(Jonathan H. Adler)

This morning a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit issued an opinion in Van Hook v. Bobby for the fourth time.  On three previous occasions the panel had granted habeas relief to death row inmate Robert Van Hook , and all three times the panel was overturned — twice by an en banc court and once, summarily, by the Supreme Court.  This time, it appears, Van Hook was out of arguments, and the panel denied his petition.