Pope v. Netherland

During a robbery of two sisters, Carlton Pope (defendant) shot and killed one and wounded the other after they didn't immediately hand over money; the surviving victim later discovered her purse, which had been within Pope's view during the encounter, was missing. Pope was convicted of capital murder; he argued in federal habeas proceedings, after exhausting state appeals, that he had taken the purse before the shootings, making it larceny rather than robbery and thus unable to support a capital charge, and that his conviction retroactively applied a novel, unforeseeable interpretation of the statute in violation of due process. The district court granted habeas relief, and the state warden (Netherland, on behalf of Virginia) appealed.