Melvin Theodore Brunetti (November 11, 1933 – October 30, 2009) was a

United States circuit judge In the United States, federal judges are judges who serve on courts established under Article Three of the U.S. Constitution. They include the chief justice and the associate justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, the circuit judges of the U.S. ...

of the

United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (in case citations, 9th Cir.) is the U.S. federal court of appeals that has appellate jurisdiction over the U.S. district courts in the following federal judicial districts: * District ...

Education and career

He was born in

Reno Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada-California border, about north from Lake Tahoe, known as "The Biggest Little City in the World". Known for its casino and tourism industry, Reno is the ...

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a state in the Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the 7th-most extensive, ...

, and graduated from Sparks High School, where he played the clarinet. He served in the

Nevada National Guard The Nevada National Guard is the component of the United States National Guard in Nevada. The governor of Nevada may call individuals or units of the Nevada National Guard into state service. The Constitution of the United States charges the Nat ...

from 1954 to 1956 where he became a sergeant. He attended

University of Nevada, Reno The University of Nevada, Reno (Nevada, the University of Nevada, or UNR) is a public land-grant research university in Reno, Nevada. It is the state's flagship public university and primary land grant institution. It was founded on October 12 ...

and received a Juris Doctor from the University of California, Hastings College of Law in 1964. He was in private practice in Reno from 1964 to 1985. He was a member of the Council of Legal Advisors to the

Republican National Committee The Republican National Committee (RNC) is a U.S. Political action committee, political committee that assists the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party of the United States. It is responsible for developing and promoting the Republi ...

from 1982 to 1985.

Federal judicial service

On February 26, 1985, Brunetti was nominated by President Ronald Reagan to a seat on the

vacated by Judge

Herbert Choy Herbert Young Cho Choy (January 6, 1916 – March 10, 2004) was the first Asian American to serve as a United States federal judge and the first person of Korean ancestry to be admitted to the bar in the United States. He served as a United State ...

. Brunetti was confirmed by the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

on April 3, 1985, and received his commission on April 4, 1985. He assumed

senior status Senior status is a form of semi- retirement for United States federal judges. To qualify, a judge in the federal court system must be at least 65 years old, and the sum of the judge's age and years of service as a federal judge must be at leas ...

on November 11, 1999.

Death

Brunetti died on October 30, 2009, in Reno.

Notable cases

Brunetti's notable cases include: *''Osborne v. District Attorney's Office for the Third Judicial District'', 423 F.3d 1050 (9th Cir. 2005), after remand, 521 F.3d 1118 (9th Cir. 2008), reversed, 129 S. Ct. 2308 (2009). Brunetti held that an Alaska inmate's

section 1983 The Enforcement Act of 1871 (), also known as the Ku Klux Klan Act, Third Enforcement Act, Third Ku Klux Klan Act, Civil Rights Act of 1871, or Force Act of 1871, is an Act of the United States Congress which empowered the President to suspend ...

action for post-conviction access to DNA evidence was not barred by '' Heck v. Humphrey'', 512 U.S. 477 (1994), and, after remand, that due process conferred a right of access to the evidence. The Supreme Court later reversed 5-4 on the due process issue; ''Court of Appeals Mourns Loss of Senior Circuit Judge Melvin T. Brunetti''; United States Courts for the Ninth Circuit, Public Information Office, News Release, November 2, 2009. *''Harris v. Vasquez'', 949 F.2d 1497 (9th Cir. 1990). Brunetti upheld the murder conviction and

death sentence Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that ...

Robert Alton Harris Robert Alton Harris (January 15, 1953 – April 21, 1992) was an American car thief, burglar, kidnapper and murderer who was executed at San Quentin State Prison in 1992 for the 1978 murders of two teenage boys in San Diego. His execution was th ...

on habeas review; and *''Adamson v. Ricketts'', 789 F.2d 722, 735 (9th Cir. 1986) (en banc) (dissenting), reversed, 483 U.S. 1 (1987). Dissenting from the

en banc In law, an en banc session (; French for "in bench"; also known as ''in banc'', ''in banco'' or ''in bank'') is a session in which a case is heard before all the judges of a court (before the entire bench) rather than by one judge or a smaller p ...

majority, Brunetti wrote that

double jeopardy In jurisprudence, double jeopardy is a procedural defence (primarily in common law jurisdictions) that prevents an accused person from being tried again on the same (or similar) charges following an acquittal or conviction and in rare case ...

did not bar the defendant's prosecution for first degree murder in connection with a bombing in Phoenix, Arizona. The Supreme Court subsequently reversed the majority opinion.

References

Sources

External links

*
Melvin Brunetti dies at 75; federal appeals court judge
(Obituary from the Los Angeles Times) {{DEFAULTSORT:Brunetti, Melvin T. 1933 births 2009 deaths Judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Politicians from Reno, Nevada American people of Italian descent Nevada National Guard personnel United States court of appeals judges appointed by Ronald Reagan 20th-century American judges University of California College of the Law, San Francisco alumni University of Nevada, Reno alumni United States Army non-commissioned officers