Action Ordered on Death Sentences : Law: Supreme Court tells California-based 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to resolve cases more promptly. The demand highlights a growing dispute between panels.

Irritated by long delays in acting on death penalty appeals, the U.S. Supreme Court chided the California-based 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday and ordered it to resolve cases involving Death Row inmates more promptly.

In the unusual five-page order, the justices told the appeals court that “any further postponements” in the handling of death penalty cases “will be subject to a most rigorous scrutiny” by the high court.

If the appellate court fails to act, the Supreme Court has the ultimate power to reject the inmates’ appeals and clear the way for their executions. Scores of Death Row inmates in California, Nevada and Arizona--where a total of 462 inmates live on Death Row--have had their executions stayed while their appeals are under consideration in the federal courts.

Monday’s order came in the case of a Washington state man who was sentenced to die in 1982 for bludgeoning three women to death. His latest appeal has been before a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit court since March, 1989.

The order highlights a growing dispute between the conservative Supreme Court and the more liberal appellate court, which has jurisdiction throughout the Western states.

State prosecutors complain that the appeals court drags its feet on cases involving Death Row inmates. Since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976, no murderer has been executed against his will within the nine-state region where the 9th Circuit has jurisdiction, they say. Nevada has executed four convicted killers who declined to appeal their sentences.

California prosecutors repeatedly have voiced irritation with the 9th Circuit judges, who since 1982 have refused to permit the execution of convicted San Diego killer Robert Alton Harris.

Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist has appeared to side with the prosecutors. In speeches and court opinions, Rehnquist has questioned why litigation involving convicted murderers can take as long as a decade.

But many judges and defense lawyers say that because death is the ultimate and final punishment, the courts need to take special care that a convict’s case has been handled properly.

In the appeal before the high court Monday, Washington state prosecutors urged the justices to issue an order requiring the 9th Circuit Court to rule immediately on a third appeal filed by convicted murderer Charles R. Campbell.

In 1985, both the Washington state Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Campbell’s murder conviction and death sentence. During his trial, he did not deny escaping from a prison work-release facility and killing the three women. On three occasions, a state judge set an execution date for Campbell, but each was stayed by federal judges.

Most recently, on March 28, 1989, a 9th Circuit panel blocked Campbell’s execution so it could review his latest round of appeals. No decision has been issued since then.

Acting as his own lawyer, Campbell has contended that his trial lawyers were incompetent because they agreed to his wish to be absent during the questioning of prospective jurors.

According to Washington state Atty. Gen. Kenneth O. Eikenberry, the 9th Circuit Court’s “purposeful inactivity bespeaks a studied indifference to, even contempt for, the legitimate interests of the state and a preference for lengthy, redundant legislation.”

The three judges handling Campbell’s case are Procter Hug Jr. of Reno, Nev.; Cecil F. Poole of San Francisco, and Cynthia Holcomb Hall of Pasadena. Hug and Poole were appointed by President Jimmy Carter, while Hall was appointed by President Ronald Reagan.

In 1986, California voters threw state Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird and two other members of the state Supreme Court out of office, in large measure because of complaints that they refused to permit capital punishment. Since then, however, many of those same cases have languished in the federal courts.

“There have been no more executions in California during the post-Bird era than during the Bird era. What’s changed is where the bottleneck is,” said state Deputy Atty. Gen. Louis R. Hanoian, who is supervising Harris’ case.

California has 306 inmates on Death Row. Of those, 107 have had their convictions and sentences upheld by the state Supreme Court, Hanoian said. The inmates are continuing their appeals, however, in the federal courts. Arizona officials say that 96 inmates are under death sentences there. Nevada has 60 inmates on Death Row.

Under current federal law, inmates in state prisons can file petitions with a federal judge alleging that they are being held in violation of their constitutional rights. If the judge sees some merit in the claim, he can hear the case in federal courts.

Rehnquist repeatedly has criticized federal judges for using this authority to delay executions for years. He has sought, both through new legislation and court rulings, to restrict the power of judges to hear more than one round of appeals by Death Row inmates.

Monday’s five-page order was issued on behalf of the entire court. The justices said that they could not find “any plausible explanation or reason for the (9th Circuit) panel’s delay in resolving (Campbell’s) case.”

While refusing for now to remove the case from the 9th Circuit, the high court added: “The delay in this case demonstrates the necessity for the rule that we now make explicit.

“In a capital case, the grant of a stay of execution directed to a state by a federal court imposes on that court the concomitant duty to take all steps necessary to ensure a prompt resolution of the matter, consistent with its duty to give full and fair consideration to all of the issues presented in the case.”

Justices John Paul Stevens and Harry A. Blackmun dissented.

The 9th Circuit and its 28 appellate judges have jurisdiction in Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon and Washington.

Times staff writer Henry Weinstein in Los Angeles contributed to this story.