## Facts

- Carlton Jerome Pope, a Virginia state prisoner sentenced to death, was convicted of capital murder in the commission of a robbery under Virginia law.
- On January 12, 1986, Pope accepted a ride from Cynthia Gray (driver) and Marcie Ann Kirchheimer (passenger) in Gray’s car.
- After arriving near Pope’s destination, Pope produced a gun and demanded money.
- When the women did not immediately comply, Pope shot Gray in the head and shot Kirchheimer when she attempted to grab the gun.
- Pope fled; Kirchheimer drove to a hospital despite her injuries. Gray died.
- Kirchheimer later discovered her purse—previously visible between the front seats—was missing.
- The prosecution argued Pope killed during a robbery; Pope argued any taking occurred before the shootings, making the offense larceny rather than robbery and therefore insufficient to support capital murder.

## Issues

1. Whether due process was violated because the Virginia Supreme Court retroactively applied a novel and unforeseeable construction of “robbery” to uphold Pope’s capital-murder conviction.
2. Whether Pope was entitled to federal habeas relief on additional constitutional claims rejected by the district court as procedurally defaulted or meritless.

## Decision

- The Fourth Circuit reversed the district court’s grant of habeas relief on the due process/robbery issue.
- The court held the Virginia Supreme Court’s robbery analysis applied long-settled Virginia law and was not an unforeseeable judicial expansion.
- The Fourth Circuit affirmed the district court’s denial of Pope’s remaining habeas claims.
- The district court’s judgment was reversed in part and affirmed in part; the writ was denied, leaving the conviction and death sentence intact.

## Legal Principles

- Due process bars retroactive application of a judicial construction of a criminal statute only when the construction is unforeseeable in light of existing law.
- In federal habeas review, state courts are authoritative on the content of state criminal law; the federal question is limited to whether the state-law construction was so unexpected as to violate due process.
- Federal habeas review is barred where claims were rejected on independent and adequate state procedural grounds absent a showing of cause and prejudice or a fundamental miscarriage of justice.

## Conclusion

The Fourth Circuit held that Virginia’s application of robbery principles to Pope’s capital-murder conviction was foreseeable under established state precedent and therefore did not violate due process, and it upheld the rejection of Pope’s remaining habeas claims.


Pope v. Netherland, 113 F.3d 1364 (4th Cir. 1997)