To be really evil you need a bureaucracy. Kafka would be proud.

Were I a violent man I'd suggest that the 9th Circuit need to be summarily strung up and have the shit kicked out of them.  But that would be wrong. 

Pointy headed jackassery at it's worst - Ninth Circuit Panel: Innocence, Schminnocence. We Have Rules, You Know. - Hit & Run : Reason Magazine:

A three-judge panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has rejected an Oregon man's petition for habeas corpus relief. This despite acknowledging that the man has established actual innocence for the crimes for which he's being imprisoned (sexual abuse and sodomy of a four-year-old). The reason: He was late filing his petition. By the panel's reckoning, adherence to an arbitrary deadline created by legislators is a higher value than not continuing to imprison people we know to be innocent."