This section contains the nature of the case and procedural background.

A federal grand jury indicted D for the robbery and murder of a gas station manager making a bank deposit in Woonsocket, Rhode Island. D was in Rhode Island state custody on parole violation charges and is now serving an 18-year sentence there for parole and probation violations. The federal government invoked the Interstate Agreement on Detainers Act ('IAD'). Rhode Island's governor refused the IAD request because of his stated opposition to capital punishment. The federal government then sought a writ of habeas corpus ad prosequendum from the district court to secure custody of D--this being the traditional method by which a federal court obtained custody. Codifying common law practice, the statute authorizing the writ empowers a federal court to secure a person, including one held in state custody, where 'necessary to bring him into [federal] court to testify or for trial.' 28 U.S.C. § 2241(c)(5). The federal district court in Rhode Island ordered D to be delivered into federal custody to answer the federal indictment. D appealed and also petitioned the court for a writ of prohibition to bar the district court from enforcing the habeas writ.

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