Walter Moody faced execution in Alabama for murdering federal judge Robert Vance and civil-rights attorney Robert Robinson. He filed a habeas petition arguing that Alabama had to return him to federal custody before carrying out the death sentence. The district court dismissed the petition for lack of standing and treated one claim as an unauthorized successive habeas petition. The Eleventh Circuit held that Moody had standing and that the claim was not an unauthorized successive petition, but it nevertheless affirmed the dismissal on the merits. The court held that the writ used to transfer Moody to Alabama for prosecution and the federal statutes he cited did not give him a judicially enforceable right to control the order in which the state and federal sentences would be served. The United States did not object to Alabama retaining custody for the execution. The court affirmed on the merits and remanded with instructions to convert the dismissal without prejudice into a dismissal with prejudice.