Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/boundvolumes/529bv.pdf
Page Number: 523

529US2

Unit: $U48

[09-26-01 10:25:49] PAGES PGT: OPIN

448

EDWARDS v. CARPENTER

Opinion of the Court

Justice Scalia delivered the opinion of the Court.
This case presents the question whether a federal habeas
court is barred from considering an ineffective-assistance-
of-counsel claim as “cause” for the procedural default of an-
other claim when the ineffective-assistance claim has itself
been procedurally defaulted.

I

Respondent was indicted by an Ohio grand jury for aggra-
vated murder and aggravated robbery. He entered a guilty
plea while maintaining his innocence—a procedure we held
to be constitutional in North Carolina v. Alford, 400 U. S.
25 (1970)—in exchange for the prosecution’s agreement that
the guilty plea could be withdrawn if the three-judge panel
that accepted it elected, after a mitigation hearing, to im-
pose the death penalty. The panel accepted respondent’s
plea based on the prosecution’s recitation of the evidence
supporting the charges and, following a mitigation hearing,
sentenced him to life imprisonment with parole eligibility
after 30 years on the aggravated-murder count and to a con-
current term of 10 to 25 years on the aggravated-robbery
count. On direct appeal respondent, represented by new
counsel, assigned only the single error that the evidence
offered in mitigation established that he should have been

Salazar of Colorado, M. Jane Brady of Delaware, Robert A. Butterworth
of Florida, Thurbert E. Baker of Georgia, James E. Ryan of Illinois, Jef-
frey A. Modisett of Indiana, Thomas J. Miller of Iowa, Carla J. Stovall of
Kansas, Richard P. Ieyoub of Louisiana, J. Joseph Curran, Jr., of Mary-
land, Mike Hatch of Minnesota, Mike Moore of Mississippi, Jeremiah W.
(Jay) Nixon of Missouri, Joseph P. Mazurek of Montana, Don Stenberg of
Nebraska, Frankie Sue Del Papa of Nevada, Philip T. McLaughlin of
New Hampshire, John J. Farmer, Jr., of New Jersey, Patricia A. Madrid
of New Mexico, W. A. Drew Edmondson of Oklahoma, Charles M. Condon
of South Carolina, Mark Barnett of South Dakota, Paul G. Summers of
Tennessee, Jan Graham of Utah, William H. Sorrell of Vermont, Chris-
tine O. Gregoire of Washington, Darrell V. McGraw, Jr., of West Virginia,
and James E. Doyle of Wisconsin.