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

529US2

Unit: $U48

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

454

EDWARDS v. CARPENTER

Breyer, J., concurring in judgment

whether respondent’s appellate counsel was constitutionally
ineffective in not raising the sufﬁciency-of-the-evidence claim
in the ﬁrst place.

*

*

*

For the foregoing reasons, the judgment of the Court of
Appeals for the Sixth Circuit is reversed, and the case is re-
manded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

It is so ordered.

Justice Breyer, with whom Justice Stevens joins,

concurring in the judgment.

I believe the Court of Appeals correctly decided the basic
question: “Whether a federal habeas court is barred from
considering an ineffective-assistance-of-counsel claim as
‘cause’ for the procedural default of another claim when
the ineffective-assistance claim is itself procedurally de-
faulted.” The question’s phrasing itself reveals my basic
concern. Although the question, like the majority’s opin-
ion, is written with clarity, few lawyers, let alone unrep-
resented state prisoners, will readily understand it. The
reason lies in the complexity of this Court’s habeas corpus
jurisprudence—a complexity that in practice can deny the
fundamental constitutional protection that habeas corpus
seeks to assure. Today’s decision unnecessarily adds to that
complexity and cannot be reconciled with our consistent rec-
ognition that the determination of “cause” is a matter for the
federal habeas judge.

To explain why this is so, and at the risk of oversimpliﬁ-
cation, I must reiterate certain elementary ground rules. A
federal judge may issue a writ of habeas corpus freeing a
state prisoner, if the prisoner is “in custody in violation of
the Constitution or laws or treaties of the United States.”
28 U. S. C. § 2254(a). However, the judge may not issue the
writ if an adequate and independent state-law ground justi-
ﬁes the prisoner’s detention, regardless of the federal claim.