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Cite as:  596 U. S. ____ (2022) 

1 

Per Curiam
THOMAS, J., dissenting 

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES 

TIM SHOOP, WARDEN v. AUGUST CASSANO 

ON PETITION FOR WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED 
STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT 

No. 21–679.  Decided June 21, 2022 

The  motion  of  respondent  for  leave  to  proceed  in  forma 
pauperis is granted.  The petition for a writ of certiorari is 
denied. 

JUSTICE  THOMAS, with  whom JUSTICE  ALITO  joins,  dis-

senting from denial of certiorari. 

In  1997,  respondent  August  Cassano  was  serving  a  life
sentence  in  Ohio  for  aggravated  murder.    The  prison  as-
signed Cassano a new cellmate, Walter Hardy.  A few days
later, Cassano murdered Hardy by stabbing him 75 times
with  a  prison  shank.  An  Ohio  jury  convicted  Cassano  of
capital murder, and the trial court sentenced him to death.
Yet,  more  than  20  years  later,  the  Sixth  Circuit  granted 
Cassano habeas relief because it thought that the state trial 
court  had  ignored  Cassano  when  he  purportedly  invoked
his right to represent himself at trial.  In doing so, the Sixth
Circuit  failed  to  treat  the  state-court  adjudication  of  Cas-
sano’s  self-representation  claim  with  the  deference  de-
manded by the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty
Act of 1996 (AEDPA).

To correct this manifest error, I would grant Ohio’s peti-
tion and summarily reverse the Sixth Circuit.  Therefore, I 
respectfully dissent from denial of certiorari. 

I 

Cassano is no stranger to violence.  In 1976, he and an 
accomplice shot bartender Donald Pinto through the heart 
during a heist in Akron, Ohio.  An Ohio jury convicted Cas-
sano of aggravated murder and robbery, and he received a
life  sentence.    State  v.  Cassano,  1976  WL  188932,  *1–*2