Source: http://www.crimeandconsequences.com/crimblog/2011/01/justice-kennedy-hits-one-out-o.html
Timestamp: 2015-09-02 21:46:34
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Matched Legal Cases: ['§2254', '§2254', '§2254', '§2254', '§2254', '§2254', '§2254', '§2244', '§2254']

Justice Kennedy Hits One Out of the Park - Crime and Consequences Blog
<< Ninth Circuit Unanimously Reversed in 2 Habeas Cases |
January 19, 2011 9:38 AM | Posted by Kent Scheidegger | 2 Comments
Harrington v. Richter, No. 09-587, decided 7-1-0 today by the US Supreme Court, is a landmark decision in the law of federal habeas corpus. The opinion is as rich with nuggets as any I have seen from the Court in some time. One in particular makes the opinion stand out, though. The Court has finally comes to grips with the true nature of the most controversial provision of the habeas reforms in the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA): 28 U.S.C. §2254(d).
The case itself is not particularly remarkable. A murderer claims his lawyer was ineffective. The state courts reject the claim. The Ninth Circuit accepts the claim and brushes aside the state court's judgment as a mere inconvenient trifle. Not a single Justice of the Supreme Court thinks the Ninth is correct. Nothing new there. See, e.g., Woodford v. Visciotti, 537 U.S. 19 (2002); Knowles v. Mirzayance, No. 07-1315 (2009).In Richter,
the defendant filed his state habeas petition in the state supreme court, bypassing the trial and intermediate appellate courts. He had a right to an explanation of the reason for rejection of his petition if he filed in superior court, but he chose not to. The California Supreme
Court rejected the claim summarily, as it usually does, a necessary practice given the volume of petitions it receives.The U.S. Supreme Court asked for briefing on the question of whether such a summary disposition counts as a decision "on the merits," a prerequisite
for §2254(d) to apply. The answer to that question is yes. The Court applied the same presumption it adopted (to the benefit of petitioners) in the pre-AEDPA days of de novo review of decisions on the merits.The
most remarkable portion of the opinion, though, is its characterization
of §2254(d). This provision emerged from intense negotiations between Senators Hatch and Specter. The compromise wording did not entirely satisfy anyone and has been a source of some interpretative difficulty.On
the floor of the Senate, the clearest analysis of the language actually
came from its principal opponent, now-Vice President Biden. He noted that the language at the top generally precluded relief on any claim decided on the merits by the state court, and the numbered paragraphs are two exceptions to that general rule. Right.While it is often said that the doctrine of res judicata does not apply in habeas corpus, Congress can and has enacted limits to give greater finality to criminal judgments. Promptly after enactment of AEDPA, the Court recognized the beefed-up successive petition rule as a "modified rule of
res judicata" in Felker v. Turpin, 518 U. S. 651, 664 (1996). Today's
opinion, for the first time, gives a similar characterization to §2254(d). The opinion refers to it as a "relitigation bar" and quotes Felker with a "cf." cite. This has been a long time coming. To see it in a nearly unanimous opinion is particularly gratifying.There is joy in Mudville. Mighty Casey has hit it out of the park.More nuggets:The writ of habeas corpus stands as a safeguard against imprisonment of those held in violation of the law. Judges must be vigilant and independent in reviewing petitions for the writ, a commitment that entails substantial judicial resources. Those resources are diminished and misspent, however, and confidence in the writ and the law it vindicates undermined, if there is judicial disregard for the sound and established principles that inform its proper issuance.Over at Volokh Conspiracy, commenter Dave N. (who works in the AG office of a western State) is undecided on only one point -- whether to quote this at the beginning or the end of his Ninth Circuit briefs.§2254(d) applies when a "claim," not a component of one, has been adjudicated.Federal habeas courts are often confronted with the Puzzle of the Morphing Claim. The claim that the defendant presents to the federal court may be significantly different from the one he presented to the state court. For ineffective assistance, he may say to the state court, "My lawyer should have done A, B, and C." The state court says that is not ineffective or didn't cause prejudice. Then he gets to federal court and says, "My lawyer should have done A, B, C, D, E, F, and G." Is that a different claim? I have been arguing since Bell v. Kelly that ineffective assistance of counsel is one "claim," regardless of how many failings are alleged. Perhaps IAC in the guilt phase is a different claim from IAC in the penalty phase, but that's it. This nugget potentially provides some ammunition for that argument.How does this passage affect the rule that when the state court has expressly denied an IAC claim on prejudice without deciding performance, the federal court reviews the state court decision deferentially on the prejudice prong and then, if necessary, decides the performance prong de novo? That remains to be seen.A state court's determination that a claim lacks merit precludes federal habeas relief so long as "fairminded jurists could disagree" on the correctness of the state court's decision. Yarborough v. Alvarado, 541 U. S. 652, 664 (2004).We will probably see that quoted in more than a few briefs.The opinion of the Court of Appeals all but ignored "the only question that matters under §2254(d)(1)." Lockyer v. Andrade, 538 U. S. 63, 71 (2003).Whack.It bears repeating that even a strong case for relief does not mean the state court's contrary conclusion was unreasonable. See Lockyer, supra, at 75.How many times must it be repeated before the Ninth Circuit gets it?If this standard is difficult to meet, that is because it was meant to be. As amended by AEDPA, §2254(d) stops short of imposing a complete bar on federal court relitigation of claims already rejected in state proceedings. Cf. Felker v. Turpin, 518 U. S. 651, 664 (1996) (discussing AEDPA's "modified res judicata rule" under §2244). It preserves authority to issue the writ in cases where there is no possibility fairminded jurists could disagree that the state court's decision conflicts with this Court's precedents. It goes no farther. Section 2254(d) reflects the view that habeas corpus is a "guard against extreme malfunctions in the state criminal justice systems," not a substitute for ordinary error correction through appeal. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U. S. 307, 332, n. 5 (1979) (Stevens, J.,concurring in judgment). As a condition for obtaining habeas corpus from a federal court, a state prisoner must show that the state court's ruling on the claim being presented in federal court was so lacking in justification that there was an error well understood and comprehended in existing law beyond any possibility for fairminded disagreement.[We now pause for a standing ovation.]Section 2254(d) is part of the basic structure of federal habeas jurisdiction, designed to confirm that state courts are the principal forum for asserting constitutional challenges to state convictions. Under the exhaustion requirement, a habeas petitioner challenging a state conviction must first attempt to present his claim in state court.28 U. S. C. §2254(b). If the state court rejects the claim on procedural grounds, the claim is barred in federal court unless one of the exceptions to the doctrine of Wainwright v. Sykes, 433 U. S. 72, 82-84 (1977), applies. And if the state court denies the claim on the merits, the claim is barred in federal co