Opinion ID: 42775
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: standard of review

Text: Nichols filed his petition for a writ of habeas corpus after the effective date of the Antiterrorism & Effective Death Penalty Act (“AEDPA”), 28 U.S.C. § 2254, April 24, 1996. Therefore, the petition is subject to the procedures imposed by AEDPA and post-AEDPA precedent. Lindh v. Murphy, 521 U.S. 320, 336, 117 S. Ct. 2059, 2068 (1997). Upon grant of a COA, to obtain habeas relief Nichols must demonstrate that the state court proceeding “resulted in a decision that was contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court of the United 5 We agree with the district court that the state habeas court made a scrivener’s error where, at one point, it appears to endorse a conclusion that Ishman’s testimony was material. All of the court’s other findings and conclusions cut against this isolated discrepancy. 11 States.” 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(1). A state court’s decision falls within this rubric “if the state court arrives at a conclusion opposite to that reached by this Court on a question of law or if the state court decides a case differently than [the Supreme Court] has on a set of materially indistinguishable facts.” Williams v. Taylor, 529 U.S. 362, 413, 120 S. Ct. 1495, 1523 (2000). A state court decision may also qualify under § 2254(d)(1) “if the state court identifies the correct governing legal principle from the Court’s decisions but unreasonably applies that principle to the facts of the prisoner's case.” Id. at 413, 120 S. Ct. 1523. Under § 2254(d)(1), we need only determine whether the state court’s application of clearly established federal law was objectively unreasonable. Neal v. Puckett, 286 F.3d 230, 236 (5th Cir. 2002) (en banc), cert. denied, 537 U.S. 1104, 123 S. Ct. 963 (2003). “We have no authority to grant habeas corpus relief simply because we conclude, in our independent judgment, that a state supreme court’s application of [federal law] is erroneous or incorrect.” Id., 286 F.3d at 236. Pursuant to the express dictates of AEDPA, “a determination of a factual issue made by a State court shall be presumed to be correct. The applicant shall have the burden of rebutting the presumption of correctness by clear and convincing evidence.” 28 U.S.C. 2254(e)(1). Further, we review the district court’s findings of fact for clear error, and its conclusions of law de novo. Finley v. Johnson, 243 F.3d 215, 218 (5th Cir. 2001). 12