Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> Sentencing Law and Policy

Criminal Law

: Sentencing Law and Policy

SCOTUS unanimously reverses two Ninth Circuit habeas grants on IAC claims

By Douglas A. Berman

The Supreme Court handed down three opinions this morning, and two of them involved unanimous rulings authored by Justice Kennedy (with Justice Ginsburg concurring separately and Justice Kagan not participating) reversing grants of habeas relief by the Ninth Circuit based on the defendants' claims of ineffective assistance of counsel. The cases are Harrington v. Richter, No. 09-587 (opinion here), and Premo v. Moore, No. 09-658 (opinion here). I will not get a chance to review these decisions closely until probably late tonight. But the unanimous outcomes and Justice Ginsburg's brief concurring opinions in both cases lead me to the (hasty?) early conclusion that these ruling reflect a desire by the Justices to give the Ninth Circuit a lesson about habeas review rather than a significant evolution in the jurisprudence of Sixth Amendment ineffectiveness claims...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on January 19, 2011 (boomark / email).