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Knowles v. Mirzayance

By Kent Scheidegger et al.

You know something unusual is up when the three-judge panel of a U.S. Court of Appeals decides that a case is so mundane that it is not worth a published opinion, but the U.S. Supreme Court considers the case "certworthy," i.e., one of the very few cases that it takes for full review. That's what happened today in Knowles v. Mirzayance, No. 07-1315. In terms of the precedential value of a case, the hurdle for publication should be a fraction of the hurdle for certiorari. The Ninth decided, 2-1, that Mirzayance's lawyer was ineffective in dropping the insanity gambit. After the Supreme Court sent it back for another look in light of Ninth's spanking in Carey v. Musladin, 549 U.S. 70 (2006) (unanimous in the judgment), a divided panel decided that Musladin didn't matter...continue to full post

Full post as published by Crime and Consequences on June 27, 2008 (boomark / email).