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SCOTUS unanimously reverses Ninth Circuit grant of habeas on IAC claim

By Douglas A. Berman

SCOTUSblog in this post has these very basic details on the criminal justice opinion handed down by the Supreme Court this morning: The Court has released the opinion in Knowles v. Mirzayance (07-1315).  The decision below, which held for the criminal defendant, is reversed and remanded in a unanimous opinion by Justice Thomas.  Justices Scalia, Souter, and Ginsburg join in the judgment except for part two. The opinion is available here. Though not dealing with sentencing issues, the opinion's to-the-point discussion of state habeas standards and ineffective assistance of counsel claims makes the ruling a must-read for any criminal justice practitioner working on these common appellate issues. Since I will be off-line the rest of the day, I would be intrigued to hear not only general comments on this unanimous smack-down of the Ninth Circuit's work below, but also specific insights as to why the notable troika of Justices Scalia, Souter, and Ginsburg all refused to sign on to Part II of the opinion.continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on March 24, 2009 (boomark / email).