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Tenth Applies De Novo Review--Not AEDPA Standard--and Remands Two Capital Habeas Cases

By Shari Allison

Wilson v. Workman, 2009 WL 2623336 (8/27/09) (en banc) - An important and good en banc decision in the habeas world, although perhaps a trivial decision in your world. By a 7-5 vote [McConnell writing for the majority, Tacha, Briscoe, O'Brien, Tymkovich and Gorsuch dissenting], the 10th holds that de novo review, not the stringent AEDPA standard, applies to state court decisions that do not consider evidence the federal courts consider in light of the correct constitutional standard. In these 2 death penalty cases, the Oklahoma appellate court refused to send an ineffective assistance ("IA") of counsel claim down to the trial court. Depending on how one interprets the state court decisions, the court either denied the IA claim without considering new IA evidence the petitioner presented [e...continue to full post

Full post as published by Tenth Circuit Blog on September 04, 2009 (boomark / email).