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SCOTUS decides Woods v. Allen

By Karl R. Keys, Esq.

The opinion in Wood v. Allen is here.  Long story short, an odd opinion, an odd lineup, and I need to reread as I strongly suspect there is more going on here than a first blush reading reveals.  The Justice Sotomayor majority opinion upholding the death sentence in Wood pulled two Justices (Ginsburg & Breyer) that vote for death only sporadically, and the dissent has the usual swing Justice in capital cases (Kennedy). Curiously, as indicated in section II.A and II.B of the opinion, the Court granted cert to analyze the interplay §2254(d)(2) and § 2254(e)(1).  The Court ultimately decided this case was a bad vehicle for that exploration.  I’m not sure why it didn’t get DIG’d in light of that conclusion and leave the  Eleventh Circuit opinion in place and not waste their time with what otherwise is not an overly remarkable lower court opinion (save of course for the parties involved)...continue to full post

Full post as published by Capital Defense Weekly on January 21, 2010 (boomark / email).