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This week’s edition is now available. From the introduction: Two SCOTUS cases lead off this very belated edition. In Sears v. Upton the Court closed out Justice Stevens with a capital grant of relief. Five justices voted to grant the petition of certiorari, vacate the decision below, and remand, a/k/a a "GVR". The per curiam opinion holds trial counsel rendered ineffective assistance of counsel and that the improperly weighed whether Sears was prejudiced. Justice Scalia, joined by Justice Thomas, dissented. The Chief Justice and Justice Alito believe cert. was improvidently granted. In Magwood v. Patterson the Court holds “that when a criminal defendant succeeds in having his original sentence overturned, a later habeas petition challenging his new sentence should be treated as a first petition (not as a "second or successive" petition), even if it raises grounds that could have (but were not) made against the original sentence...continue to full post

Full post as published by Capital Defense Weekly on July 09, 2010 (boomark / email).