Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> Crime and Consequences

Criminal Law

: Crime and Consequences

Retroactivity, Remedies, and AEDPA

By Kent Scheidegger et al.

Nineteen years ago this Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court virtually eliminated the retroactive application of newly created rules of criminal procedure on federal habeas corpus in its landmark decision in Teague v. Lane, 489 U.S. 288 (1989). Today, in Danforth v. Minnesota, No. 06-8273, the Court confirmed that Teague is a limitation on the remedy of federal habeas corpus, not a definition of the substantive scope of federal constitutional rights. Defendant Danforth has won a round in this case; he can now go back and argue to the Supreme Court of Minnesota that they should adopt a broader retroactivity rule. On the much larger battle, though, this is a win for the prosecution nationwide. The rationale of the decision pounds several more nails into the coffin of the argument that the "deference" standard of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 is unconstitutional...continue to full post

Full post as published by Crime and Consequences on February 20, 2008 (boomark / email).