TBA Law Blog

TBA Law Blog

Supreme Court Limits Federal Intervention in Ineffective Counsel Cases

Posted by: Sean Deitrick on May 26, 2022
News Type: U.S. Supreme Court

In an appeal from the 9th Circuit, the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this week held that a federal habeas court may not conduct an evidentiary hearing or consider evidence beyond that developed in the state court record based on the ineffective assistance of post-conviction counsel. The respondents, both Arizona prisoners convicted of capital offenses, had filed for federal habeas relief on the basis that trial counsel had been ineffective and that post-conviction counsel had, in turn, been ineffective by failing to properly present those claims in state court. As a result, the claims had been procedurally defaulted. In district court, respondents were permitted to supplement the record with evidence not presented in state court in order to show cause to excuse the procedural default; in one case, the 9th Circuit remanded for further evidentiary development. In its reversal, the court reiterated the standard that "[w]ith respect to cause, attorney error cannot provide cause to excuse a default in proceedings for which the Constitution does not guarantee the assistance of counsel at all." Read more from SCOTUSblog.

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