Dora B. Schriro, Director, Arizona Department of Corrections v. Jeffrey Timothy Landrigan, Aka Billy Patrick Wayne Hill (550 U.S. 465)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided May 14, 2007 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 550 U.S. 465 · 127 S. Ct. 1933
- Decided
- May 14, 2007
- Term
- October Term 2006
- Vote
- 5–4
- Majority author
- Justice Thomas
- Issue area
- Criminal Procedure
- Disposition
- Reversed and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Justice Thomas delivered the opinion of the Court. In cases where an applicant for federal habeas relief is not barred from obtaining an evidentiary hearing by 28 U. S. C. § 2254(e)(2), the decision to grant such a hearing rests in the discretion of the district court. Here, the District Court determined that respondent could not make out a colorable claim of ineffective assistance of counsel and therefore was not entitled to an evidentiary hearing. It did so after reviewing the state-court record and expanding the record to include additional evidence offered by respondent. The Court of Appeals held that the District Court abused its discretion in refusing to grant the hearing. We hold that it did not. I Respondent Jeffrey Landrigan was convicted in Oklahoma of second-degree murder in 1982. In 1986, while in custody for that murder, Landrigan repeatedly stabbed another inmate and was subsequently convicted of assault and battery with a deadly weapon. Three years later, Landrigan escaped from prison and murdered Chester Dean Dyer in Arizona. An Arizona jury found Landrigan guilty of theft, second-degree burglary, and felony murder for having caused the victim’s death in the course of a burglary. At sentencing, Landrigan’s counsel attempted to present the testimony of Landrigan’s ex-wife and birth mother as mitigating evidence. But at Landrigan’s request, both women refused to…
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