Mays, Warden v. Hines
U.S. Supreme Court · decided March 29, 2021 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Decided
- March 29, 2021
- Term
- October Term 2020
- Vote
- 8–1
- Issue area
- Criminal Procedure
- Disposition
- Reversed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Cite as: 592 U. S. ____ (2021) 1 Per Curiam SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES TONY MAYS, WARDEN v. ANTHONY DARRELL DUGARD HINES ON PETITION FOR WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT No. 20–507. Decided March 29, 2021 PER CURIAM. A Tennessee jury found Anthony Hines guilty of murder- ing Katherine Jenkins at a motel. Witnesses saw Hines fleeing in the victim’s car and wearing a bloody shirt, and his family members heard him admit to stabbing someone at the motel. But almost 35 years later, the Sixth Circuit held that Hines was entitled to a new trial and sentence because his attorney should have tried harder to blame an- other man. In reaching its conclusion, the Sixth Circuit dis- regarded the overwhelming evidence of guilt that supported the contrary conclusion of a Tennessee court. This ap- proach plainly violated Congress’ prohibition on disturbing state-court judgments on federal habeas review absent an error that lies “ ‘beyond any possibility for fairminded disa- greement.’ ” Shinn v. Kayer, 592 U. S. ___, ___ (2020) (per curiam) (slip op., at 1); 28 U. S. C. §2254 (d). We now reverse. I On March 1, 1985, Hines boarded a bus traveling from Raleigh, North Carolina, to Bowling Green, Kentucky. His girlfriend and her mother had given him the bus ticket and $20. Hines also carried with him a hunting knife concealed beneath his…
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