Paul Renico, Warden v. Reginald Lett (559 U.S. 766)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided May 3, 2010 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 559 U.S. 766 · 130 S. Ct. 1855
- Decided
- May 3, 2010
- Term
- October Term 2009
- Vote
- 6–3
- Majority author
- Justice Roberts
- Issue area
- Criminal Procedure
- Disposition
- Reversed and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Chief Justice Roberts delivered the opinion of the Court. This case requires us to review the grant of a writ of habeas corpus to a state prisoner under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA), 28 U. S. C. § 2254(d). The District Court in this case issued the writ to respondent Reginald Lett on the ground that his Michigan murder conviction violated the Double Jeopardy Clause of the Constitution, and the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit affirmed. In doing so, however, these courts misapplied AEDPA’s deferential standard of review. Because we conclude that the Michigan Supreme Court’s application of federal law was not unreasonable, we reverse. I On August 29, 1996, an argument broke out in a Detroit liquor store. The antagonists included Adesoji Latona, a taxi driver; Charles Jones, a passenger who claimed he had been wrongfully ejected from Latona’s cab; and Reginald Lett, a Mend of Jones’s. After the argument began, Lett left the liquor store, retrieved a handgun from another friend outside in the parking lot, and returned to the store. He shot Latona twice, once in the head and once in the chest. Latona died from his wounds shortly thereafter. See People v. Lett, 466 Mich. 206, 208-209, 644 N. W. 2d 743, 745 (2002). Michigan prosecutors charged Lett with first-degree murder and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony.…
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