Shinn v. Kayer
U.S. Supreme Court · decided December 14, 2020 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Decided
- December 14, 2020
- Term
- October Term 2020
- Vote
- 6–3
- Issue area
- Criminal Procedure
- Disposition
- Vacated and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Cite as: 592 U. S. ____ (2020) 1 Per Curiam SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES DAVID SHINN, DIRECTOR, ARIZONA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS v. GEORGE RUSSELL KAYER ON PETITION FOR WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT No. 19–1302. Decided December 14, 2020 PER CURIAM. The Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA) restricts the power of federal courts to grant writs of habeas corpus based on claims that were “adjudi- cated on the merits” by a state court. 28 U.S. C . §2254(d). When a state court has applied clearly established federal law to reasonably determined facts in the process of adjudi- cating a claim on the merits, a federal habeas court may not disturb the state court’s decision unless its error lies “be- yond any possibility for fairminded disagreement.” Har- rington v. Richter, 562 U.S. 86 , 103 (2011). In this case, the Court of Appeals erred in ordering issuance of a writ of habeas corpus despite ample room for reasonable disagree- ment about the prisoner’s ineffective-assistance-of-counsel claim. In so doing, the Court of Appeals clearly violated this Court’s AEDPA jurisprudence. We therefore grant the pe- tition for certiorari and vacate the judgment below. I A Respondent George Kayer murdered Delbert Haas in 1994. Haas, Kayer, and Lisa Kester were on a trip to gam- ble in Laughlin, Nevada. While there,…
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