Earlier this week, a 2-1 Ninth Circuit panel refused to go along with overturning a California Supreme Court decision, when the federal appeals court reversed a district court’s grant of habeas corpus relief to a death row prisoner. The district court’s ruling was based on ineffective counsel during the penalty phase of the prisoner’s state court trial. Previously, the Supreme Court had affirmed the death sentence, 6-1, in a direct automatic appeal (People v. Andrews (1989) 49 Cal.3d 200) and then, by a 5-2 vote, it denied a habeas corpus petition raising the ineffective-counsel issue (In re Andrews (2002) 28 Cal.4th 1234).
The appeals court decision in Andrews v. Davis supersedes a two-year-old opinion in which the court reached the same result, although the earlier opinion was unanimous (Andrews v. Davis (9th Cir. 2015) 798 F.3d 759).
The Supreme Court doesn’t always fare this well at the Ninth Circuit on habeas petitions. (See here.)
