United States First Circuit

Denial of a petition for federal habeas relief is affirmed over petitioner's arguments that: 1) he received ineffective assistance of counsel during his state trial for murder; 2) the revised 28 U.S.C. section 2254(d)(1) violates Article III, the separation of powers, and the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution because it restricts the capacity of federal judges to reach independent decisions and limits the sources of law on which they may rely; and 3) the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act so narrows the availability of habeas relief for state prisoners as to effectively suspend habeas in violation of the Suspension Clause.

Appellate Information

• Decided 02/08/2008
• Published 02/08/2008

Judges

• LYNCH, Circuit Judge., Before LYNCH, Circuit Judge, SELYA and SILER , Senior Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States First Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Michael R. Schneider with whom Salsberg & Schneider were on brief for appellant., John M. Thompson and Thompson & Thompson, P.C., on brief for the Committee for Public Counsel Services, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the Massachusetts Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and the Criminal Justice Institute, amici curiae., Michael A. Rotker, Attorney, Department of Justice, with whom Alice S. Fisher, Assistant Attorney General, was on brief for intervenor.


• For Appellees:
  
• Susanne G. Reardon, Assistant Attorney General, with whom Martha Coakley, Attorney General, was on brief for appellee.