United States First Circuit

In habeas proceedings of a defendant convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment, district court's conclusion that the state trial judge had impermissibly (though unintentionally) coerced a guilty verdict as a result of a series of voir dire examinations of individual jurors is reversed as the AEDPA's deferential standard of review controls in this case, and the district court employed an insufficiently deferential standard of review.

Appellate Information

• Decided 01/20/2010
• Published 01/20/2010

Judges

• HOWARD, Circuit Judge., Before TORRUELLA, SELYA and HOWARD, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States First Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Randall B. Ravitz, Assistant Attorney General, Criminal Bureau, with whom Martha Coakley, Attorney General, was on brief, for appellant.


• For Appellees:
  
• Rosemary Curran Scapicchio for appellee.