United States Sixth Circuit

Denial of a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in a sexual battery case is reversed and remanded to supplement the record or grant the writ as: 1) although there is no clearly established federal constitutional right to full disclosure of all information used by a trial judge in determining a defendant's sentence; 2) there is a clearly established federal due process protection against a trial court's reliance on materially false information at sentencing; and 3) it was not possible to ascertain whether such a violation might have occurred here, where a portion of the materials used in determining the sentence have been withheld from federal court review, and where the limited record suggested a reasonable possibility that at least some of the sentencing information might have been erroneous.

Appellate Information

• Decided 10/09/2007
• Published 10/09/2007

Judges

• Before:  BATCHELDER and DAUGHTREY, Circuit Judges;  ROSEN, District Judge.

Court

• United States Sixth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• ARGUED:  Christopher J. Pagan, Repper, Powers & Pagan, Middletown, Ohio, for Appellant.  Mark Joseph Zemba, Office of the Attorney General, Cleveland, Ohio, for Appellee.   ON BRIEF:  Christopher J. Pagan, Repper, Powers & Pagan, Middletown, Ohio, for Appellant.  Mark Joseph Zemba, Office of the Attorney General, Cleveland, Ohio, for Appellee.