The US Supreme Court summarily reversed a federal appellate court in holding that it overstepped limits on habeas review in ordering a new trial for a man convicted of attempted murder.
In a per curiam opinion on Monday, the justices said the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit failed to apply the deferential standard required by the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act when it granted Charles Brandon Martin a new trial. The three-judge panel faulted a Maryland appeals court for analysis it felt was insufficiently “nuanced.”
The act “demands that the relevant state-court decision be given the ...