Wednesday, October 31, 2007

reversing four of eight counts in an indictment,

Willette v. Fischer, No. 06-1422
Grant of habeas petition, reversing four of eight counts in an indictment, is remanded for entry of a modified judgment that vacates only three counts, where punishments for those counts was unconstitutionally imposed.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

there is a clearly established federal due process protection against a trial court's reliance on materially false information at sentencing;

Stewart v. Erwin, No. 05-4635
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 errone