2002—In Visciotti v. Woodford, a trio of liberal Ninth Circuit judges (opinion by Harry Pregerson, joined by A. Wallace Tashima and Marsha S. Berzon) rules that a California prisoner who was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death received ineffective assistance of counsel during the penalty phase of his trial and is entitled to federal habeas relief.
In November 2002, the Supreme Court, without any registered dissent, will summarily reverse the Ninth Circuit ruling and slam the panel’s reasoning. Contrary to the Ninth Circuit’s claim, the California supreme court “painstakingly describes the Strickland standard” for ineffective assistance of counsel. The Ninth Circuit’s “readiness to attribute error is inconsistent with the presumption that state courts know and follow the law” and “is also incompatible with [the federal habeas statute’s “highly deferential standard for evaluating state-court rulings.” Further: “All of the mitigating evidence, and all of counsel’s prejudicial actions, that the Ninth Circuit specifically referred to as having been left out of account or consideration were in fact described in the California Supreme Court’s lengthy and careful opinion.”