Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

AEDPA

By: Derek Hawkins//September 29, 2017//

AEDPA

By: Derek Hawkins//September 29, 2017//

Listen to this article

7th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Gerald Winfield v. Stephanie Dorethy, Warden

Case No.: 16-3316

Officials: WOOD, Chief Judge, FLAUM, Circuit Judge, and CONLEY, District Judge.

Focus: AEDPA

On July 25, 2000, after a four-day bench trial, Cook County Circuit Court Judge Leo E. Holt found Gerald Winfield guilty of the attempted murder of Jarlon Garrett. On direct appeal and again on post-conviction review, the Illinois appellate courts rejected Winfield’s challenges to his conviction and thirty-year prison sentence. By agreement of the parties, a federal district court later reviewed Winfield’s conviction under a less deferential standard than called for after the enactment of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (“AEDPA”), 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d), and granted Winfield’s petition for a writ of habeas corpus. In a motion under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 59(e), the state then sought to reverse its concession that the pre-AEDPA standard applied, which the district court understandably denied as waived. Nevertheless, we are compelled by AEDPA case law and principles of state comity to reverse the district court’s finding of waiver.

Reversed and Remanded

Full Text


Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.

Polls

Should Steven Avery be granted a new evidentiary hearing?

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...

Legal News

See All Legal News

WLJ People

Sea all WLJ People

Opinion Digests