Document Type

Article

Publication Date

3-30-2006

Abstract

The question presented here is whether the District Court improperly concluded under AEDPA review that the state court's application of Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984), was objectively unreasonable for having rejected a Sixth Amendment challenge based on various alleged failures of trial counsel.

Respondent-appellant First Deputy Superintendent Dennis Bliden (hereinafter the "State") appeals from a judgment entered September 28, 2004, in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Wood, J.) granting the application of the petitioner-appellee Arnold Lynn ("Lynn" or "Petitioner") for a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. Lynn was convicted for Murder in the Second Degree, pursuant to N.Y. Penal Law § 125.25(1), and Attempted Murder in the Second Degree, pursuant to N.Y. Penal Law §§ 110.00, 125.25(1), in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, Bronx County (Collins, Justice). Lynn is serving concurrent indeterminate terms of imprisonment of twenty years to life and six years to twelve years, respectively. At the time of the commencement of this action, Bliden was the acting First Deputy Superintendent of the Green Haven Correctional Facility, the prison where Lynn is confined.

The District Court found that the state court's application of Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984), was objectively unreasonable, the state court having rejected Lynn's Sixth Amendment challenge based on trial counsel's failure (a) to move to reopen a Wade hearing after learning that one eyewitness had failed to identify the Petitioner when first shown a photo array; (b) to cross-examine another eyewitness about a previous statement in which the eyewitness claimed that he "couldn't recognize" the culprit; and (c) to successfully argue for admission, under New York's business records exception to the hearsay rule, of those portions of a police report containing the reporting officer's own observations.

For the reasons that follow, we hold that the state court's application of clearly established federal law, as determined by the United States Supreme Court, was objectively reasonable in this case, and, accordingly, that the application for a writ of habeas corpus should have been denied.

Comments

443 F.3d 238 (2006)

Arnold LYNN, Petitioner-Appellee,

v.

Dennis BLIDEN, First Deputy Supt., Respondent-Appellant.

No. 04-6280 PR.

United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.

Argued: September 12, 2005.

Decided: March 30, 2006.

New York Law School location: File #3575, Box #149

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