By JK
I am happy to report that my powers of prediction were off! And this is good news for habeas petitioners.
Last week, in my post about Johnson v. Williams, I stated that a likely casualty of Williams would be Pearson v. Winston. As I mentioned previously, in that case, the Fourth Circuit concluded that, where the state court failed to develop the factual record with respect to petitioner's claims, there was no adjudication on the merits. In that situation, there would be de novo review and the federal courts could consider new evidence. It seemed like a likely candidate for a GVR after Williams.
But the good news is that the Court denied the State's cert. petition on Monday. Here's a link to the order list. Thank you relist watch on SCOTUSblog for pointing that out.
So Winston remains good law and, for now, offers a potential path around Pinholster.
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