In Metrish v. Lancaster, a unanimous Supreme Court reversed the Sixth Circuit’s decision that Michigan courts violated due process when they took away a defendant’s diminished-capacity defense before his second trial, after having allowed it in his first trial. The Supreme Court held that relief was unavailable under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act because it has never recognized a due process right to avoid the application of intervening state-law decisions between trials.
See here for further coverage of the circuit’s record in habeas cases before the Supreme Court.
