(Download) "Smith v. Berghuis" by United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit # Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Smith v. Berghuis
- Author : United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
- Release Date : January 24, 2008
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 73 KB
Description
Petitioner, Diapolis Smith, was convicted of second degree murder and felony possession of a firearm and sentenced to life imprisonment in a Michigan state court. After exhausting his state court remedies, Petitioner filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. ร§ 2254 in the United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan, which was denied. Petitioner now appeals from the order entered by the district court denying his petition for a writ of habeas corpus. Specifically, Petitioner contends that he was denied an impartial jury drawn from a fair cross-section of the community in violation of the Sixth Amendment and that he received ineffective assistance of counsel at trial and during sentencing. We find that Petitioner has demonstrated a violation of his Sixth Amendment right to a jury drawn from a fair cross-section of the community and therefore we need not address his ineffective assistance of counsel claims. For the reasons that follow, we REVERSE the judgment of the district court with respect to Petitioners Sixth Amendment claim that his jury was not drawn from a fair cross-section of the community and REMAND the case with instructions that the district court order Smiths release from state custody unless the state of Michigan commences a new trial within 180 days of this order.