Smith v. Ryan

Petitioner, convicted of two murders and sentenced to death, challenged the district court's denial of his habeas petition. The court concluded that the Arizona Supreme Court did not act unreasonably in rejecting petitioner’s Sixth Amendment confrontation claim where his argument is foreclosed by Williams v. New York, which held that the Confrontation Clause does not bar courts from considering unconfronted statements during sentencing proceedings; the court rejected petitioner's claims in relation to the prosecution's rebuttal evidence and concluded that the district court did not err in finding that he suffered no constitutional violation when the prosecution introduced substantial evidence of petitioner's prior crimes during the penalty-phase hearings; any (E)(2) vagueness challenge fails because both the trial court and Arizona Supreme Court applied the narrowed definition of the (E)(2) aggravator to petitioner’s case; the application of the (E)(2) aggravator was in no way contrary to or an unreasonable application of clearly established federal law; neither the state trial court’s decision to give the (E)(6) narrowing instruction, nor the Arizona Supreme Court’s (E)(6) analysis, was so lacking in justification that there was an error well understood and comprehended in existing law beyond any possibility for fairminded disagreement; and petitioner's ineffective assistance of counsel claim was procedurally defaulted. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment. View "Smith v. Ryan" on Justia Law