2004 Term Per Curiam Opinions of The Supreme Court of The United States - Bell V. Cone

Decided January 24, 2005

Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed and remanded

The Supreme Court had previously addressed the case in Bell v. Cone, 535 U.S. 685 (2002) on the issue of the habeas petitioner's ineffective assistance of counsel claim. On remand, the Court of Appeals now ruled that the aggravator language applied to the petitioner's capital sentencing was too vague to prevent the death penalty from being imposed arbitrarily, and that the Tennessee Supreme Court had failed to cure that defect on review by applying a narrowing construction to the language. The Supreme Court reversed, ruling that the Court of Appeals did not grant the proper deference to the state court's decision, and had also erroneously assumed that it had failed to apply Tennessee law. The state court's failure to cite to federal law or explicitly use a narrowing construction did not establish that federal constitutional standards were disregarded.

Justice Ginsburg filed a concurrence, joined by Justices Souter and Breyer, which sought to clarify the Court's assumption that the state court had adjudicated all of the petitioner's arguments. Ginsburg urged that, had the state court failed to address an argument, that there would be no grounds for assuming that it had nevertheless sub silentio decided that issue on the merits instead of merely overlooking it.