Martinez v. Caldwell, et al., No. 10-30318 (5th Cir. 2011)
Annotate this CaseThe Louisiana Attorney General appealed the district court's order granting the habeas corpus petition filed by defendant where defendant's first trial ended in a declaration of mistrial. When the State sought to retry him on the murder charge, defendant moved to prevent the trial under the doctrine of Double Jeopardy and his motion was granted but then reversed on appeal. Defendant then filed for federal habeas relief and the State stayed his prosecution pending the disposition of his federal petition. The state argued that the district court erred by concluding that the state trial judge intentionally goaded the defense into requesting a mistrial. The court held, as a preliminary matter, that the district court did not err by conducting a de novo review of defendant's state court proceedings and applied the same standard when reviewing his petition under 28 U.S.C. 2241. The court held that testimony failed to show that the state trial judge intentionally acted in bad faith nor did the testimony show that he limited disclosure about the jury's vote to intentionally goad the defense into consenting to a mistrial. Accordingly, the district court's order was vacated and defendant's petition for habeas relief was denied.
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