Williamson v. Florida Department of Corrections, No. 15-12603 (11th Cir. 2015)
Annotate this CasePetitioner, a Florida death row inmate, appealed the denial of his petition for writ of habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C. 2254. Petitioner broke into a home and killed four people. A friend of the victims witnessed the murders but did not report the identity of the assailant until three years later. The witness testified that he had lied about not knowing the identity of the assailant because petitioner threatened to torture and kill his family should he talk. At trial, the state called a professor of sociology who testified that the witness's behavior was consistent with the behavior of someone who had received credible death threats. At issue is the admissibility of the professor's testimony. The Florida Supreme Court denied relief because it determined that it was not reasonably probable that the result of the proceeding would have been different even if the professor's testimony had been excluded. The court affirmed the judgment, concluding that the Florida Supreme Court's decision was reasonable.
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