Peak v. Webb, No. 09-5977 (6th Cir. 2012)
Annotate this CasePetitioner, convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison, exhausted state remedies and unsuccessfully petitioned the Supreme Court for certiorari. The district court rejected his petition for habeas corpus, which was based on an argument that his Confrontation Clause rights had been violated at trial when, over his objection, the government played a tape recording of his co-defendant's custodial statement without affirmatively calling the co-defendant as a witness. The Sixth Circuit affirmed. Though the trial court may have violated petitioner's constitutional rights, the court noted that granting habeas corpus under the AEDPA, 28 U.S.C. 2254(d), requires "that fairminded jurists could not disagree." "Four such fairminded justices of the Kentucky Supreme Court did disagree" and concluded that confrontation only requires that a declarant be made available in the courtroom for a criminal defendant to call during his own case.
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