The US Supreme Court [official website] on Monday reversed a decision [opinions, PDF] by the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, finding that the circuit court did not have authority to review the trial court’s decision where the trial court had not violated defendant’s due process rights during the penalty phase of his criminal trial. In Jenkins v. Hutton [SCOTUSblog materials], the circuit court had relied on the miscarriage-of-justice exception, which permits the habeas petitioner “to review a defaulted claim when there is clear and convincing evidence that, but for the constitutional error no reasonable jury would have found [him] eligible for the death penalty under the applicable state law.” The Sixth Circuit gave two reasons for which it had the authority to review the case: (1) “the jury had not [found] the existence of aggravating circumstances”; and (2) “a court may review a procedurally defaulted claim if, ‘but for a constitutional error, no reasonable jury would have found the petitioner eligible for the death penalty.'” In a summary reversal, the Supreme Court found the Sixth Circuit erred for two reasons: (1) “the jury had found existence of mitigating circumstances in the guilt phase of the trial”; and (2) instead of considering “whether, given the (alleged) improper instructions, the jury might have been relying on invalid aggravating circumstances when it recommended a death sentence … the Sixth Circuit should have considered the following: Whether, given proper instructions about the two aggravating circumstances, a reasonable jury could have decided that those aggravating circumstances outweighed the mitigating circumstances.” The case was reversed and remanded.

Percy Hutton was convicted of aggravated murder, attempted murder and kidnapping in an Ohio court in 1985. During his trial, the jury found: (1) “that Hutton engaged in ‘a course of conduct involving the … attempt to kill two or more persons”; and (2) “that Hutton murdered [one of the two men] while ‘committing, attempting to commit, or fleeing immediately after … kidnapping.'” Following a finding of guilt in the first jury trial, Hutton underwent a trial for sentencing and was sentenced to the death penalty. The jury instructions during the second trial were at issue and the Supreme Court found those jury instructions to be independent from the jury’s finding of guilt in the first trial.