Woods v. Schwartz, No. 08-1234

District court's denial of defendant's petition for habeas relief following his conviction for murder and sentence to forty years' imprisonment is affirmed where: 1) some of defendant's ineffective assistance claims were procedurally defaulted as it was clear that a state court's decision to deny defendant's third post-conviction petition did not fairly appear to either rest on, or to be interwoven with, federal law; 2) defendant has not shown that failure to consider these claims will result in miscarriage of justice; and 3) the appellate court's rejection of defendant's preserved ineffective assistance of counsel claim related to his trial counsel's failure to call a witness as an alibi witness was not contrary to or an unreasonable application of clearly established federal law.     

Read Woods v. Schwartz, No. 08-1234

Appellate Information

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division

Decided December 9, 2009

Judges

Before:Posner, Manion, and Tinder, Circuit Judges

Opinion by Manion, Circuit Judge