Were it not for the U.S. Supreme Court prior reversal of the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in this case, and reversals of an untold number of other cases, the Nasby case might make sense. Nasby was convicted of murder in 1999 and is still in court filing papers. The result of the decision in this case will require more filings.
Convicted in a Nevada trial court, Nasby’s direct appeal in the Nevada Supreme Court was denied. Several habeas corpus petitions of gibberish filed in state courts were also denied. Nasby filed federal court habeas, all from the state courts decisions, and the district court judge read all their summaries of the evidence. Petition denied. Nasby appealed to the Ninth Circuit.
The Ninth Circuit held that the district court judge should have read the trial record himself instead of the state court judges summaries. As a general rule, this decision is correct. But so many state courts wrote the same objections the sum total probably matched those in the instant case. Then, unless a petition filed by either party in the Supreme Court is granted and reversed, the panel will remand the case to the district court judge with instructions.
All this for a 1999 conviction. This case illustrates the absence of any need for two jurisdictions to hear a case. The trial judge, direct appeal in state supreme court, and repeated rulings denying the petition in state court yet the law allows a federal court to review a state court decision. In reality, the federal court reviewing a state court decision on federal habeas corpus undertakes a thorough retrial masked in alleging wrong motions, jury instructions, or some personal objection finding ineffective assistance of counsel. What is the possibility of another trial in a few years?