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On May 3, 2010, the Supreme Court announced its decision in Renico v. Lett. The question in this case was whether a federal District Court erroneously granted a writ of habeas corpus to a state prisoner under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA). In this case, the District Court issued the writ to Reginald Lett, the respondent, on the ground that his Michigan murder conviction violated the Double Jeopardy Clause of the Constitution; the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit affirmed.

In a 6-3 opinion delivered by Chief Justice Roberts, the Court held that the Michigan Supreme Court's application of federal law was not unreasonable and that the lower federal courts misapplied AEDPA's deferential standard of review.

To discuss the case, we have Kent S. Scheidegger, who is the Legal Director of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation.

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