Hittson v. Chatman

Issue: Whether the Eleventh Circuit has correctly determined that this Court’s decision in Harrington v. Richter overruled sub silentio the holding of Ylst v. Nunnemaker that “where there has been one reasoned state judgment rejecting a federal claim, later unexplained orders upholding that judgment or rejecting the same claim rest upon the same ground;” (2) whether, once a finding that the state court’s factual findings and/or legal analysis are unreasonable and/or contrary to clearly established Supreme Court precedent, a federal district court may nevertheless defer to the state court’s unreasonable findings and conclusions despite having determined that, applying de novo review, a court could find that an error of constitutional magnitude had been committed; and (3) whether the Eleventh Circuit misapplied the harmless error analysis of Brecht v. Abrahamson by failing to consider the manner in which the prosecutor introduced and relied on evidence taken in violation of Mr. Hittson’s Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights.