Wheeler v. White

Linked with:

• White v. Wheeler

Issue: (1) Whether the Sixth Circuit’s ruling – that the lack of Supreme Court case law holding that references to a victim’s pregnancy when the pregnancy is not an issue at trial violates due process means no “clearly established” law exists for purposes of 28 U.S.C. §2254(d) – conflicts with this Court’s rulings holding that “clearly established” law does not require a case with an identical fact pattern but instead includes legal principles and standards flowing from precedent and general standards designed to apply to a myriad of factual situations; and (2) whether this Court’s standard that a state evidentiary ruling can be so egregious as to deny a defendant fundamental fairness and thus violate the federal due process clause is broad enough to constitute “clearly established” law that applies when the prosecution introduces irrelevant evidence of a victim’s pregnancy; and, if so, whether the evidence regarding the victim’s pregnancy and the prosecutor’s ensuing argument are “contrary to” or an “unreasonable application of” this “clearly established” law.