Randy Lee, Warden v. Jason Clinard

Jason Clinard was fourteen years old when he shot and killed his school bus driver. The juvenile court held a hearing to determine whether Clinard should be transferred to criminal court. Before the hearing had concluded, Clinard agreed to the transfer. He was convicted of first-degree premeditated murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. In state post-conviction proceedings, the state court rejected Clinard’s claim that his attorney rendered ineffective assistance of counsel by agreeing to the transfer. Although the state court agreed with Clinard that his attorney’s performance was deficient, it held that Clinard was not prejudiced. On federal habeas review, the Sixth Circuit held that the state court’s prejudice determination was an unreasonable application of Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (1984), and, as a remedy, granted Clinard a new transfer hearing in the federal district court. The questions presented are:

1. Whether the Sixth Circuit’s holding that the state court’s prejudice determination constituted an unreasonable application of Strickland contravened this Court’s precedents instructing that federal habeas review of ineffective-assistance claims must be “‘doubly deferential,’” Woods v. Etherton, 136 S. Ct. 1149, 1151

2. (per curiam) (quoting Cullen v. Pinholster, 563 U.S. 170, 190 (2011)).

3. Whether the Sixth Circuit’s decision to allow the federal district court to conduct a new transfer hearing on remand, instead of first allowing the state court an opportunity to remedy the alleged constitutional violation, conflicts with this Court’s precedents.