Cuyler v. Sullivan

The question presented is whether a state prisoner may obtain a federal writ of habeas corpus by showing that his retained defense counsel represented potentially conflicting interests.

I

Respondent John Sullivan was indicted with Gregory Carchidi and Anthony DiPasquale for the first-degree murders of John Gorey and Rita Janda. The victims, a labor official and his companion, were shot to death in Gorey’s second-story office at the Philadelphia headquarters of Teamsters’ Local 107. Francis McGrath, a janitor, saw the three defendants in the building just before the shooting. They appeared to be…