Raynard Cummings v. Michael Martel

I agree with the majority that Raynard Cummings’s equal protection and ineffective assistance of counsel claims should be denied. I respectfully dissent, however, from the conclusion that Cummings’s due process claim must also be denied. The Supreme Court made clear in Turner v. Louisiana, 379 U.S. 466, 85 S.Ct. 546, 13 L.Ed.2d 424 (1965), and Gonzales v. Beto, 405 U.S. 1052, 92 S.Ct. 1503, 31 L.Ed.2d 787 (1972) (per curiam), that a criminal defendant’s right to a fair trial is infringed when the government solicits key testimony from a bailiff who associated closely with the jury during the…