Mahan Hollin v. Dewey Sowders, Superintendent, Kentucky State Reformatory

In this habeas corpus case collaterally attacking a 1971 Kentucky murder conviction, the District Court issued the writ on grounds that the negligence of petitioner’s retained counsel in failing to perfect a direct appeal from the conviction constituted ineffective assistance of counsel in violation of the Sixth Amendment as incorporated in the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. We reverse because the Kentucky Supreme Court, in reviewing petitioner’s case under its postconviction relief statute, has given adequate, independent state grounds for rejecting petitioner’s claim, and…