Gerald Winfield v. Stephanie Dorethy

CONLEY, District Judge.

On July 25, 2000, after a four-day bench trial, Cook County Circuit Court Judge Leo E. Holt found Gerald Winfield guilty of the attempted murder of Jarlon Garrett. On direct appeal and again on post-conviction review, the Illinois appellate courts rejected Winfield’s challenges to his conviction and thirty-year prison sentence. By agreement of the parties, a federal district court later reviewed Winfield’s conviction under a less deferential standard than called for after the enactment of the Anti-terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (“AEDPA”), 28 U.S.C. §…