Oken v. Warden, MSP

LYNCH, Circuit Judge. .

This case presents an issue of first impression: whether state post-conviction review proceedings must comply with certain procedures under the Confrontation and Due Process clauses of the United States Constitution. Petitioner Steven Oken was sentenced in Maine to life imprisonment for murdering a Maine woman. He was sentenced to death in Maryland for murdering a woman there (and was also convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering another woman there). In imposing the death sentence on him in Maryland, the jury was told that he had been convicted of…