Downs v. Lape

Judge CHIN dissents by separate opinion.

LOHIER, Circuit Judge:

Everett Downs appeals the District Court’s denial of his petition for habeas *100corpus brought under 28 U.S.C. § 2254, which claimed a violation of his Sixth Amendment right to a public trial. The claim rests on the New York state trial judge’s failure to make specific findings justifying the removal of Downs’s relative from the courtroom during trial. The appeal requires us to consider whether New York’s intermediate appellate court exorbitantly misapplied New York law when it held that Downs failed to preserve this claim for state…