Horn v. Banks

The Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit granted respondent federal habeas corpus relief from his death, sentence. 271 F. 3d . 527 (2001). Applying the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA) standard of review, 1 the Court of Appeals concluded that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, had unreasonably applied federal law in evaluating respondent’s claim that his penalty phase jury instructions and verdict forms were improper under Mills v. Maryland, 486 U. S. 367 (1988). The Court of Appeals found it unnecessary to evaluate whether Mills applies retroactively to cases on…