Murray v. Carrier

We granted certoriari in this case to consider whether a federal habeas petitioner can show cause for a procedural default by establishing that competent defense counsel inad*482vertently failed to raise the substantive claim of error rather than deliberately withholding it for tactical reasons.

I

Respondent Clifford Carrier was convicted of rape and abduction by a Virginia jury in 1977. Before trial, respondent’s court-appointed counsel moved for discovery of the victim’s statements to police describing “her assailants, the vehicle the assailants were driving, and the location of where the alleged…