Hardy v. Cross

The Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA), 28 U. S. C. § 2254, “imposes a highly deferen­tial standard for evaluating state-court rulings and demands that state-court decisions be given the benefit of the doubt.” Felkner v. Jackson, 562 U. S. 594, 598 (2011) (per curiam) (internal quotation marks omitted). In this case, the Court of Appeals departed from this standard, and we therefore grant certiorari and reverse.

Irving Cross was tried for kidnaping and sexually assault­ing A. S. at knifepoint. Cross claimed that A. S. had con­sented to sex in exchange for money and…