The Utah Court of Appeals reversed a grant of post-conviction relief, holding that the post-conviction court improperly applied the Chadwick presumption of prejudice to an ineffective-assistance claim; under Strickland, Miranda failed to show a reasonable probability that a proper unanimity instruction would have changed the verdict.
The Eighth Court of Appeals affirmed denial of a second post-conviction DNA testing motion in a capital murder case, holding that Chapter 64 does not permit comparison of a DNA specimen to a specific named individual, and that third-party DNA on the murder weapon is not exculpatory where the defendant was convicted under a law-of-parties theory and substantial evidence of guilt exists independent of the DNA.
The Michigan Court of Appeals affirmed dismissal of a habeas corpus petition, holding that the failure to hold a probable cause conference under MCL 766.4 and MCR 6.108 does not create a jurisdictional defect that voids a subsequent criminal conviction, because the conference is waivable by agreement and waivable procedural requirements cannot give rise to non-waivable jurisdictional defects.