William A. Sanders v. Zettie Cotton

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• finding no procedural default where state court noted that “if an issue was available on direct appeal but not litigated, it is [forfeited],” but then “immediately proceeded to address and decide the merits” without directly saying that forfeiture had occurred
• argument challenging consecutive sentences was \clearly weaker\ than a challenge to jury instructions because \a trial court has wide discretion to impose consecutive sentences\
• “[O]nly an explicit invocation of a state procedural bar blocks federal consideration of an issue.” (emphasis added)
• where the state appellate court’s discussion of waiver is intertwined with its merits analysis, the state court’s decision does not rest 28 Nos. 06-2768 & 06-3281 on an independent and adequate state law ground

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).