RENICO, WARDEN v. LETT
No. 09-338
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued March 29, 2010—Decided May 3, 2010
559 U.S. 766
Marla Rose McCowan, by appointment of the Court, 558 U. S. 1145, argued the cause for respondent. With her on the brief were Michael Mittlestat, Jeffrey T. Green, and Sarah O‘Rourke Schrup.
CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS delivered the opinion of the Court.
This case requires us to review the grant of a writ of habeas corpus to a state prisoner under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA),
I
On August 29, 1996, an argument broke out in a Detroit liquor store. The antagonists included Adesoji Latona, a taxi driver; Charles Jones, a passenger who claimed he had been wrongfully ejected from Latona‘s cab; and Reginald Lett, a friend of Jones‘s. After the argument began, Lett left the liquor store, retrieved a handgun from another friend outside in the parking lot, and returned to the store. He shot Latona twice, once in the head and once in the chest. Latona died from his wounds shortly thereafter. See People v. Lett, 466 Mich. 206, 208-209, 644 N. W. 2d 743, 745 (2002).
Michigan prosecutors charged Lett with first-degree murder and possession of a firearm during the commission of a
The jury‘s deliberations began on June 12, 1997, at 3:24 p.m., and ran that day until 4 p.m. Id., at 209, n. 1, 644 N. W. 2d, at 745, n. 1. After resuming its work the next morning, the jury sent the trial court a note—one of seven it sent out in its two days of deliberations—stating that the jurors had “‘a concern about our voice levels disturbing any other proceedings that might be going on.‘” Id., at 209, n. 2, 644 N. W. 2d, at 745, n. 2. Later, the jury sent out another note, asking “‘What if we can‘t agree? [M]istrial? [R]etrial? [W]hat?‘” Id., at 209, 644 N. W. 2d, at 745.
The trial transcript does not reveal whether the judge discussed the jury‘s query with counsel, off the record, upon receiving this last communication. Id., at 209, n. 3, 644 N. W. 2d, at 745, n. 3. What is clear is that at 12:45 p.m. the judge called the jury back into the courtroom, along with the prosecutor and defense counsel. Once the jury was seated, the following exchange took place:
“THE COURT: I received your note asking me what if you can‘t agree? And I have to conclude from that that that is your situation at this time. So, I‘d like to ask the foreperson to identify themselves, please?
“THE FOREPERSON: [Identified herself.]
“THE COURT: Okay, thank you. All right. I need to ask you if the jury is deadlocked; in other words, is there a disagreement as to the verdict?
“THE FOREPERSON: Yes, there is.
“THE COURT: All right. Do you believe that it is hopelessly deadlocked?
“THE FOREPERSON: The majority of us don‘t believe that—
“THE COURT: (Interposing) Don‘t say what you‘re going to say, okay?
“THE FOREPERSON: Oh, I‘m sorry.
“THE COURT: I don‘t want to know what your verdict might be, or how the split is, or any of that. Thank you. Okay? Are you going to reach a unanimous verdict, or not?
“THE FOREPERSON: (No response)
“THE COURT: Yes or no?
“THE FOREPERSON: No, Judge.” Tr. in No. 96-08252 (Recorder‘s Court, Detroit, Mich.), pp. 319-320.
The judge then declared a mistrial, dismissed the jury, and scheduled a new trial for later that year. Neither the prosecutor nor Lett‘s attorney made any objection.
Lett‘s second trial was held before a different judge and jury in November 1997. This time, the jury was able to reach a unanimous verdict—that Lett was guilty of second-degree murder—after deliberating for only 3 hours and 15 minutes. Lett, supra, at 210, and n. 4, 644 N. W. 2d, at 746, and n. 4.
Lett appealed his conviction to the Michigan Court of Appeals. He argued that the judge in his first trial had announced a mistrial without any manifest necessity for doing so. Because the mistrial was an error, Lett maintained, the State was barred by the Double Jeopardy Clause of the U. S. Constitution from trying him a second time. The Michigan Court of Appeals agreed with Lett and reversed his conviction.
The State appealed to the Michigan Supreme Court, which reversed the Court of Appeals. The court explained that under our decision in United States v. Perez, 9 Wheat. 579 (1824), a defendant may be retried following the discharge of a deadlocked jury, even if the discharge occurs without the defendant‘s consent. Lett, 466 Mich., at 216-217, 644 N. W. 2d, at 749. There is no Double Jeopardy Clause violation in such circumstances, it noted, so long as the trial court exercised its “‘sound discretion‘” in concluding that the jury was deadlocked and thus that there was a “‘manifest necessity‘”
After setting forth the applicable law, the Michigan Supreme Court determined that the judge at Lett‘s first trial had not abused her discretion in declaring the mistrial. Id., at 223, 644 N. W. 2d, at 753. The court cited the facts that the jury “had deliberated for at least four hours following a relatively short, and far from complex, trial,” that the jury had sent out several notes, “including one that appears to indicate that its discussions may have been particularly heated,” and—“[m]ost important“—“that the jury foreperson expressly stated that the jury was not going to reach a verdict.” Ibid.
Lett petitioned for a federal writ of habeas corpus. Again he argued that the trial court‘s declaration of a mistrial constituted an abuse of discretion because there was no manifest necessity to cut short the jury‘s deliberations. He further contended that the Michigan Supreme Court‘s rejection of his double jeopardy claim amounted to “an unreasonable application of... clearly established Federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court of the United States,” and thus that he was not barred by AEDPA,
II
It is important at the outset to define the question before us. That question is not whether the trial judge should have declared a mistrial. It is not even whether it was an
We have explained that “an unreasonable application of federal law is different from an incorrect application of federal law.” Williams v. Taylor, 529 U. S. 362, 410 (2000). Indeed, “a federal habeas court may not issue the writ simply because that court concludes in its independent judgment that the relevant state-court decision applied clearly established federal law erroneously or incorrectly.” Id., at 411. Rather, that application must be “objectively unreasonable.” Id., at 409. This distinction creates “a substantially higher threshold” for obtaining relief than de novo review. Schriro v. Landrigan, 550 U. S. 465, 473 (2007). AEDPA thus imposes a “highly deferential standard for evaluating state-court rulings,” Lindh v. Murphy, 521 U. S. 320, 333, n. 7 (1997), and “demands that state-court decisions be given the benefit of the doubt,” Woodford v. Visciotti, 537 U. S. 19, 24 (2002) (per curiam).1
The “clearly established Federal law” in this area is largely undisputed. In Perez, we held that when a judge discharges a jury on the grounds that the jury cannot reach a verdict, the Double Jeopardy Clause does not bar a new trial for the defendant before a new jury. 9 Wheat., at 579-580. We explained that trial judges may declare a mistrial “whenever, in their opinion, taking all the circumstances into
Since Perez, we have clarified that the “manifest necessity” standard “cannot be interpreted literally,” and that a mistrial is appropriate when there is a “high degree” of necessity. Washington, supra, at 506. The decision whether to grant a mistrial is reserved to the “broad discretion” of the trial judge, a point that “has been consistently reiterated in decisions of this Court.” Illinois v. Somerville, 410 U. S. 458, 462 (1973). See also Gori v. United States, 367 U. S. 364, 368 (1961).
In particular, “[t]he trial judge‘s decision to declare a mistrial when he considers the jury deadlocked is... accorded great deference by a reviewing court.” Washington, 434 U. S., at 510. A “mistrial premised upon the trial judge‘s belief that the jury is unable to reach a verdict [has been] long considered the classic basis for a proper mistrial.” Id., at 509; see also Downum v. United States, 372 U. S. 734, 736 (1963) (deadlocked jury is the “classic example” of when the State may try the same defendant twice).
The reasons for “allowing the trial judge to exercise broad discretion” are “especially compelling” in cases involving a potentially deadlocked jury. Washington, 434 U. S., at 509. There, the justification for deference is that “the trial court is in the best position to assess all the factors which must be considered in making a necessarily discretionary determination whether the jury will be able to reach a just verdict if it continues to deliberate.” Id., at 510, n. 28. In the absence of such deference, trial judges might otherwise “employ coercive means to break the apparent deadlock,” thereby creating a “significant risk that a verdict may result from pressures inherent in the situation rather than the considered judgment of all the jurors.” Id., at 510, 509.
We have expressly declined to require the “mechanical application” of any “rigid formula” when trial judges decide whether jury deadlock warrants a mistrial. Wade v. Hunter, 336 U. S. 684, 691, 690 (1949). We have also explicitly held that a trial judge declaring a mistrial is not required to make explicit findings of “manifest necessity” nor to “articulate on the record all the factors which informed the deliberate exercise of his discretion.” Washington, supra, at 517. And we have never required a trial judge, before declaring a mistrial based on jury deadlock, to force the jury to deliberate for a minimum period of time, to question the jurors individually, to consult with (or obtain the consent of) either the prosecutor or defense counsel, to issue a supplemental jury instruction, or to consider any other means of breaking the impasse. In 1981, then-Justice Rehnquist noted that this Court had never “overturned a trial court‘s declaration of a mistrial after a jury was unable to reach a verdict on the ground that the ‘manifest necessity’ standard had not been met.” Winston v. Moore, 452 U. S. 944, 947 (opinion dissenting from denial of certiorari). The same remains true today, nearly 30 years later.
III
In light of all the foregoing, the Michigan Supreme Court‘s decision in this case was not unreasonable under AEDPA, and the decision of the Court of Appeals to grant Lett a writ of habeas corpus must be reversed.
The Michigan Supreme Court‘s adjudication involved a straightforward application of our longstanding precedents to the facts of Lett‘s case. The court cited our own double jeopardy cases—from Perez to Washington—elaborating upon the “manifest necessity” standard for granting a mistrial and noting the broad deference that appellate courts must give trial judges in deciding whether that standard has been met in any given case. Lett, 466 Mich., at 216-222, 644 N. W. 2d, at 749-752. It then applied those precedents to the particular facts before it and found no abuse of discretion, especially in light of the length of deliberations after a short and uncomplicated trial, the jury notes suggesting heated discussions and asking what would happen “if we can‘t agree,” and—“[m]ost important“—“the fact that the
The Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit concluded otherwise. It did not contest the Michigan Supreme Court‘s description of the objective facts, but disagreed with the inferences to be drawn from them. For example, it speculated that the trial judge may have misinterpreted the jury‘s notes as signs of discord and deadlock when, read literally, they expressly stated no such thing. 316 Fed. Appx., at 427. It further determined that the judge‘s brief colloquy with the foreperson may have wrongly implied a false equivalence between “mere disagreement” and “genuine deadlock,” and may have given rise to “inappropriate pressure” on her to say that the jury would be unable to reach a verdict. Id., at 426-427. The trial judge‘s mistakes were so egregious, in the Court of Appeals’ view, that the Michigan Supreme Court‘s opinion finding no abuse of discretion was not only wrong but objectively unreasonable. Id., at 427.
The Court of Appeals’ interpretation of the trial record is not implausible. Nor, for that matter, is the more inventive (surely not “crude“) speculation of the dissent. Post, at 789. After all, the jury only deliberated for four hours, its notes were arguably ambiguous, the trial judge‘s initial question to the foreperson was imprecise, and the judge neither asked for elaboration of the foreperson‘s answers nor took any other measures to confirm the foreperson‘s prediction that a unanimous verdict would not be reached.2
But other reasonable interpretations of the record are also possible. Lett‘s trial was not complex, and there is no reason that the jury would necessarily have needed more than
Given the foregoing facts, the Michigan Supreme Court‘s decision upholding the trial judge‘s exercise of discretion—while not necessarily correct—was not objectively unreasonable.3 Not only are there a number of plausible ways to interpret the record of Lett‘s trial, but the standard applied by the Michigan Supreme Court—whether the judge exercised sound discretion—is a general one, to which there is no “plainly correct or incorrect” answer in this case. Yarborough, supra, at 664; see also Knowles, supra, at 123. The Court of Appeals’ ruling in Lett‘s favor failed to grant the Michigan courts the dual layers of deference required by AEDPA and our double jeopardy precedents.
The Court of Appeals also erred in a second respect. It relied upon its own decision in Fulton v. Moore, 520 F. 3d 522 (CA6 2008), for the proposition “that Arizona v. Washington sets forth three factors that determine whether a judge has exercised sound discretion in declaring a mistrial: whether the judge (1) heard the opinions of the parties’ counsel about the propriety of the mistrial; (2) considered the alternatives to a mistrial; and (3) acted deliberately, instead
The Fulton decision, however, does not constitute “clearly established Federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court,”
In concluding that Lett is not entitled to a writ of habeas corpus, we do not deny that the trial judge could have been more thorough before declaring a mistrial. As the Court of Appeals pointed out, id., at 427-428, she could have asked the foreperson additional followup questions, granted additional time for further deliberations, or consulted with the prosecutor and defense counsel before acting. Any of these steps would have been appropriate under the circumstances. None, however, was required—either under our double jeopardy precedents or, by extension, under AEDPA.
* * *
AEDPA prevents defendants—and federal courts—from using federal habeas corpus review as a vehicle to second-guess the reasonable decisions of state courts. Whether or not the Michigan Supreme Court‘s opinion reinstating Lett‘s conviction in this case was correct, it was clearly not unreasonable. The judgment of the Court of Appeals is reversed, and the case is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
It is so ordered.
At common law, courts went to great lengths to ensure the jury reached a verdict. Fourteenth-century English judges reportedly loaded hung juries into oxcarts and carried them from town to town until a judgment “bounced out.‘”1 Less enterprising colleagues kept jurors as de facto “prisoners” until they achieved unanimity.2 The notion of a mistrial based on jury deadlock did not appear in Blackstone‘s Commentaries;3 it is no surprise, then, that colonial juries virtually always returned a verdict.4 Well into the 19th and even the 20th century, some American judges continued to coax unresolved juries toward consensus by threatening to deprive them of heat,5 sleep,6 or sustenance7 or to lock them in a room for a prolonged period of time.8
“The reasons why this ‘valued right’ merits constitutional protection are worthy of repetition.” Arizona v. Washington, 434 U. S. 497, 503 (1978).
“Even if the first trial is not completed, a second prosecution may be grossly unfair. It increases the financial and emotional burden on the accused, prolongs the period in which he is stigmatized by an unresolved accusation of wrongdoing, and may even enhance the risk that an innocent defendant may be convicted. The danger of such unfairness to the defendant exists whenever a trial is aborted before it is completed. Consequently, as a general rule, the prosecutor is entitled to one, and only one, opportunity to require an accused to stand trial.” Id., at 503-505 (footnotes omitted).
“The underlying idea... is that the State with all its resources and power should not be allowed to make repeated attempts to convict an individual for an alleged offense, thereby subjecting him to embarrassment, expense and ordeal and compelling him to live in a continuing state of anxiety and insecurity, as well as enhancing the possibility that even though innocent he may be found guilty.” Green v. United States, 355 U. S. 184, 187-188 (1957).9
In this case, the trial judge did not meet that burden. The record suggests that she discharged the jury without considering any less extreme courses of action, and the record makes quite clear that she did not fully appreciate the scope or significance of the ancient right at stake. The Michigan Supreme Court‘s decision rejecting Reginald Lett‘s double jeopardy claim was just as clearly in error.
I
No one disputes that a “genuinely deadlocked jury” is “the classic basis” for declaring a mistrial or that such declaration, under our doctrine, does not preclude reprosecution, id., at 509; what is disputed in this case is whether the trial judge took adequate care to ensure the jury was genuinely deadlocked. A long line of precedents from this Court establishes the “governing legal principle[s],” Williams v. Taylor, 529 U. S. 362, 413 (2000), for resolving this question. Although the Court acknowledges these precedents, ante, at 773-775, it minimizes the heavy burden we have placed on trial courts.
“We think, that in all cases of this nature, the law has invested Courts of justice with the authority to discharge a jury from giving any verdict, whenever, in their opinion, taking all the circumstances into consideration, there is a manifest necessity for the act, or the ends of public justice would otherwise be defeated. They are to exercise a sound discretion on the subject; and it is impossible to define all the circumstances, which would render it proper to interfere. To be sure, the power ought to be used with the greatest caution, under urgent circumstances, and for very plain and obvious causes; and, in capital cases especially, Courts should be extremely careful how they interfere with any of the chances of life, in favour of the prisoner. But, after all, they have the right to order the discharge; and the security which the public have for the faithful, sound, and conscientious exercise of this discretion, rests, in this, as in other cases, upon the responsibility of the Judges, under their oaths of office.” United States v. Perez, 9 Wheat. 579, 580 (1824).
This passage, too, is worthy of repetition, because in it the Perez Court struck a careful balance. The Court established the authority of trial judges to discharge the jury prior to verdict, but in recognition of the novelty and potential injustice of the practice, the Court subjected that authority to several constraints: The judge may not declare a mistrial unless “there is a manifest necessity for the act” or
The seeds of our entire jurisprudence on the permissibility of retrial following an initial mistrial are packed into this one passage. Later Courts have fleshed out Perez, without making significant innovations or additions. Justice Story‘s formulation has been “quoted over and over again to provide guidance in the decision of a wide variety of cases,” Washington, 434 U. S., at 506, and it has been “consistently adhered to by this Court in subsequent decisions,” Somerville, 410 U. S., at 462.
Thus, we have repeatedly reaffirmed that the power to discharge the jury prior to verdict should be reserved for “extraordinary and striking circumstances,” Downum v. United States, 372 U. S. 734, 736 (1963) (internal quotation marks omitted); that the trial judge may not take this “weighty” step, Somerville, 410 U. S., at 471, unless and until he has “scrupulous[ly]” assessed the situation and “take[n] care to assure himself that [it] warrants action on his part foreclosing the defendant from a potentially favorable judgment by the tribunal,” United States v. Jorn, 400 U. S. 470, 485, 486 (1971) (plurality opinion);11 that, to exercise
As the Court emphasizes, we have also repeatedly reaffirmed that trial judges have considerable leeway in determining whether the jury is deadlocked, that they are not bound to use specific procedures or to make specific findings, and that reviewing courts must accord broad deference to their decisions. Ante, at 773-775. But the reviewing court still has an important role to play; the application of deference “does not, of course, end the inquiry.” Washington, 434 U. S., at 514. “In order to ensure that [the defendant‘s constitutional] interest is adequately protected, reviewing courts have an obligation to satisfy themselves that, in the words of Mr. Justice Story, the trial judge exercised ‘sound discretion’ in declaring a mistrial.” Ibid. “If the record re-
Our precedents contain examples of judicial action on both sides of the line. We have, for instance, allowed a second trial when the jurors in the first trial, after 40 hours of deliberation, “announced in open court that they were unable to agree,” and no “specific and traversable fact[s]” called their deadlock into question. Logan v. United States, 144 U. S. 263, 298 (1892). We have likewise permitted reprosecution when the initial judge heard “extended argument” from both parties on the mistrial motion, acted with evident “concern for the possible double jeopardy consequences of an erroneous ruling,” and “accorded careful consideration to [the defendant‘s] interest in having the trial concluded in a single proceeding.” Washington, 434 U. S., at 501, 515, 516.
On the other hand, we have barred retrial when the first judge acted “abruptly,” cutting off the prosecutor “in midstream” and discharging the jury without giving the parties an opportunity to object. Jorn, 400 U. S., at 487 (plurality opinion); see also Somerville, 410 U. S., at 469 (characterizing Jorn judge‘s actions as “erratic“). And we have opined that, while trial judges have considerable leeway in deciding whether to discharge the jury, “[w]e resolve any doubt in favor of the liberty of the citizen, rather than exercise what would be an unlimited, uncertain, and arbitrary judicial discretion.” Downum, 372 U. S., at 738 (internal quotation marks omitted).
II
The Court accurately describes the events leading up to this trial judge‘s declaration of mistrial, ante, at 770-771, but it glides too quickly over a number of details that, taken to
It is probably fair to say that this trial was not especially complex, ante, at 772, 777, but neither was it a trivial affair. Lett was charged with the most serious of crimes, first-degree murder, as well as possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. He faced a potential sentence of life imprisonment if convicted. Seventeen witnesses provided testimony over the course of 10 calendar days. See 507 F. Supp. 2d 777, 779, 785-786 (ED Mich. 2007); see also id., at 785 (discussing “piecemeal fashion” in which evidence was presented to the jury).
The jury‘s first period of deliberation on Thursday afternoon lasted less than 40 minutes. “The jury likely spent” that brief session “doing little more than electing a foreperson.” People v. Lett, 466 Mich. 206, 227, 644 N. W. 2d 743, 755 (2002) (Cavanagh, J., dissenting). The jury deliberated a few more hours on Friday morning prior to discharge. During that time, it sent the trial court seven notes. Most were inconsequential, routine queries. The first note on Friday morning raised ““a concern about [the jurors‘] voice levels,” Letter from M. McCowan to Clerk of Court (Mar. 4, 2010), p. 2, but nothing in the record relates this concern to the substance or tenor of their discussion. At 12:27 p.m., the jury sent the fateful missive, asking: “What if we can‘t agree? [M]istrial? [R]etrial? [W]hat?‘” Ibid. Seconds later, still at 12:27 p.m., the jury sent another note: ““What about lunch?“” Ibid.
At 12:45 p.m., the trial judge initiated a colloquy with the foreperson that concluded in the mistrial declaration. See ante, at 770-771 (reproducing transcript of colloquy). Even accounting for the imprecision of oral communication, the judge made an inordinate number of logical and legal missteps during this short exchange. Cf. Somerville, 410 U. S., at 469 (critiquing “erratic” mistrial inquiry). It does not take much exegetical skill to spot them.
The judge began by stating: “I received your note asking me what if you can‘t agree? And I have to conclude from that that that is your situation at this time.” Ante, at 770. This ““conclu[sion]” ” was a non sequitur. The note asked what would happen if the jury could not agree; it gave no indication that the jury had already reached an irrevocable impasse. The judge ignored the request for information that the note actually contained. Instead, she announced that deadlock was the jury‘s “situation at this time,” thereby prejudging the question she had ostensibly summoned the foreperson to probe: namely, whether the jury was in fact deadlocked.
The judge continued: “I need to ask you if the jury is deadlocked; in other words, is there a disagreement as to the verdict?” ” Ibid. As the Federal Court of Appeals observed, this question “improperly conflated deadlock with mere disagreement.” 316 Fed. Appx. 421, 426 (CA6 2009). Deadlock is a “condition or situation in which it is impossible to proceed or act; a complete standstill.” 4 Oxford English Dictionary 290 (2d ed. 1989). Disagreement among jurors is perfectly normal and does not come close to approaching the “imperious necessity” we have required for their discharge. Downum, 372 U. S., at 736.
The trial judge then modulated her inquiry: “Do you believe [the jury] is hopelessly deadlocked?” ” Ante, at 770. The foreperson was in the midst of replying, ““The majority of us don‘t believe that-,” when the judge appears to have cut her off. Ibid. One cannot “fault the trial judge” for wanting “to preserve the secrecy of jury deliberations,” 507 F. Supp. 2d, at 787, but two aspects of the foreperson‘s truncated reply are notable. First, it “tends to show that the foreperson did not feel prepared to declare definitively that the jury was hopelessly deadlocked.” Ibid. If she had been so prepared, then it is hard to see why she would begin
Second, the foreperson‘s reply suggests the jury may have been leaning toward acquittal. Admittedly, this is crude speculation, but it is entirely possible that the foreperson was in the process of saying, “The majority of us don‘t believe that he‘s guilty.” Or: “The majority of us don‘t believe that there is sufficient evidence to prove one of the counts.” (On retrial, Lett was convicted on both counts.) These possibilities are, I submit, linguistically more probable than something like the following: “The majority of us don‘t believe that Lett is guilty, whereas a minority of us believe that he is—and we are hopelessly deadlocked on the matter.” And they are logically far more probable than something along the lines of, “The majority of us don‘t believe that we will ever be able to reach a verdict,” as the foreperson had been given no opportunity to poll her colleagues on this point. Yet only such implausible endings could have supported a conclusion that it was manifestly necessary to discharge the jury.14
The judge then steered the conversation back to the issue of deadlock, asking: ““Are you going to reach a unanimous verdict, or not?” Ante, at 771. After the foreperson hesitated, the judge persisted: “Yes or no?“” Ibid. The foreperson replied: ““No, Judge.” Ibid. Two aspects of this interchange are also notable. First, the judge‘s question, though “very direct,” was “actually rather ambiguous,” because it gave the foreperson no temporal or legal context
Second, the foreperson‘s hesitation suggests a lack of confidence in her position. That alone ought to have called into question the propriety of a mistrial order. But the judge bore down and demanded an unqualified answer, “Yes or no.‘” Most of the time when we worry about judicial coercion of juries, we worry about judges pressuring them, in the common-law manner, to keep deliberating until they return a verdict they may not otherwise have chosen. This judge exerted pressure so as to prevent the jury from reaching any verdict at all. In so doing, she cut off deliberations well before the point when it was clear they would no longer be fruitful. Recall that prior to summoning the foreperson for their colloquy, the trial judge gave her no opportunity to consult with the other jurors on the matter that would be discussed. So, the foreperson had no solid basis for estimating the likelihood of deadlock. Recall, as well, that almost immediately after sending the judge a note asking what would happen if they disagreed, the jury sent a note asking about lunch. Plainly, this was a group that was prepared to go on with its work.
The judge then declared a mistrial on the spot. Her entire exchange with the foreperson took three minutes, from 12:45 p.m. to 12:48 p.m. App. to Pet. for Cert. 93a-94a. The entire jury deliberations took roughly four hours. The judge gave the parties no opportunity to comment on the
In addition to the remarkable “hast[e],” Washington, 434 U. S., at 515, n. 34, and “inexplicabl[e] abrupt[ness],” 316 Fed. Appx., at 428, with which she acted, it is remarkable what the trial judge did not do. “Never did the trial judge consider alternatives or otherwise provide evidence that she exercised sound discretion. For example, the judge did not poll the jurors, give an instruction ordering further deliberations, query defense counsel about his thoughts on continued deliberations, or indicate on the record why a mistrial declaration was necessary.” Lett, 466 Mich., at 227-228, 644 N. W. 2d, at 755 (Cavanagh, J., dissenting). Nor did the judge invite any argument or input from the prosecutor, make any findings of fact or provide any statements illuminating her thought process, follow up on the foreperson‘s final response, or give any evident consideration to the ends of public justice or the balance between the defendant‘s rights and the State‘s interests. The manner in which this discharge decision was made contravened standard trial-court guidelines.15
Add all these factors up, and I fail to see how the trial judge exercised anything resembling “sound discretion” in declaring a mistrial, as we have defined that term. Indeed, I fail to see how a record could disclose much less evidence of sound decisionmaking. Within the realm of realistic, nonpretextual possibilities, this mistrial declaration was about as precipitate as one is liable to find. Despite the multitude of cases involving hung-jury mistrials that have arisen over the years, neither petitioner nor the Court has been able to identify any in which such abrupt judicial action has been upheld. See Tr. of Oral Arg. 12-15. Even the prosecutor felt compelled to acknowledge that the trial court‘s decision
The Michigan Supreme Court‘s contrary conclusion was unreasonable. The court suggested that an abuse of discretion should only be found “when the result is “so palpably and grossly violative of fact and logic that it evidences not the exercise of will but perversity of will, not the exercise of judgment but defiance thereof.““” Lett, 466 Mich., at 221, n. 12, 644 N. W. 2d, at 751, n. 12 (quoting Alken-Ziegler, Inc. v. Waterbury Headers Corp., 461 Mich. 219, 227, 600 N. W. 2d 638, 642 (1999)). Finding that the record in this case “provides sufficient justification for the mistrial declaration,” Lett, 466 Mich., at 218, 644 N. W. 2d, at 750, the court concluded that the declaration constituted a permissible exercise of judicial discretion, id., at 223, 644 N. W. 2d, at 753. The court listed, without explaining, several reasons for this conclusion. The jury “had deliberated for at least four hours following a relatively short, and far from complex, trial“; it “had sent out several notes over the course of its deliberations, including one that appears to indicate that its discussions may have been particularly heated“; the parties did not object to the mistrial order; and, “[m]ost important,” “the jury foreperson expressly stated that the jury was not going to reach a verdict.” Ibid.; see ante, at 777-778 (reprising this list).16
The Michigan Supreme Court‘s defense of the trial court‘s actions is thus weak on its own terms. It collapses entirely under the weight of the many defects in the trial court‘s process, virtually all of which the court either overlooked or discounted.
The unreasonableness of the Michigan Supreme Court‘s decision is highlighted by the decisions of the three other courts that have addressed Lett‘s double jeopardy claim, each of which ruled in his favor, as well as the dissent filed by two Michigan Supreme Court justices and the opinion of the State‘s own prosecutor. This Court‘s decision unfortunately compounds the deleterious consequences of the Michigan Supreme Court‘s ruling. “Although the trial judge‘s decision is entitled to great deference, it is not the place of a reviewing court to extract factoids from the record in an attempt to salvage a bad decision.” 507 F. Supp. 2d, at 787.
III
The Court does not really try to vindicate the Michigan Supreme Court on the merits, but instead ascribes today‘s outcome to the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA). The foregoing analysis shows why the Michigan Supreme Court‘s ruling cannot be saved by
First, the fact that the substantive legal standard applied by the state court “is a general one” has no bearing on the standard of review. Ante, at 778. We have said that “[t]he more general the rule, the more leeway courts have in reaching outcomes in case-by-case determinations.” Yarborough v. Alvarado, 541 U. S. 652, 664 (2004). But this statement stands only for the unremarkable proposition that more broadly framed rules will tend to encompass a broader set of conforming applications. Regardless of the nature of the legal principle at issue, the task of a federal court remains the same under
Second, I do not agree that the Federal Court of Appeals “erred” by “rel[ying] upon its own decision” applying Arizona v. Washington. Ante, at 778. The Sixth Circuit was well aware that its own decision “does not constitute ‘clearly established Federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court.” Ante, at 779 (quoting
Finally, I do not agree that AEDPA authorizes “the dual layers of deference” the Court has utilized in this case. Ante, at 778. There is little doubt that AEDPA “directs federal courts to attend to every state-court judgment with utmost care.” Williams, 529 U. S., at 389 (opinion of STEVENS, J.). But the statute never uses the term “deference,” and the legislative history makes clear that Congress meant to preserve robust federal-court review. Id., at 386-387; see also Hertz & Liebman § 32.3, at 1587-1589, n. 13 (summarizing congressional record and noting that “[t]he aspect of prior practice that most troubled AEDPA‘s supporters was the federal court‘s inattention to, and lack of respect for, state court decisions that the federal court, if it only looked, would find to be legally correct“). Any attempt to prevent federal courts from exercising independent review of habeas applications would have been a radical reform of dubious constitutionality, and Congress “would have spoken with much greater clarity” if that had been its intent. Williams, 529 U. S., at 379 (opinion of STEVENS, J.).
So on two levels, it is absolutely “necessary for us to decide whether the Michigan Supreme Court‘s decision ... was right or wrong.” Ante, at 778, n. 3. If a federal judge were firmly convinced that such a decision were wrong, then in my view not only would he have no statutory duty to uphold it, but he might also have a constitutional obligation to reverse it. And regardless of how one conceptualizes the distinction between an incorrect and an “unreasonable” state-court ruling under
*
*
*
In this case, Reginald Lett‘s constitutional rights were violated when the trial court terminated his first trial without adequate justification and he was subsequently prosecuted for the same offense. The majority does not appear to dispute this point, but it nevertheless denies Lett relief by applying a level of deference to the state court‘s ruling that effectively effaces the role of the federal courts. Nothing one will find in the United States Code or the United States Reports requires us to turn a blind eye to this manifestly unlawful conviction.
I respectfully dissent.