Clark v. Sweeney · ¶12

The Fourth Circuit transgressed the party-presentation principle by granting relief on a claim that Sweeney never asserted and that the State never had the chance to address. Sweeney asserted “one, and only one,” claim in his federal habeas petition: that his counsel was ineffective for failing to investigate whether other jurors had been prejudiced by Juror 4's crime-scene visit. App. to Pet. for Cert. 53a (Quattlebaum, J., dissenting). Instead of ruling on that claim, the Fourth Circuit devised a new one, based on a “combination of extraordinary failures from juror to judge to attorney.” Id., at 22a. The Fourth Circuit's “radical transformation” of Sweeney's simple ineffective-assistance claim “departed so drastically from the principle of party presentation as to constitute an abuse of discretion.” Sineneng-Smith, 590 U. S., at 380, 375. We accordingly reverse the judgment of the…

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