Sonia Sotomayor

“ To be sure, under §2254 (e) (2) , if a habeas petitioner "has failed to develop the factual basis of a claim in State court proceedings, the court shall not hold an evidentiary hearing on the claim" unless certain conditions are met. Had the State invoked this section in the District Court, the hearing may have been barred for the reasons given by the Court of Appeals. But whether §2254 (e) (2) barred the hearing is a separate question from whether the State's §2254 (e) (2) objection was properly before the Court of Appeals in the first place. ”

“ The testimony at the hearing established that Williams had been "subject to every category of traumatic experience that is generally used to describe childhood trauma": sexual abuse by multiple perpetrators; physical and psychological abuse by his mother and stepfather; gross medical, nutritional, and educational neglect; exposure to violence in the childhood home and neighborhood ”

“ Not surprisingly, the jury unanimously recommended a death sentence. The trial court sentenced Williams to death by lethal injection, and the Arkansas Supreme Court af-
page 2, slip opinion firmed the conviction and sentence on direct appeal. Williams v. State, 338 Ark. 97, 991 S. W. 2d 565 (1999) .
After the Arkansas courts denied his petition for collateral relief, Williams filed a federal habeas petition under 28 U.S.C. §2254. Williams alleged that he received ineffective assistance of counsel under Strickland v. ”