Corcoran v. Neal

Dist. Ct. did not err in denying defendant’s habeas petition challenging his death sentence, even though defendant argued that trial court improperly relied on non-statutory aggravating factors and failed to consider defendant’s mitigating evidence when imposing instant death sentence. Under deferential AEDPA standard of review, state supreme court’s factual determinations that trial court had not relied on non-statutory aggravating factors when imposing death sentence, and that trial court had considered all proffered evidence in mitigation were not unreasonable. Fact that state supreme court relied in part on trial court’s assurance that she considered only statutory factors when imposing death sentence did not require different result.