How do federal courts review a decision of a state court?

MultiRegion, United States of America

The following excerpt is from Martinez-Villareal v. Lewis, 80 F.3d 1301 (9th Cir. 1996):

A federal court reviewing the decision of a state court is to use the "rational factfinder" test established in Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560, reh'g denied, 444 U.S. 890, 100 S.Ct. 195, 62 L.Ed.2d 126 (1979). "A state court's finding of an aggravating circumstance in a particular case-including a de novo finding by an appellate court that a particular offense is 'especially heinous ... or depraved'--is arbitrary or capricious if and only if no reasonable sentencer could have so concluded." Lewis v. Jeffers, 497 U.S. 764, 783, 110 S.Ct. 3092, 3103, 111 L.Ed.2d 606, reh'g denied,

Page 1308

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