In Lamarca v. Sec. Dep’t of Corrections, No. 08-16775 (May 19, 2009), the Court denied habeas relief to a Florida inmate sentence to death for the 1995 murder of his son-in-law.
The Court rejected most of Lamarca’s claims because they were not presented to the Florida state courts, and therefore were not exhausted. The Court also rejected Lamarca’s argument that he was unfairly precluded at his trial from showing that his daughter wanted a divorce and therefore had a motive to kill her husband. The Court noted that the Florida Supreme Court had agreed with Lamarca on this issue, but found that the error was harmless in light of the strong evidence against him. The Court found that no jurists of reason would find this State determination to be an unreasonable application of federal law.
