Overview
- The Court held that the Fourth Circuit departed from what AEDPA prescribes when it affirmed federal habeas relief in an unpublished decision.
- Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson noted a lone dissent by stating she would have denied certiorari without issuing an opinion.
- Charles Brandon Martin’s Maryland conviction for the attempted murder of Jodi Torok had survived state appellate review after a state postconviction grant of a new trial was reversed.
- The undisclosed forensic report indicated no keyword hits for terms linked to alleged online searches about silencers, but the Supreme Court said a fair‑minded jurist could conclude disclosure would not have changed the verdict under Brady’s materiality standard.
- The judgment is reversed and the case is remanded, marking another summary correction of a Fourth Circuit habeas ruling this term following November’s decision in Clark v. Sweeney.