Carey v. Musladin

At respondent Musladin’s murder trial, members of the victim’s family sat in the front row of the spectators’ gallery wearing buttons displaying the victim’s image. The trial court denied Musladin’s motion to order the family members not to wear the buttons. The California Court of Appeal upheld Musladin’s conviction, stating that he had to show actual or inherent prejudice to succeed on the buttons claim; citing Holbrook v. Flynn, 475 U. S. 560, as providing the test for inherent prejudice; and ruling that he had not satisfied that test. The Federal District Court denied Musladin’s habeas petition, but the Ninth Circuit reversed and remanded, finding that the state court’s decision “was contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law,” 28 U. S. C. §2254(d)(1), as deter-mined by this Court in Estelle v. Williams, 425 U. S. 501, and Flynn, supra.