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Name: Doe v. Woodford
Case #: 06-16154
Opinion Date: 11/27/2007
Citation: 508 Fed.3d 563
Summary

Plea was not rendered involuntary by the limited amount of time petitioner had to consider plea agreement. Affirming the district court’s denial of a habeas petition, the appellate court held that the state Supreme Court was not objectively unreasonable in its application of controlling federal law when it determined that the petitioner’s plea was not rendered involuntary by the limited time (2 hours) that he had to consider the plea agreement, in combination with his mental defects. Petitioner participated in a thorough plea colloquy in which he said that the plea was voluntarily made and that he had had enough time to discuss it with his attorney. The panel declined to expand the certificate of appealability to include issues of ineffective assistance of counsel in the failure to investigate potential mental defenses and in the decision to allow the petitioner to be interviewed by police detectives.