Wheeler v. White

Issue: (1) Whether the Sixth Circuit"s ruling " that the lack of Supreme Court case law holding that references to a victim"s pregnancy when the pregnancy is not an issue at trial violates due process means no "clearly established" law exists for purposes of 28 U.S.C. §2254(d) " conflicts with this Court"s rulings holding that "clearly established" law does not require a case with an identical fact pattern but instead includes legal principles and standards flowing from precedent and general standards designed to apply to a myriad of factual situations; and (2) whether this Court"s standard that a state evidentiary ruling can be so egregious as to deny a defendant fundamental fairness and thus violate the federal due process clause is broad enough to constitute "clearly established" law that applies when the prosecution introduces irrelevant evidence of a victim"s pregnancy; and, if so, whether the evidence regarding the victim"s pregnancy and the prosecutor"s ensuing argument are "contrary to" or an "unreasonable application of" this "clearly established" law.