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Jacques Robidoux v. Steven J. O'brien, Superintendent

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Before Boudin, Circuit Judge, Souter, *fn1 Associate Justice, and Selya, Circuit Judge.

Jacques Robidoux was convicted in Massachusetts state court for the murder of his eleven-month-old son for which he is serving a life sentence. He now seeks review of the district court’s denial of his federal petition for habeas corpus. 28 U.S.C. § 2254 (2006). The central question is whether his trial counsel, Francis O’Boy, provided competent representation. A brief summary of background events and earlier proceedings is a preface to several difficult legal issues.*fn2

Robidoux’s father led a religious sect that included Robidoux and his wife, Karen. One of his father’s beliefs was that a number of ordinary institutions, including the legal system, the medical system, and mainstream religion, were invalid–indeed, among “Satan’s seven counterfeit systems”–and members of the sect were instructed to eschew doctors and medicines.

 
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