The Supreme Court unanimously reinstated a Nevada child molester’s conviction Wednesday in a decision that continued the justices’ refusal to apply recent rulings on criminal procedure to older cases.
Marvin Bockting was convicted in 1988 on the strength of his stepdaughter’s statements to police. But then-6-year-old Autumn Bockting did not testify at Bockting’s trial, so his lawyers never had the opportunity to question the child.