[agrace]

Thank you. That's very concise and helpful for this layman (er, woman). So how come state-convicted death penalty inmates get federal review?

Any idea whether there any precedent where the Supreme Court found a state law in violation of federally protected civil rights and therefore unconstitutional?

In fact, didn't they just do this in their ruling about juvenile death row convicts?

[MatrixMetaphore]

My guess is that the federal government, having its own laws on capital punishment, reviews the case because of the supremacy clause.