Fourth Circuit - Liberal Bastion for the Wrongly Convicted?

Well - at least the Fourth doesn't cover its ears to a claim because they don't think a defendant can prevail.

For a good contrast of the Bill Turner case I mentioned a couple weeks ago, read US v. MacDonald, out of the Fourth Circuit -

Reversing a trial judge for not conducting a more expanded post-conviction hearing.  The opinion is pretty technical, but an interesting read for anybody who does post-conviction work.  I think the main thing to draw from it is that the Fourth Circuit - widely thought of as the most conservative circuit - remains committed in theory to the idea of letting a defendant present his case, where our circuit remains committed to the theory of a really, really, really broad harmless-error-type line of thinking (in criminal matters that is).

Take a look at the opinion and mull over which Circuit you would rather be appealing in.