Page:United States Reports 502 OCT. TERM 1991.pdf/226

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ESTELLE v. McGUIRE Opinion of the Court

province of a federal habeas court to reexamine state-court determinations on state-law questions. In conducting habeas review, a federal court is limited to deciding whether a conviction violated the Constitution, laws, or treaties of the United States. 28 U. S. C. § 2241; Rose v. Hodges, 423 U. S. 19, 21 (1975) (per curiam).2 We thus turn to the question whether the admission of the evidence violated McGuire’s federal constitutional rights. California law allows the prosecution to introduce expert testimony and evidence related to prior injuries in order to prove “battered child syndrome.” People v. Bledsoe, supra, at 249, 681 P. 2d, at 299; Landeros v. Flood, 17 Cal. 3d 399, 409, 551 P. 2d 389, 393 (1976); People v. Jackson, 18 Cal. App. 3d 504, 506–508, 95 Cal. Rptr. 919, 921–922 (1971). The demonstration of battered child syndrome “simply indicates that a child found with [serious, repeated injuries] has not suffered those injuries by accidental means.” Id., at 507, 95 Cal. Rptr., at 921. Thus, evidence demonstrating battered child syndrome helps to prove that the child died at the hands of another and not by falling off a couch, for example; it also tends to establish that the “other,” whoever it may be, inflicted the injuries intentionally. When offered to show that certain injuries are a product of child abuse, rather than accident, evidence of prior injuries is relevant even though it does not purport to prove the identity of the person who might have inflicted those injuries. See id., at 506–508, 95 Cal. Rptr., at 921–922; People v. Bledsoe, supra, at 249, 681 P. 2d, at 299. Because the prosecution had 2

In this regard, we observe that the Ninth Circuit reached a similar result in Blair v. McCarthy, 881 F. 2d 602 (1989), cert. granted, 498 U. S. 807, vacated as moot and remanded, 498 U. S. 954 (1990). In that case, the Court of Appeals based its grant of habeas relief solely on a violation of state law that prejudiced the defendant. Blair v. McCarthy, supra, at 603–604. As our discussion above makes clear, such state-law violations provide no basis for federal habeas relief.