No habeas for weak conviction

MANHATTAN — The Second Circuit affirmed a New York federal court’s denial of habeas relief to an incarcerated man who has spent 30 years in prison for a murder conviction at age 18, who seeks relief because one of two eyewitnesses recanted and others have offered alibi testimony. This “troubling case about a weakly supported” conviction “may have condemned an innocent teenager to decades in prison,” but his mere contention that he is innocent does not overcome the deference owed to the state court per federal law.