Weaver v. Massachusetts

Weaver (defendant) was convicted of murder after the public, including his mother and her minister, was excluded from two days of jury selection due to courtroom capacity, at a time before the Supreme Court had clarified that the public-trial right extends to jury selection; his counsel neither objected nor advised him of the issue, and Weaver later raised ineffective assistance on collateral review, with the state courts finding a public-trial violation and deficient performance but no resulting prejudice. The state supreme court affirmed, and Weaver appealed to the United States Supreme Court.

Whether ineffective assistance of counsel that resulted in an unpreserved structural error, raised on collateral review, requires a new trial only upon a showing of prejudice or fundamental unfairness.