Askari Abdullah Muhammad, formerly Thomas Knight, was sentenced to death in Florida for a 1974 double murder and later received a second death sentence for murdering a prison guard. After decades of state and federal post-conviction litigation, a federal district court granted habeas relief from the resentencing of the first case, finding a Confrontation Clause violation. The Eleventh Circuit reversed. The panel held that hearsay testimony recounting prior statements was admissible at a capital sentencing proceeding because Muhammad had an opportunity to rebut the evidence, including through cross-examination and his own witnesses. The court also rejected Muhammad’s Ex Post Facto Clause challenge to Florida’s later-enacted “cold, calculated, and premeditated” aggravating factor. Applying the factor retrospectively did not disadvantage him because the facts supporting it overlapped with other aggravating circumstances. The majority therefore reinstated the state judgment and denied the habeas petition. Judge Barkett dissented. She concluded that Florida’s procedural bar was inadequate because Muhammad had made a clear continuing Confrontation Clause objection, and that the Sixth Amendment right to cross-examine adverse witnesses applied to capital resentencing. In her view, the State repeated statements from witnesses Muhammad could not meaningfully confront and failed to show their unavailability. The decision reversed the federal habeas grant without ordering a new sentencing proceeding.