Paul Evans was convicted in Florida of a murder-for-hire killing and sentenced to death. The federal district court denied habeas relief on his conviction but granted relief from the death sentence, concluding that Florida’s capital-sentencing procedure violated the Sixth Amendment under Ring v. Arizona because the judge, rather than the jury, made the findings supporting death. The Eleventh Circuit affirmed denial of relief on the conviction and reversed the sentence ruling. It held that directly controlling Supreme Court precedent approving Florida’s advisory-jury and judicial-sentencing structure remained binding unless the Supreme Court itself overruled it; lower courts could not anticipate that result from a different line of cases. The court also affirmed denial of Evans’s cross-appealed claims concerning partial courtroom closure during voir dire and counsel’s failure to call potential witnesses. Under AEDPA, the state court’s decisions were entitled to substantial deference, and Evans did not show that counsel’s strategic choices were deficient or prejudicial. The court rejected cumulative-prejudice arguments based on failures that did not themselves satisfy Strickland. The judgment was affirmed as to the conviction and reversed as to the sentence.