In McWilliams v. Dunn, 582 U.S. ___ (June 19, 2017), an Alabama capital case, the Supreme Court ruled that petitioner's right to expert mental health assistance at sentencing under Ake v. Oklahoma, 470 U.S. 86 (1985) was violated. Petitioner was evaluated pre-trial at a state hospital for purposes of determining competence and mental state at the time of the offense, and prior to judicial sentence by a neuropsychologist employed by the State’s Department of Mental Health. He was denied, however, his request for appointment of an expert to assist in reviewing the prior evaluations and the extensive medical records in order to prepare and present mitigation evidence. The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeal’s finding of no violation of Ake was contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of clearly established federal law. There was no dispute that petitioner met the threshold criteria for application of Ake in that he was indigent, his mental condition was relevant to punishment, and his mental state at the time of the offense was seriously in question. In such a situation, “Ake clearly established that a defendant must receive the assistance of a mental health expert who is sufficiently available to the defense and independent from the prosecution to effectively ‘assist in evaluation, preparation, and presentation of the defense,’ 470 U.S., at 83 . . .. Whether or not Ake clearly established the right to a qualified mental health expert retained specifically for the defense team, rather than a neutral expert available to both parties, need not be decided in this case. The case is remanded for consideration of whether the error had a substantial and injurious effect or influence on the verdict. Although the Eleventh Circuit had concluded below that it did not, the court of appeals reached that conclusion by considering only whether a few additional days to review the neuropsychologist’s findings would have made a difference. On remand, the court of appeals is to “consider whether access to the type of meaningful assistance in evaluating, preparing, and presenting the defense that Ake requires would have mattered.”