28 U.S.C. § 2245
Section 2245 · Certificate of trial judge admissible in evidence
This is the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 53 court decisions — leading case Townsend v. Sain (1963)
Most recently applied in James Mammone, III v. Charlotte Jenkins (September 2022)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
On the hearing of an application for a writ of habeas corpus to inquire into the legality of the detention of a person pursuant to a judgment the certificate of the judge who presided at the trial resulting in the judgment, setting forth the facts occurring at the trial, shall be admissible in evidence. Copies of the certificate shall be filed with the court in which the application is pending and in the court in which the trial took place.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Historical and Revision Notes
This section makes no substantive change in existing law. It is derived from H.R. 4232 introduced in the first session of the Seventy-ninth Congress by Chairman Sumners of the House Committee on the Judiciary. It clarifies existing law and promotes uniform procedure.