Steffes v. Pollard

Dist. Ct. did not err in denying defendant’s habeas petition challenging his sexual assault of minor conviction arising out of incident in which female minor gave fellatio to defendant, even though defendant argued that his counsel was ineffective for failing to request instruction directing jury to convict defendant only if sexual act was performed by defendant or upon his direction. Defendant failed to show any prejudice in failure to give said instruction where facts adduced at trial indicated that sexual act occurred at defendant’s instruction, even though record did not show that defendant gave minor any specific instruction to do so. Moreover, defendant’s allowance of sexual touching was sufficient under Wisc. law to satisfy language in defendant’s proposed instruction.