Defendant was found guilty in state court of reckless homicide and possession of a firearm as a convicted felon. After exhausting state court appeals, defendant filed a petition for habeas corpus in federal court in which he argued that one of the jury instructions improperly lowered the government’s burden of proof and that the prosecutor’s closing arguments improperly imposed on him the burden of proving his innocence. The Seventh Circuit affirmed the district court’s order holding that the state court reasonably applied Supreme Court precedent when concluding that it was not reasonably likely that the jury had applied a jury instruction in an unconstitutional manner and that defendant did not demonstrate that the prosector’s closing argument violated precedent. (ROVNER and SCUDDER, concurring)
Federal 7th Circuit Court
Criminal Court
Federal Habeas Corpus