Brown v. Finnan

Dist. Ct. did not err in denying defendant's habeas petition challenging his murder conviction alleging that his trial and appellate counsel were ineffective for failing to raise issue arising out of incident in which one victim's mother made statement in courtroom that situation was racist and made statement outside courtroom that courthouse should be treated similarly to bombed World Trade Center. Mother's statement that situation was racist was ambiguous and innocuous where defendant shared same race as victim. Moreover, defendant was not entitled to Renner hearing arising out of said statement where said statement would not have effected reasonable juror's deliberation of defendant's guilt or innocence. Similarly, defendant could not demand Renner hearing as to World Trade Center comment since he failed to show that any juror had actually heard said comment.