United States Sixth Circuit

District court's grant of defendant's petition for habeas relief, holding that there was insufficient evidence to convict the defendant of second-degree murder, is reversed and remanded where: 1) there was sufficient evidence from which a rational trier of fact could conclude that defendant was guilty of second-degree murder under an aiding and abetting theory as: (i) there was sufficient evidence that the crime charged, the murder of the victim, was committed by the principals; (ii) that defendant assisted the commission of the murder was supported by evidence that he provided a weapon with the knowledge that the men intended to use it in the commission of a robbery; (iii) under Michigan law, there was sufficient evidence presented in the case from which a rational trier of fact could infer the requisite malice to find defendant guilty of second-degree murder; 2) fundamental fairness and "basic principles of individual criminal culpability" are satisfied in this case; and 3) defendant has failed to show that the decision of the Michigan Court of Appeals was objectively unreasonable.

Appellate Information

• Argued 10/14/2009
• Decided 02/19/2010
• Published 02/19/2010

Judges

• Before GILMAN and GIBBONS, Circuit Judges; ANDERSON, District Judge.

Court

• United States Sixth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• ARGUED:Debra M. Gagliardi, Office of the Michigan Attorney General, Lansing, Michigan, for Appellant. William J. Hubbard, Thompson Hine LLP, Cleveland, Ohio, for Appellee. ON BRIEF:Debra M. Gagliardi, Office of the Michigan Attorney General, Lansing, Michigan, for Appellant. William J. Hubbard, Frank R. DeSantis, Thompson Hine LLP, Cleveland, Ohio, for Appellee.