United States Eighth Circuit

Denial of claims brought under a petition for habeas relief is affirmed where: 1) trial court's refusal to give a jury instruction on voluntariness was not a violation of plaintiff's rights as the voluntariness of a confession is a matter decided by the court and not the jury; 2) state court decision that any error in excluding inmate testimony was harmless was not an unreasonable application of plaintiff's constitutional rights under the Court's ruling in Crane, as the evidence was cumulative; and 3) the state courts did not violate plaintiff's right to due process and to present a complete defense in denying his postconviction petition to require additional fingerprint testing as the claim was procedurally barred since plaintiff raised no issue of federal constitutional law and cited no federal authority in the state courts.

Appellate Information

• Decided 04/30/2009
• Published 04/30/2009

Judges

• LOKEN, Chief Judge., Before LOKEN, Chief Judge, BEAM and ARNOLD, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Eighth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• John Wesley Hall, Jr., argued, Little Rock, AR, for appellant.


• For Appellees:
  
• Pamela Rumpz, AAG, argued, Little Rock, AR, for appellee.