United States Ninth Circuit

Following a Nevada state court conviction for first degree murder with a deadly weapon, and robbery with a deadly weapon, judgment granting petitioner's writ of habeas corpus is reversed, where: 1) an instruction given in petitioner's case was invalidated by the Nevada Supreme court in the Byford v. State, 994 P.2d 700 (Nev. 2000), which narrowed the scope of conduct that could qualify as first degree murder by expanding and separating definitions of premeditation, deliberation and willfulness; 2) the Byford case should be applied to petitioner's conviction, which was not final at the time Byford was decided; and 3) in light of the overwhelming evidence supporting the felony murder theory, the Court is reasonably certain that no juror convicted petitioner based on premeditation because the jury was specifically instructed to only consider premeditated murder if felony murder did not apply, and thus the erroneous instructions constituted harmless error. (Amended Opinion)

Appellate Information

• Decided 06/06/2013
• Published 06/06/2013

Judges

• MURGUIA

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel