Riley v. McDaniel, No. 11-99004 (9th Cir. 2015)
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Petitioner, convicted of robbery and murder, appealed the denial of his habeas corpus petition. Petitioner argued, inter alia, that one of the guilt-phase instructions given at his trial violated his due process rights by advising the jury that if it finds “premeditation,” it has necessarily found “deliberation.” Petitioner contended that this instruction relieved the state of its burden to prove every element of the offense. The district court found that the state trial court had committed constitutional error, but that the error was harmless. The court concluded, however, that the error was prejudicial where the court had no reason to believe that the jury in fact decided to convict petitioner based on a felony-murder theory rather than on the more traditional first-degree murder charge. The evidence of petitioner’s cocaine intoxication and emotional agitation might well have created reasonable doubt as to the third element of first-degree murder, the one the court’s instructions failed to identify as
an independent element: deliberation. Accordingly, the court reversed and remanded with instructions to grant the writ unless the State of Nevada elects to pursue a new trial within a reasonable time.
Court Description: Habeas Corpus. The panel reversed the district court’s denial of Billy Ray Riley’s habeas corpus petition challenging his Nevada conviction and death sentence for murder, and remanded with instructions to grant the writ unless the State of Nevada elects to pursue a new trial within a reasonable amount of time. Reviewing de novo, the panel held that because Nevada law treated deliberation as a distinct element of first-degree murder at the time Riley was convicted and at the time his conviction became final, the district court’s use of an instruction during the guilt phase of trial defining deliberation as a part of premeditation, rather than as a separate element, constituted a due process violation. The panel held that Riley was prejudiced because the jury was presented with significant evidence of Riley’s cocaine intoxication and emotional agitation – evidence which might well have created a reasonable doubt as to whether the murder was committed with deliberation as well as with premeditation. RILEY V. MCDANIEL 3
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