Kustok v. Mitchell, No. 23-2125 (7th Cir. 2024)
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In 2014, Allan Kustok was convicted of murdering his wife, Anita “Jeannie” Kustok. Kustok claimed that his wife had accidentally shot herself or committed suicide. However, the state argued that Kustok had shot his wife and presented evidence of his extramarital affairs, his purchase of the gun used in the shooting, and inconsistencies in his account of the incident. After his conviction, Kustok sought a new trial, arguing that new evidence cast doubt on the testimony of an expert witness for the prosecution. His motion was denied, and his subsequent appeals were unsuccessful.
Kustok then filed a state postconviction petition, arguing that his trial counsel had been ineffective for failing to discover exculpatory evidence before the trial. The state courts found that Kustok had waived this claim by not raising it on direct appeal. Kustok then filed a federal habeas corpus petition, presenting the same claim. The district court held that the state-court waiver meant Kustok had procedurally defaulted the claim for federal-court purposes.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit agreed that Kustok had procedurally defaulted his claim. The court also concluded that Kustok did not qualify for any exception to the procedural-default rules, and therefore affirmed the dismissal of his petition. The court found that even if Kustok's lawyer had introduced evidence about a certain soot stain at trial, it was not substantially likely that the jury would have returned a different verdict.
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