In a burglary prosecution, a grant of petitioner's habeas petition is affirmed where a state court's approval of the trial court's instruction, directing the jurors to the evidence the judge believed supported conviction, crossed the boundary from appropriate encouragement to exercise the duty to deliberate in order to reach a unanimous verdict, and went into the forbidden territory of coercing a particular verdict on the basis of the judge's selective view of the evidence.
Read Smith v. Curry, No. 07-16875
Appellate Information
Argued September 24, 2007
Submitted September 8, 2009
Judges
Opinion by Judge Schroeder
Dissent by Judge Smith
Counsel
For Petitioner:
David M. Porter, Federal Defender, Sacramento, CA
For Respondents: