Habeas Corpus — right to present a defense

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United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit

Criminal

Habeas Corpus — right to present a defense

In a state court trial for fleeing an officer, it did not violate the defendant’s right to present evidence to exclude evidence that the police officer from whom he fled had a “confrontational, aggressive and hot-tempered” character.

“[T]he standards that govern habeas corpus review of state-court judgments ensure that we need not decide that question in this case. Excluding the character evidence about Officer Klinkhammer focused the jury on the relevant issues while still permitting Hanson to make a vigorous case that he was acting in self-defense when he fled the scene of the traffic stop. The Wisconsin Supreme Court’s decision rejecting Hanson’s constitutional claim was neither contrary to, nor involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established federal law, and we must therefore deny Hanson’s petition.”

Affirmed.

13-1535 Hanson v. Beth

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, Stadtmueller, J., Flaum, J.