Jury Instructions

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Jimmy L. Powell v. Larry Fuchs

Case No.: 19-1818

Officials: WOOD, BRENNAN, and ST. EVE, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Jury Instructions

Jimmy Powell dealt cocaine. After a drug deal went bad and his customer ended up with life‐ threatening injuries, he was charged in Wisconsin state court with various crimes, including first‐degree reckless injury. A jury found Powell guilty of that crime but acquitted him of two more serious charges. He appealed, contending that a supplemental jury instruction about the reckless injury charge misstated the law and that his counsel was ineffective for agreeing to it. The state appellate court rejected his arguments, as did the district court when Powell raised them in a petition for a writ of habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C. § 2254.

In this appeal, Powell maintains his claim that his trial counsel was ineffective for approving the supplemental jury instruction, and he argues that the state appellate court unreasonably applied federal law in concluding otherwise. But he offers no clear and convincing evidence to rebut the state appellate court’s conclusion that the instruction was an accurate response to a question from the jury. The record also shows that Powell’s trial counsel had reasonable and strategic reasons for not objecting, so we affirm.

Affirmed

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Derek A Hawkins is Corporate Counsel, at Salesforce.