Ferguson v. Knight, 85-5726
Decision Date | 29 July 1986 |
Docket Number | No. 85-5726,85-5726 |
Citation | 797 F.2d 289 |
Parties | Algar FERGUSON, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Judge James A. KNIGHT, and David L. Armstrong, Respondents-Appellees. |
Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit |
Eldred E. Adams, Jr. (argued), Louise, Ky., for petitioner-appellant.
Joseph R. Johnson (argued), Office of the Atty. Gen., Frankfort, Ky., for respondents-appellees.
Before MERRITT, JONES and NELSON, Circuit Judges.
ON PETITION FOR REHEARING
Petitioner Ferguson has sought rehearing on grounds that a majority of the panel do not find persuasive. The petition for rehearing will be granted, however, on the strength of Dawson v. Cowan, 531 F.2d 1374 (6th Cir.1976), a decision that was not called to our attention and that we did not have in mind when we affirmed the district court's denial of the petition for habeas corpus.
Like the case at bar, Dawson was a habeas corpus proceeding initiated by a Kentucky state court defendant who had been tried and convicted of a felony. There, as here, evidence of a prior conviction had been introduced under a Kentucky habitual-criminal statute. There, as here, the defendant's attorney had not asked the court to instruct the jury that evidence of the prior conviction could not be considered as proof that the defendant was guilty of breaking the law a second time.
Relying on Evans v. Cowan, 506 F.2d 1248 (6th Cir.1974) ( ) and Spencer v. Texas, 385 U.S. 554, 87 S.Ct. 648, 17 L.Ed.2d 606 (1967) ( ), this court held in Dawson that the Kentucky trial court's failure to instruct the jury on the limited significance of the defendant's prior conviction constituted plain error of constitutional magnitude, requiring the granting of habeas relief even though the defendant had not requested a limiting instruction. The Dawson court thought (correctly, no doubt) that habeas relief would have been granted in Evans even if the defendant had not sought a bifurcated trial and had not objected to the introduction of evidence of his prior convictions, and also thought (possibly with less reason for confidence) that habeas relief would have been deemed appropriate in Spencer but for the fact that limiting...
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Ferguson v. Knight
...guilty to another trafficking charge only four months earlier. Mr. Ferguson petitioned for rehearing, and in a decision reported at 797 F.2d 289 we vacated our initial decision and held that habeas relief should have been granted on the strength of Dawson v. Cowan, 531 F.2d 1374 (6th Cir.19......
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Hatfield v. Daugherty
...Cir.1974). This court has granted habeas petitions when such an instruction has not been given. See, e.g., Ferguson v. Knight, 797 F.2d 289, 289-90 (6th Cir.1986) (per curiam); Dawson, 531 F.2d at 1377; Evans, 506 F.2d at 1250. Moreover, the Kentucky courts have urged trial courts to negate......
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United States v. Cruz, Criminal No. 96-76-P-C (D. Me. 8/22/2000), Criminal No. 96-76-P-C.
...substance in order to sustain its burden of proof on Count XII. Tr. II at 633. 10. The defendant relies on Ferguson v. Knight, 797 F.2d 289, 289-90 (6th Cir. 1986), in which the Sixth Circuit, in summary fashion, held that, where a defense attorney has not requested a jury instruction limit......