Thursday, March 12, 2015

Kyzar v. Ryan (9th Cir. - March 12, 2015)

For a look inside an Arizona prison, read this Ninth Circuit opinion.  Foreshadowing:  It leads to the stabbing death of a guard.

The Ninth Circuit agrees that there was sufficient evidence to convict the habeas petitioner here of conspiracy for helping to provide the murderer with a shank.  Ironically, the best evidence against the defendant was his (admittedly somewhat weak) attempt to dissuade the murderer from committing the crime, asking him "Well, are you sure about this? How much time you got, homeboy?"  That, the Ninth Circuit holds, proves that the petitioner knew that the murderer intended to do something bad with the shank.

So much for good intentions.