Title: Ex Parte Kirby
Citation: 643 So. 2d 587
Docket Number: 1930694
State: Alabama
Issuer: Alabama Supreme Court
Date: June 17, 1994

643 So. 2d 587 (1994)
Ex parte Junior Mack KIRBY.
(Re Junior Mack Kirby v. State of Alabama).
1930694.

Supreme Court of Alabama.
June 17, 1994.
Certiorari Denied November 28, 1994.
*588 Richard S. Jaffee and Stephen A. Strickland of Richard S. Jaffee, P.C., Birmingham, for petitioner.
James H. Evans, Atty. Gen., and Frances H. Smith, Asst. Atty. Gen., for respondent.
HOUSTON, Justice.
Junior Mack Kirby petitioned for post-conviction relief under Rule 32, A.R.Crim.P., arguing that he had been denied the right to effective assistance of counsel because at his trial his attorney had failed to object to the definition of "reasonable doubt" given by the judge to the jury. Rule 32.7(d) Ala. R.Crim.P. In light of the recent United States Supreme Court decision in Victor v. Nebraska,___U.S.___, 114 S. Ct. 1239, 127 L. Ed. 2d 583 (1994), we initially granted certiorari review in order to re-examine our own definition of reasonable doubt. We now quash the writ as improvidently granted, but with the following cautionary statements.
"The government must prove beyond a reasonable doubt every element of a charged offense. In re Winship, 397 U.S. 358, 90 S. Ct. 1068, 25 L. Ed. 2d 368 (1970). Although this standard is an ancient and honored aspect of our criminal justice system, it defies easy explication." Victor, ___ U.S. at___, 114 S. Ct.  at 1242, 127 L. Ed. 2d  at 590. At Kirby's trial, the court instructed the jury as follows:
Although the charge in this case is not entirely free from the inconsistency and circularity that the Victor Court objected to as being unhelpful, it appears to comply with the due process requirements of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, and with the corresponding requirements of Sections 6, 7, and 11 of the Alabama Constitution of 1901. We cannot fault Kirby's attorney for failing to object to a charge that was, at the time, completely proper and that conformed with Alabama Pattern Jury Instructions: Criminal. See, Parker v. State, 516 So. 2d 859 (Ala.Cr.App. 1987); see also, Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S. Ct. 2052, 80 L. Ed. 2d 674 (1984).
WRIT QUASHED AS IMPROVIDENTLY GRANTED.
*589 HORNSBY, C.J., and MADDOX, ALMON, SHORES, STEAGALL, KENNEDY, INGRAM and COOK, JJ., concur.