Opinion ID: 526089
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: sufficiency of the evidence

Text: 23 Mr. Garlington also maintains that his right to due process of law was violated because the state failed to present sufficient evidence to prove that he was guilty of murder beyond a reasonable doubt. When assessing the sufficiency of the evidence supporting a state conviction on habeas review, we must decide whether, after viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 2789, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979); Wandick v. Chrans, 869 F.2d 1084, 1089 (7th Cir.1989); Shore v. O'Leary, 833 F.2d 663, 666 (7th Cir.1987). Mr. Garlington argues that the entirely circumstantial evidence presented in this case admits of the reasonable hypothesis that he did not intend Renell Hentley to be murdered. See Appellant's Br. at 15. Since this reasonable alternative hypothesis exists, he maintains that a rational factfinder could not have found him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. The district court, however, concluded that sufficient evidence had been presented to allow a finding that Mr. Garlington was accountable for Mr. Hentley's murder. See Mem. op. at 13-14. We agree. 24 Mr. Garlington's argument ignores the requirement that, on habeas review of the sufficiency of the evidence, the evidence presented must be viewed in the light most favorable to the prosecution. Mr. Garlington's ability to fashion an innocent explanation of what happened on the morning of Renell Hentley's murder does not alter the fact that a rational factfinder, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the state, could have found him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Mr. Garlington was one of five men (himself, his two codefendants, Jimmie Key, and Renell Hentley) present in a bedroom in the Garlington home on the morning of Mr. Hentley's murder. Ms. Amos testified that she heard scuffling noises coming out of the room and that she heard Mr. Hentley say that they had the wrong man. Ms. Amos also testified that she heard Mr. Garlington say that Renell betrayed Reggie [Mr. Garlington's brother]. Tr. at 47. Kenneth Green testified that he saw five men present in the alley behind the Garlington home just prior to Mr. Hentley's murder. The trial court could reasonably have inferred that Mr. Garlington was one of those five men. In addition, the trial court could reasonably have found that Mr. Garlington was the leader of a conspiracy to murder Mr. Hentley; his statement after the murder of his brother Reggie that we'll take care of this, we don't need no police, along with the fact that he ordered Ms. Amos to awaken Mr. Hentley and instruct him to go into the bedroom on the morning of the murder, suggest that Mr. Garlington had a central role in the enterprise. Thus, the district court properly rejected Mr. Garlington's sufficiency of the evidence claim.