Opinion ID: 392048
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: summary of appellant's contentions

Text: 4 Appellant primarily relies upon two alleged deficiencies in the performance of his trial counsel. The first is that counsel made and then erroneously withdrew an instruction that properly placed on the prosecution the burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt that appellant did not kill his victim in self-defense. Self-defense was the appellant's sole defense asserted at the trial. The second is that trial counsel did not attempt to introduce testimony by the victim's former attorney concerning the victim's violent nature and his allegedly threatening letter to his attorney. 5 Appellant also argues that his trial counsel did not object to questions put to the appellant concerning his own violent tendencies. The district court in its review of the record also questioned the trial counsel's qualification of a prosecution witness as a firearms expert for the purpose of putting a question the answer to which apparently was unknown to counsel.