Opinion ID: 497329
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Determination of the District Court

Text: In an independent review of the state court record, the district court weighed the sufficiency of the evidence presented at trial. While admitting the temptation to substitute its judgment for that of the trial court, the district court made clear that its role as a reviewing court demanded a strict standard of review: it could overturn the determination of the trial court only if no rational trier of fact could have found proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 324, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 2791-92, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979). With that limitation, the district court reviewed the witnesses in light of their testimony and impeachments, and concluded that a rational trier of fact could have believed the state's witnesses and disbelieved the defense witnesses. The district court found no merit in the petitioner's claim that the trial judge erred in commenting on Shore's silence at trial. Citing United States ex rel. Guillen v. DeRobertis, 580 F.Supp. 1551, 1555-56 (N.D.Ill.1984), the court recognized that there was no constitutional right to reopen a case after trial and a finding of guilty for a reconsideration of evidence. Furthermore, because the defense raised the issue of Shore's silence at trial in order to justify his request to be heard after his conviction, the trial judge had the right to consider that silence in determining whether special circumstances were in fact present that warranted a reopening. The district court concluded that, because it found no constitutional infirmity in the petitioner's conviction, his petition for a writ of habeas corpus must be denied. In this appeal, the petitioner again raises the question of the sufficiency of the evidence, asserting that the State's witnesses were impeached by demonstrations of their bias and motives and by contradictions and inconsistencies in their statements. He insists that the testimony of defense witnesses, including the only witness to the shooting without cause for bias, undermined the State's case. And he contends that the statements made by the trial judge in analyzing the evidence were not supported by the record. The petitioner offers as a new standard for review a harmful error analysis and requests a new trial.