Court Opinion

ID: 23107
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2010-04-25 08:06:08+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:38:16.429321
License: Public Domain

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
                          FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT

                        _______________________

                              No. 98-31140
                            Summary Calendar
                     Civil Docket # 98-CV-1837-LLM
                        _______________________

MICHAEL JOHNSON,

                                                    Petitioner-Appellant,

                                    versus

BURL CAIN, WARDEN, Louisiana State Penitentiary,

                                                        Respondent-Appellee.

_________________________________________________________________

           Appeal from the United States District Court
               for the Eastern District of Louisiana
_________________________________________________________________
                          February 1, 2001

Before DAVIS, JONES, and DeMOSS, Circuit Judges.

EDITH H. JONES, Circuit Judge:*

          Michael Johnson, Louisiana prisoner # 98671, appeals from

the denial of his petition for habeas corpus relief filed pursuant

to 28 U.S.C. § 2254, Johnson argues that the instruction on

reasonable   doubt    which   the   jury     received    at   his   trial   was

unconstitutional under Cage v. Louisiana, 498 U.S. 39 (1990) and

Humphrey v. Cain, 138 F.3d 552, 553 (5th Cir. 1998) (en banc).

     *
      Pursuant to 5TH CIR. R. 47.5, the Court has determined that
this opinion should not be published and is not precedent except
under the limited circumstances set forth in 5TH CIR. R. 47.5.4.
Given that the court’s instruction on moral certainty was corrected

by other language in the instruction, the instruction on the whole

was not constitutionally defective. See Williams v. Cain, 229 F.3d

468, 473-75 (5th Cir. 2000), construing an identical instruction.

          The judgment of the district court is AFFIRMED.

                                2