Jerry D. Gilmore v. Kevin Taylor (508 U.S. 333)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 7, 1993 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 508 U.S. 333 · 113 S. Ct. 2112
- Decided
- June 7, 1993
- Term
- October Term 1992
- Vote
- 7–2
- Majority author
- Justice Rehnquist
- Issue area
- Criminal Procedure
- Disposition
- Reversed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Chief Justice Rehnquist delivered the opinion of the Court. Respondent Kevin Taylor was convicted of murder by an Illinois jury and sentenced to 85 years’ imprisonment. After his conviction and sentence became final, he sought federal habeas relief on the ground that the jury instructions given at his trial violated the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause. The Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit granted relief on the basis of its recent decision in Falconer v. Lane, 905 F. 2d 1129 (1990), which held that the Illinois pattern jury instructions on murder and voluntary manslaughter were unconstitutional because they allowed a jury to return a murder verdict without considering whether the defendant possessed a mental state that would support a voluntary-manslaughter verdict instead. We conclude that the rule announced in Falconer was not dictated by prior precedent and is therefore “new” within the meaning of Teague v. Lane, 489 U. S. 288 (1989). Accordingly, the Falconer rule may not provide the basis for federal habeas relief in respondent’s case. Early one morning in September 1985, respondent became involved in a dispute with his former wife and her live-in boyfriend, Scott Siniscalehi, over custodial arrangements for his daughter. A fracas ensued between the three adults, during which respondent stabbed Siniscalehi seven times with a hunting knife. Siniscalehi…
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