Jimmy Lee Riggins v. Kenneth R. McGinnis

EASTERBROOK, Circuit Judge.

Jimmy Lee Riggins is among the hundreds of persons convicted of murder under a set of pattern jury instructions that People v. Reddick, 123 Ill.2d 184, 122 Ill.Dec. 1, 526 N.E.2d 141 (1988), held to embody a mistaken understanding of the relation between the elements of murder and manslaughter in Illinois law. Reddick came down shortly after Rig-gins was convicted. He asked the state’s appellate court to reverse on the basis of Reddick; that court affirmed, deeming the error harmless. Riggins then turned to the federal courts, urging that his conviction violated the…