Lyons v. Brady

THOMPSON, Circuit Judge.

A Massachusetts jury convicted petitioner Michael Lyons (“Lyons”) of second-degree murder in the death of his two week old son. Lyons timely filed a motion seeking to reduce the verdict to involuntary manslaughter, which the trial court granted and the Massachusetts Appeals Court (“MAC”) affirmed. However, on appeal to the Supreme Judicial Court (“SJC”), the court vacated the reduction and reinstated Lyons’s original conviction for second-degree murder. Thereafter, Lyons sought a writ of habeas corpus in federal district court claiming a violation of his constitutional…