Kevin Taylor v. Jerry D. Gilmore

FLAUM, Circuit Judge.

Kevin Taylor admitted that he stabbed his ex-wife’s live-in lover to death, but maintained that his crime was manslaughter. An Illinois jury disagreed — maybe— and declared him a murderer. In this petition for a writ of habeas corpus, Taylor argues that his conviction was invalid because the instructions given the jury were defective, precluding it from returning a voluntary manslaughter verdict when one may have been appropriate.

Taylor’s appraisal of the jury instructions in his case is well taken. The Illinois Supreme Court held in People v. Reddick, 123 Ill.2d 184, 122…