William H. Williams v. Ted Engle

Williams appeals the district court’s denial of his second petition for a writ of habeas corpus, claiming that the issuance of a conditional writ is required because in his 1970 murder trial the Ohio trial judge instructed the jury that “a person capable of reasoning is presumed to intend the natural and probable consequences of his voluntary acts.”

This precise language was later, in Sandstrom v. Montana, 442 U.S. 510, 99 S.Ct. 2450, 61 L.Ed.2d 39 (1979), held to violate a defendant’s rights to due process and a presumption of innocence. This much is acknowledged by all parties in this…