Wendell A. Beets v. Iowa Department of Corrections Services, Director State of Iowa

BOWMAN, Chief Judge.

Wendell A. Beets, who was convicted of assault with intent to commit sexual abuse in violation of Iowa Code § 709.11 (1991), appeals from the judgment of the District Court1 denying Beets’s petition for a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254 (1994). Beets argues the District Court erred in concluding that the state trial court’s reliance on an erroneous jury instruction in Beets’s trial before the bench did not violate Beets’s Fourteenth Amendment right to due process. We affirm.

We begin with the facts of the crime as determined by the state trial court,…