Bruce v. Smith

Fletcher, Chief Justice.

We affirmed Richard Bruce’s murder conviction on direct appeal, rejecting his argument that the trial court should have given his requested charge on the state’s burden of proof on his affirmative *433defense.1 Nine years later, we expressly overruled that specific holding.2 Bruce then filed a petition for habeas corpus alleging that he was denied his constitutional right to due process when the trial court failed to give the requested charge, but the habeas court dismissed the petition as successive and barred by res judicata under state law. We granted Bruce’s…