Ronald Davis v. Wayne Strack, Superintendent, Fishkill Correctional Facility and Dennis C. Vacco, New York State Attorney General

LEVAL, Circuit Judge:

This appeal from the denial of a writ of habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C. § 2254 by the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Berman, J.) raises the question whether a trial judge’s denial of a jury instruction on justification for the use of deadly force requires that the petitioner’s convictions for manslaughter and second-degree criminal possession of a weapon be set aside. At his trial for murder, petitioner credibly testified that he killed to protect himself from a man who had assaulted, raped, and threatened to kill him. The New York…