Stokes v. Warden, Powhatan Correctional Center

Raymond Earl Stokes was convicted of first-degree murder in the Circuit Court of the City of Lynchburg and sentenced to life imprisonment. Invoking our original jurisdiction, Stokes has petitioned for a writ of habeas corpus. He alleges his trial counsel’s ineffective assistance invalidates his conviction. Although Stokes contends his attorney was ineffective in failing to object to three jury instructions offered by the Commonwealth, we need consider only Instruction 8, which told the jury that “every person is presumed to have intended the natural and probable consequences of his voluntary…