Smith v. Dinwiddie

TYMKOVICH, Circuit Judge.

This habeas petition presents an unusual question of collateral estoppel. In 2000, Kip Antonio Smith was convicted of sexual abuse of a minor child. But only fourteen months earlier, in a civil deprived-child action, a jury had rejected the state’s allegations that he had sexually abused a child in a manner that was shocking and heinous or which caused severe harm or injury. In his state appeal, Smith unsuccessfully argued that the jury’s findings in the earlier civil proceeding precluded a contrary finding in his criminal case. See Smith v. Oklahoma, 46 P.3d 136, 137…