Watts v. Mahally

MEMORANDUM

Jones, II, District Judge

Petitioner John G. Watts seeks habeas relief, alleging violations of his constitutional rights in the course of a state trial that ended in a prison' sentence of 24.5 to fifty years and two months for convictions stemming from a $100 robbery. After careful consideration of the state court record, this Court finds that the trial judge’s decision to instruct the jury with an obviously irrelevant, inadmissible and highly prejudicial fact dehors the record, over defense counsel’s objection and in deprecation of his proper closing argument, deprived Petitioner of…