United States ex rel. Weismiller v. Lane

ESCHBACH, Senior Circuit Judge.

This is an appeal from the denial of habe-as corpus relief under 28 U.S.C. § 2254 (1982). As he did in the district court and the state courts, petitioner-appellant challenges the constitutionality of the Illinois “Guilty But Mentally 111” (GBMI) statutes,1 as well as the particular jury instructions given pursuant to those statutes at his trial. Because we find the challenge to the jury instructions to be barred by a state procedural default and we find the challenge to the statute to be without merit, we affirm.

I

Edward Weismiller was convicted in Illinois…