Keith Austin Smith v. Donald E. Bordenkircher, Warden of West Virginia Penitentiary

JAMES DICKSON PHILLIPS, Circuit Judge:

Arguing that a jury instruction given at his 1979 trial in the Circuit Court of Raleigh County, West Virginia violated his right to due process by defining “reasonable doubt” as a “good and substantial doubt ... and one for which he who entertains such a doubt should be able to give a good and substantial reason,” Keith Austin Smith appeals from the district court’s denial of his petition for a writ of habeas corpus. We conclude that the challenged instruction, though troubling in two significant respects, did not deprive Smith of a fair trial.…