Shirley Ree Smith v. Gwendolyn Mitchell, Warden

CANBY, Circuit Judge.

Shirley Ree Smith appeals the district court’s denial of her habeas corpus petition. The State of California convicted Smith of assault on a child resulting in death. The state courts affirmed her conviction. Smith then filed this federal habeas petition claiming that her conviction violated due process because the evidence was constitutionally insufficient. On appeal, Smith focuses her argument almost exclusively on the absence of constitutionally sufficient evidence of one element of the crime — -the cause of the child’s death. We agree with Smith that no rational trier…