Tatiana Dixon v. Patti Wachtendorf

BEAM, Circuit Judge.

Tatiana Dixon appeals the district court’s 1 dismissal of her 28 U.S.C. § 2254 petition for habeas corpus relief. In 2003, Dixon was convicted of first-degree felony murder in Iowa state court. The qualifying felony was willful injury based upon Dixon’s actions of firing shots into the hallway of her apartment building, killing one person and injuring another. At Dixon’s bench trial, the state was required to prove only that Dixon had the intent to cause serious bodily injury, not death, to establish the felony-murder charge. Dixon was sentenced to life imprisonment.

In her…