United States v. Clifford Jackson

SPRECHER, Circuit Judge.

The main issue in this appeal is whether the district court plainly erred in a criminal case by its failure to read an instruction to the jury as to the government’s burden of proof on the issue of self-defense.

I

The case arises out of an altercation between the defendant, Clifford Jackson, and a federal correctional officer, William Ner-is, in the visiting room of the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) in Chicago, Illinois. The grand jury’s indictment charged that the defendant assaulted, in violation of *100618 U.S.C. § 111,1 a federal correctional officer while…