Johnson v. McKune

HOLLOWAY, Senior Circuit Judge.

I

On March 25, 1976, Noble Leroy Johnson was convicted in the district court of Butler County, Kansas of two counts of first degree murder and given two concurrent life sentences. The Kansas Supreme Court affirmed his convictions on December 10, 1977. State v. Johnson, 223 Kan. 237, 573 P.2d 994 (Kan.1977). From 1981 to 1994 Johnson filed four post-conviction motions pursuant to Kan. Stat. Ann. § 60-1507, all unsuccessful, in the Kansas state courts. The first, second and fourth of these raised the issue that a jury instruction pertaining to intent similar to an…